• 1. What was hidden under the Museum
• 2. Before Zagreb
• 3. Finds at the Site of Discovery
• 4. First Recorded Use of the Name of Zagreb
• 5. The Royal Free Town on Gradec
• 6. Conflict, Punishment, Prejudice
• 7. Medvedgrad
• 8. The Ottoman Threat
• 9. The Emblems of the City
• 10. Laška Ves and Nova Ves
• 11. Kaptol
• 12. The Building of the Cathedral
• 13. The Main Portal of the Cathedral
• 14. The Interior of the Cathedral
• 15. The Restoration of the Cathedral by Bollé
• 16. The Parish and the Parish Church of St. Mark at Gradec
• 17. The Baroque Altars of St. Mark’s
• 18. The Guilds of Gradec and Kaptol
• 19. Master Craftsmen of Gradec and Kaptol
• 20. The New System of Municipal Government
• 21. Religious Orders Encourage Piety and Education
• 22. The Poor Clares of Zagreb
• 23. Veneration for the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 24. Magnates at Gradec
• 25. Parks and Walks
• 26. Life in the Lower Town
• 27. The Time of the Croatian National Revival
• 28. Ban Josip Jelačić
• 29. From the Homes of Zagreb People during the Biedermeier Period
• 30. Civic Societies and Clubs
• 31. The Foundations of the Modern City
• 32. Ilica Becomes the Main Commercial Street
• 33. From the Photographic Studio
• 34. The Lower Town
• 35. Theatre Life
• 36. Public Utilities
• 37. Life in Associations
• 38. Sensations from the Beginning of the 20th Century
• 39. Echoes from the Battlefield
• 40. House and Life
• 41. The Second World War
• 42. In Socialist Reality
• 43. The Zagreb School of Animated Film
• 44. Zagreb in Independent Croatia
• 46. The Study of Ivan pl. Zajc
• 45. Echoes of Events in Zagreb
• 47. August Šenoa and Zagreb
• 48. Tilla Durieux and her Art Collection
• 49. The Collection of Mechanical Musical Automata of Ivan Gerersdorfer
• 50. Dr Ante Rodin''s Collection of Old Packaging

Permanent Display 5. The Royal Free Town on Gradec

In the early Middle Ages, a royal fort (castrum) was built on the site of a prehistoric settlement on Gradec Hill; the fort was destroyed during the Tatar invasion. At the time of the migrations which followed the Tatar incursions, King Bela IV established a system of royal free towns with special privileges throughout his kingdom, trying to attract new settlers. One of these towns was Gradec. The royal charter with a gold seal, the Golden Bull (1242), granted all the king’s subjects in Gradec, citizens and newly-arrived tradesmen, various privileges. As a result, the indigenous population - the Croats - were joined by immigrants from the neighbouring countries - other Slavs, Hungarians, Germans and Italians. Thus Gradec developed into an international community typical of medieval Europe.

The new royal town was built according to a plan: it was encircled by a wall that followed the natural configuration of the site and a church was erected in the central square - the parish church of St. Mark. At the same time, the canons, fearing another Tatar invasion, obtained permission to build a tower on Gradec - Popov turen (Priest's Tower).



The Golden Bull, copy


Every year on St. Blaise’s Day (3 February) the inhabitants of Gradec elected the members of the town council. The king had also granted Gradec large tracts of land with subjects, serfs. In the 13^th and 14^th centuries, Gradec was a lively market-town with regular daily and annual St. Mark’s Fairs (from 1256) and St. Margaret’s Fairs (from 1372). Situated at the crossroads of the routes to Hungary and the Adriatic, the town soon became the dynamic centre of Slavonia. It had a royal palace (1335), a pharmacy (1355), and a school with a salaried teacher (1360). From 1363 until the 18^th century, Gradec regularly hosted the tournament of tilting at the ring.

Ivan Ružić