6. TRIVIA
MATEJNA AND KARLEK THE PRIEST –The little priest Karlek Jambrečak liked to come to the Matejna pub and entertain its merry company. Matoš even made blood brothers with him. Karlek the priest led a small parish near Zagreb and had a great feud with Posilović, the archbishop of Zagreb. He often made fun of the archbishop who was famous for his wealth but also for his stinginess. The priest even started a public polemic with the archbishop writing articles against him in Zagreb’s journal “Novosti” for which he was stripped of his service and salary by the archbishop. The priest soon found his feet and published an ad in the newspaper: “… i hereby declare that i will unfurl a red brolly on the Jelačić square and that i will write love letters for my illiterate fellow men. I recommend myself especially to the Zagreb cooks, corporals and other kindred lovers. Each letter will cost only 10 kranjcirs, and in the more severe cases of love 20 kranjcirs. A cheaper scribe is impossible to find, so I recommend myself for as many orders as possible.”
Tomorrow a large crowd gathered on the Jelačić square, the priest came with his umbrella, but he couldn’t commence his business because an argument broke out with the market inspector who defended the regulations (or was prompted by Kaptol archdiocese) and proved that such an office was not allowed in the marketplace.
On ST. MARK’S SQUARE was one of the carriage stations.
BREGOVITA STREET AND THE CABLE RAILWAY – Bregovita street (nowadays Tomićeva) has connected the Upper with the Lower town since the Middle Ages. The up-down communication went through the monumental, wide double stairway on an iron construction. Since 1890. a steam-powered cable railway operates on this route. Since it used to break down very often when it was first built, it was nicknamed “the cable stuckway”.
At first the steam-powered cable railway departed every two minutes (today every ten), and the ride was 30 seconds long (today 55). The cable railway was electrified in 1927.
KOŽARSKA STREET – went parallel to Potok (today: Tkalčićeva), from Krvavi Most (Bloody Bridge) to the beginning of Medvedgradska Street. It was infamous because the “ladies of the night”, hidden from the curious puritans’ view, did their work there even during the day.
During our research we found some unusual trivial stories:
*Why are all the kittens in Demetrova street missing a hind leg?
*People who like graves inside doorways can stop by freely at Demetrova 3 – when you enter the doorway, head straight, and there you are at the grave of little Vakanovitz.
*The Felbinger Stairs have a reputation as a “suspicious place” – a few murders and a suicide happened there, the Upper Town citizens consider it “cursed”.
*For a time, Štulić (legendary frontman of the new wave band Azra) lived in the attic of Basaričekova 16. The new wave crowd and Azra band members used to hang out there.
Trivial stories taken from internet forums:
*There are two single story houses in Basaričekova Street which are a rare example of Medieval urban architecture, but in the 18th century a beautiful baroque Upper Town palace was built at number 22, owned, among others, by noble families Sermage, Patačić and Jelačić. One of the oldest Upper Town taverns “Pod starim krovovima” (“Underneath Old Roofs”), first mentioned as early as 1830, is also in the same street, while the most Zagrebian of films, “He Who Sings Means No Harm”, was shot in the courtyard of the neighboring house, where the post office is. One of the most popular Upper Town taverns, “Matejna”, was on the corner of Demetrova Street but it was torn down in 1938. A new house was built in its place by the plans of Alfred Albini – the Arko family house – which fits in well with the Upper Town core. The last days of Ante Topić Mimara, who donated a collection of 3650 artworks to the Croatian people, were spent in this house. The collection is kept in a museum named after him: “Mimara” on the Roosevelt Square in Zagreb. The old tavern “Matejna”, immortalized by many painters and written about by many men of letters, was said to have been frequented by every Croatian writer in his own time: Harambašić, Šenoa, Matoš, Ujević, Krklec… all the way until 1938 when it was torn down.
*Court files exist that show there were witch-trials, and then burnings at the stake in Zvezdišće. Ivan Tkalčić collected the files and found 35 of them. He wrote a treatise “Parnice protiv vješticam u Hrvatskoj” (“Witch-trials in Croatia”) describing 28 of those cases. The files were printed in 1891. In 1902 and 1903 Sir Ivan Bojničić supplemented Tkalčić’s treatise with his “Neizdane listine o progonu vještica u Hrvatskoj” (“Unpublished Papers about Witch Persecutions in Croatia”). There are 110 known court cases and the first witches were sentenced as early as 1360. But they weren’t burnt at the stake because severe tortures were performed only after 1484 and Pope Innocent VIII’s order. The treatise Malleus Maleficarum was taken as an official permit to torture witches and conjurers. There is a booklet from 1769 – “Ordo Criminalis Teresiana” – with pictures and descriptions of witch tortures. As for the official burning place – it was called Zvezdišće. Tkalčić writes that the place was at the beginning of Tuškanac, where the shooting range is located today. Matija Gubec was also executed there.
*Dubravka’s Path, i.e. promenade, is wonderfully interesting to take a walk upon and full of legends I don’t know a lot of, because the old people who knew them have died already. Oh yes, do you know that Matija Gubec was not executed on St. Mark’s Square, and that the official execution site of Zagreb was on the corner of Streljačka and Tuškanac, i.e. on the curve in front of Tuškanac Cinema where there has always been a pop-corn kiosk.
* One of Zagreb’s mystery places (it is quite well known actually, but nobody knows what it is and the story is very interesting so the tourist guides should mention it) is St. Dismas Chapel on the crossroads of Nova Ves and Kaptol. Some say it is the only sacral site in the world dedicated to St. Dismas (who was one of the two thiefs crucified along with Jesus). Allegedly the people were very much against dedicating the chapel to such a “suspicious” saint, but somebody important – the archbishop or one of the deans who financed the chapel – said that St. Dismas is the only saint explicitly mentioned by the Bible to be in Heaven. For everybody else, it is a matter of assumption. (I am not sure if this is correct, because I think that St. Peter is also explicitly mentioned as a saint, but it’s a good story nevertheless.) forum.hr
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“I cordially wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, with a hand-kiss… M.K.”
Those are the words that Miroslav Krleža, a famous Croatian man of letters, wrote by hand on a Christmas card which he mailed in 1975 just before Christmas to Mimica, Marija Kaučić-Kantoci, who lived at castle Gorica near Pregrada. Krleža was in regular contact with Mimica since he was 14 years old. In June 1907 he noticed Mimica in St. Mark’s church in the Upper Town where he was an altar boy. Mimica came to St. Mark’s church regularly with her friends where she attended regular mass and evening service. In those days she was schooled in Zagreb in the Sisters’ of Mercy School in Frankopanska Street. Until she was 22 years old, she lived with her eldest brother Julio and his wife Jelisava Kantoci in the Upper Town, Kipni Square 5.
Krleža himself said that Mimica became his Dulcinea, his heart’s fancy. He regulary kept in touch with her through letters. She had been and remained his obsession until 1975. In that year, when he was 82 and still active, he sent Mimica his last greeting. Mimica died in August and was buried at Mirogoj, the city cemetery of Zagreb. Six years later, Krleža writes his will just before Christmas in 1981, assorts his assets, fights his illness and dies with a conviction he “is leaving on a faraway journey from which there is no return…” He was also buried at Mirogoj, together with Bela, his beloved and respected wife. Not far away from their gravesite is the gravesite of Romuald and Marija Kaučić.
http://www.pregrada.info/kolumne/teta-mimica-iz-gorice-miroslav-krleza-i-ja