The Austro-Hungarian center of Zagreb is laid out in ample city blocks that form a rough grid. A century or so ago, there were yards and gardens within the blocks. Following the breakup of the empire, the façades were maintained relatively well, but all sorts of things started happening within the blocks. Bereft of viable administration and credible police, the city grew wild from within. By and by, little villages were built out of sight. Their design and materials used were reminiscent of the villages surrounding the Croatian capital. Rickety as they have always been, they are falling apart by now. Walking through the center of the city this morning, I saw one such building that must have collapsed over the weekend. The ruin was visible because one of the Austro-Hungarian buildings had been replaced by a parking lot several decades ago. The ruin spilled into the parking lot, and I stopped to examine it with due care. The collapsed building had a low ground floor only, but it also had a large attic crammed with old furniture. Made of brick and roughly hewn wood, it looked like a humble peasant home. It is easy to imagine the disdain with which the bourgeoisie inhabiting the apartments around the block have viewed the peasants within. But they were inseparable. Only a generation or two apart, they loved to hate each other. Zagreb within Zagreb in a nutshell.

Addendum (January 25, 2016)

The best way to get a feeling how Zagreb within Zagreb looks is to visit the bronze model of the city’s center just off the northeastern corner of the main square. Installed a few years ago mainly with tourists in mind, it offers an unobstructed view of the proud city blocks and the humble villages within them. But it is good to keep in mind that the current state of the villages is a far cry from how they looked early in the last century. Although the city blocks changed hardly at all over the last hundred years or so, the villages changed at a clip. What is now in view is only the end of a fierce battle for every square meter of precious land. In the process, the bourgeois and the peasants fused into the present population of the city, which is neither here nor there any longer. Long in the tooth, the mongrel population in the center is now rapidly dying away. And shops, cafés, restaurants, offices, and all sorts of services are swiftly replacing their apartments, basements, and attics.