Bridges Lost’n’Found

Believe it or not, what is now the city centre used to be criss-crossed by numerous streams. On the location of the impressive baroque-like building of the National Theatre, once a cattle market, a creek passed through. The picturesque Tkalčićeva Street, with its variety of bars, was once called Potok, meaning Creek. Now, many streams run beneath the busy street life, but a few still flow openly in the areas under the Zagreb mountain. Even Medveščak Creek, which once flowed under Tkalčićeva Street, can still be seen in parts at the very bottom of the mountain, before it enters underground canals and reaches its namesake street.

A picture-perfect sight of an existing bridge in park Maksimir. Photo by Sebastijan Carek - Zagreb Tourist Board

With so many creeks, some bridges were inevitable. This brings us to the most famous lost bridge, preserved only in history and a curious street name: Krvavi Most - The Bloody Bridge street. I’ve seen tourists carrying a map, searching for an actual bridge covered in blood. I wonder what they imagined, and I’m sorry they were disappointed to find only a charming street with an unusual name. A historical battle from 1667 was supposedly so gory that the bridge earned this dreadful name. Now that both the stream and the bridge are gone, we can only honour it with words. And we do.

Visit the Museum of the City of Zagreb to see the original of this Jozo Kljaković's painting of the 1667 battle over the Bloody Bridge.

It is almost impossible to envision what Tkalčićeva Street looked like less than 150 years ago, when the creek was still there! Or to imagine some of the centrally located streets with canals and small crossings in front of every house, back in the day.

There is one giant watercourse in the city. It’s the River Sava, with 10-ish bridges  connecting its north and south shore. A lot of them are holding some sort of record. For example, Most Slobode (The Bridge of Liberty), built in 1959, was the widest bridge in the region at the time of its construction, measuring 14 meters wide.

Even the Sava has lost bridges. The oldest surviving one, simply called Savski Most (Sava Bridge), dates to 1938. It’s now for pedestrians only—a great starting point for exploring Novi Zagreb on the south side of the river.

No cars on the Savski Most anymore, so enjoy your walk or a bike ride. This is Secret Zagreb's The New Shore walking tour

The oldest Zagreb bridge ever was on that exact spot. No wonder - that was the location with the most traffic. It used to supply the city with goods coming from the south. The old raft wasn’t enough, so eventually the city fathers built a bridge. If crossing a river on a raft sounds romantic to you, you can still try it, just outside of Zagreb. The towns of Zaprešić and Samobor are connected by a working raft.

The oldest bridge across the Sava in Zagreb was known as the Red Bridge, for its colour. That bridge was reused! They moved it to another location towards the East, and many Zagrebians still remember crossing it there. It was washed away by the 1990 flooding, and some of its parts can still be seen in the riverbed when the tide is low. And its bases are still there! In fact, the Savski Most pedestrian bridge has kept the Red Bridge's foundations!

Look closely, and you'll see the old Savski Most Bridge behind the old railway bridge. The two oldest bridges before the today's oldest ones.

From Savski Most, you can enjoy views of the one-year-younger railway bridge, commonly known as the Hendrix bridge. Don’t get too excited - a lot of rock stars visited Zagreb, but Jimi wasn’t one of them. However, a mysterious graffiti of a single word - Hendrix - kept appearing on the bridge. It is not widely known why, or what it means, but the word has been there for years. Sometimes, you can clearly see it, and sometimes you have to look hard, or even approach the bridge.

Under the Hendrix Bridge.

Actually, why don’t you approach it? Just next to it, on the south bank of the river, you will find a strange construction - the base of the older railway bridge from 1862.

Even though Hendrix Bridge is officially 1 year younger than the Savski Most Bridge, the two were ceremonially opened for use only a day apart in 1939. The green Hendrix bridge still serves as a train entrance to the town. While the pedestrian bridge has changed a lot, and it’s almost impossible to imagine that this used to be the main... actually, the only car crossing.  

The city features are changing, but some things remain the same. The city has a special connection with its flows, even when they’re invisible. And it never lets its bridges completely wash away. 

Header image credit: Fotografije Zagreba

Author: Iva Silla