The future, for which I really worked, is mine*

[bending_sickle]

Day 3 (Part 2) - Tuesday, June 26 - Zagreb



Gradec and Kaptol


St George and the [dead] Dragon. This statue is notable precisely because it shows St George after the act, instead of the more popular "imma stab you in the face!" position.

From here: "There are two equestrian statues of St George and the Dragon in Zagreb. This one is located near Stone Gate, the old entrance gate to the Gradec, an old fortified town from middle age, nucleus of modern Zagreb. This statue shows St. George after his fight with Dragon as he pays respect to the dead Dragon. The statue is on this location since 1994. Before that it was located in the garden of the Mazuranic house in Jurjevska Street 5. The original location of this St George and the Dragon statue was in Mallnitz, Austria, in front of Villa Liebermann. In 1937 the statue was given as a gift to Mr. Mazuranic and it was in Zagreb since then. The authors of the statue were Austrian sculptors Kompatscher and Winder."








Zagreb Cathedral


Zagreb Cathedral inscription in the Glagolitic alphabet


A tree stump in a church with a sign? This calls for questioning looks and google.


Google Translate, with tweaks, gives us: "When Jesus was born this was [an] oak twig. When [it] was 200 years [old] [a] flood collapsed and washed [it] away in the river basin. It remained there until yesterday. Today [it] is here, before our eyes."




Wiki has this to say about Nicola Tesla: "...a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He was an important contributor to the use of commercial electricity, and is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. [...] Tesla's patents and theoretical work also formed the basis of wireless communication and the radio. [...] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but since the 1990s, his reputation has experienced a popular culture comeback.[18] [...] The SI unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla (T), was named in his honor (at the CGPM, Paris, 1960)."


Parliament of Croatia


Modern art, I can't.




I can't remember who she was, but folks like her.


Kamenita vrata (lit. stone gate), only remaining gate of the Gradec.


Ibid, from the other entrance.


Devout plaques of thanks to the Virgin Mary (I'm guessing - "hvala" means "thank you"). Extra points if you find the one that's upside down.


Statue of the Virgin Mary at the entrance to the Kamenita vrata. Wiki says, "the image of Virgin Mary is said to be only thing that hasn't burned in the 17th century fire."


Ban Jelačić Square (officially called Trg bana Jelačića, also called Jelačić plac)




Count Josip Jelačić of Bužim, "a member of the House of Jelačić and a noted army general, remembered for his military campaigns during the Revolutions of 1848 and for his abolition of serfdom in Croatia."


Zagreb Botanical Garden






Park's information: "Every year many pupils throughout the World, as well as pupils from Croatia (coordinated by Croatian-Japanese Sociaty) make senbadsuru - a group of thousand paper origami cranes held together by strings, and send them to Chidlren's Peace Monument in Hiroshima Memorial Park."


Other




This sculpture is awesome. There's three men who have been sentenced to death. Two are dead or dying, but the third is laughing singing in the face of death.


Marshal Tito Square




Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb






Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute




King Tomislav Square, which is in front of the Zagreb Central Station


Art Pavillion


The city has a glorious park avenue.


Drawing people on trees, the usual.


Croatian National Bank




Meštrović Pavilion, which our guide book said was an architectural must-see, can't-leave-the-cty-without-it, and all those touristy adjectives. It exagerated.


"Tošo Dabac, Sheep on Ilica, 1933-1937" where Mr Dabac is the photographer and Ilica is a main street in the city. That's right, there were sheep running wild in the capital!


At Miramare, it was little boys strangling swans and storks. Here it's grown men strangling snakes. [insert joke here]


I was amused. (Well I was many things, including "Ugh, gods, this fucking shit campaign of ignorance.")


...why?




Random Facts: The ball-point pen was "a tool developed from the inventions by Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, an inventor and a citizen of Zagreb." and the term cravat, which the French use to mean "tie" (i.e. the suit accessory), is "an accessory named after Croats who wore characteristic scarves around their necks in the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century".


