Zagreb - Metropolitan: Cathedral, Mirogoj Cemetery, St. George, underground mall

The lower new town of Zagreb, off the hillside-cliff defense area, is cosmopolitan with parks and grand statues and great Viennese-style avenues and buildings, for business. Days of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Here is the huge old (cloak and dagger?) railroad station, the main stop for passengers coming from Vienna and on to Belgrade or elsewhere, and back.

You can see the influence of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire in most all of the buildings and statuary. The tiled roof is on St. Mark's. We found more people who spoke German than English. See fine photo gallery at www.pbase.com/ralf/zagreb&page=all.



In the Cathedral of St. Stephen is the burial place for Cardinal Stepinac, whose activities during WWII are a discussion point for those concerned with the role of church officials in wars. Stand aside, or give up your life for your friends? For a favorable review of what Cardinal Stepinac decided and when, see www.hic.hr/books/stepinac/english/second; and for a less favorable account at www.philologos.org/bpr/files/Vatican/vs001a. Fine minds differ.



Miragoj Cemetery. This has been a heavily Orthodox area, and the big Mirogoj cemetery, just outside Zagreb, has many if not almost equal Cyrrilic alphabet monuments, or other Orthodox symbols.




There also German soldiers from WWII are interred with a carefully alphabetized common marker, with names and full birth and death dates.


There is a former Croatian president here, Mr. Tudjman, and artists, literary figures, professionals. Their locations are mapped; or just follow a tour group. One travel site has little on Mirogoj, and asks for input, but their motto is something like, find what is true, then travel. See www.tripadvisor.com/. We do the opposite - who says what is true and why? Go and find it out yourself, or try.


Here is St. George, battling the perpetual dragon. Moisture drips from his toe, but this is not seen as miraculous as in some other religious statuary. See example at Bosnia Road Ways, Medjugorje site .

The earliest "known" dragon may be at Mesopotamia, from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar.



Collateral and unrecoverable damage. Is there any archeological evidence of anything left there, after Operation Iraqi "Freedom." See information on collections at www.dia.org/collections/ancient/mesopotamia/31.25. Dragon forms were also in Egypt, see www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/799168, and in various eastern and western cultures, see www.draconika.com/culture.php.

More on dragons: A TV show (history channel? sponsored by the army??) recently, in September 2006, said that dragons were also in Mexico, Alaska (!) . and we have seen the dragon boats in Viking cultures. Were they real once? Here is the story of a knight and the dragon, and saving the lady, from Libya: www.kellscraft.com/stgeorge.