* Nicola Tesla, on patent controversies regarding the invention of Radio and other things

Comments

Even though you wrote more commentary, I felt the need to help out.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

1: “Hey, Horse, what’s that you found there?” – “It’s a dragon, George. I think it’s dead.” – “Huh. Whaddya know.”
2: “It makes me sad. I think I will hug my helmet for a little while.”
3: “Well, Horse, what next?” – “Let’s grab a brew at Destino, eh?” – “Great idea, Horse.”
4: “Wait… that looks like a piece of lance in his side. Did I do that?” – “Maybe, George. Maybe you did.” – “Huh. Whaddya know.”
5: MINE FAÇADE IZ PASTEDE ON YEY
6: This looks like some cheap alphabet from a third-rate video game fantasy world.
7-8: If a tree falls in a flood and Jesus isn’t around to see it, is it really important?
9: Solar panels were much fancier back in the day…
10: Two words, baby: GEEK ICON.
11: MINE FAÇADE IZ BETTER THAN OTHER FAÇADE, YO.
12: Hands? Feet? Paws? WTF MODERN ART?
13: The world’s first Pendulum Clock allowed people to move forward and backward in time. It was, of course, too awesome to be allowed to survive.
14: It’s like a Croatian Mary Poppins.
15: Usually in these movies, those two folks go in through the gate and either never are seen again, or come out days later, changed in horrific ways.
16: Two car garage? Or five horse garage? We may never know.
17: Probably just fundraiser plaques. “This brick was made possible by a donation from Marko Jankovic and sons.”
18: And thus Mary became the Patron Saint of Firefighters.
19-20: He was also the first person to ever say “Serfs, up!” asking them to rise against their oppressors. Californians later perverted his catchphrase horribly.
21: Serbo-Croatian Ducks say “Kwakic”, only with more diacritical marks.
22-23: False flowers! Ia! Ia!
24-25: Freddie Mercury took that dude’s last words and turned them into a song, “Another One Bites The Dust.”
26: Let’s get a drink from a different fountain. This one’s too crowded.
27: I like how the theatre is more ornate than parliament. GOVERNMENT IS BORING YO DAWG AMIRITE?
28: Yellow makes this building look fat.
29: Looks like a statue, but is really a chair. Come on, ladies, sit in my lap!
30: “Lexicographical”? You just made that word up. I call shenanigans on you.
31: Tomasz the Croatian Tank Engine was probably made from real tanks. They don’t mess around in eastern Europe.
32: “And I, King Tomislav, am king because I own the only unicorn in Europe. BOOYAH!”
33: These yellow buildings get uglier with each iteration.
34: Well-manicured lawn, tall trees, fountain, no yellow… now we’re talking.
35: This explains why we never hear about “famous Croatian artists”.
36: “We try to make sure that only attractive women walk in front of our bank. It attracts customers who want to ‘make a deposit’, if you know what I mean.”
37: Actually, the symmetry of the triangle and the columns and the building comes together very nicely. Too bad the flags are off center. FLAG FAIL, DOODZ.
38: So the architectural must-see is a big stone wedding cake layer? DOUBLE FAIL.
39: Oh, I didn’t realize we were in Scotland now. I thought that was a wedding procession. Maybe they’re going to the Wedding Cake Fail Building thing.
40: …nope, that’s just too easy.
41: Oh KONY, why must you fool people everywhere?
42: There’s a terrible joke here about Olympic Anorexic High Diving, and… next picture please.
43: “You know, Horse, now that we’ve done it a few times, I think kicking dragon’s asses is kinda fun.” – “You’re right, George. There’s another one over there.” – “Bring it on!”

Re: Even though you wrote more commentary, I felt the need to help out.

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

*cackling* Basically, please never stop writing these, they make my day.

Although those were totally turtles, not ducks, in the Botanical Garden.