Geo Walk Meetup Discover hidden gems of Zagreb was a part of the World Wide Geo Walk Meetup. As a meetup place I selected the Maksimir Park because of all it’s hidden gems and nature beauty. It was such an amazing experience to discover all hidden gems of the Maksimir Park. In this recap I will walk you through The Maksimir Park, show you all it’s hidden gems and tell you a more about every single gem. So let’s get started. 
PS: Don’t forget to check out my Google+ post and see my Photo Album.
The Gatekeeper’s House - A single-storey house of a rectangular layout under the four-side roof which used to be covered in slate was built in 1847. A porch with two pylons on the sides and two pillars in the middle is situated on the main head.,the sketches of the head and the ground-plan signed by the bishop’s commissioner and the head of the construction works in the Maksimir Park, Leopold Philipp, are preserved but are somewhat different from the actual projects. The house used to serve as lodgings for two uniformed invalids who were the park keepers and the foreigner’s guides, and hence it’s name. It had two rooms and a kitchen with an open fireplace of the same ground-plan.
The First Lake - Built: 1839, Surface: 1.5 ha, The depth: 3,30 m
The Pavillion of Echos - The only preserved pavilion in the Maksimir Park is a typical feature of the early romanticist public garden, conveying a symbolic meaning as it was dedicated to a mountain nymph. It was built after 1840 on the basis of the project designed by Franz Schücht, who was selected among the prominent Austrian artists by the park creator and landscaper, the Archbishop Juraj Haulik, to plan the park. The pavilion was built in honor of the goddess Eho, and its extraordinary sound echoing and resonance renders it a special attraction, contained in its very name. The pavilion was reconstructed by the public institution Maksimir in 2002.
The Second Lake - Built: 1935, Surface: 0,7 ha, The depth: 0,5 - 1.5 m
St. Juraj’s Chapel - This neogothic churchwas built in 1864 based on Josef Vönstadel’s draft, on the site where the People’s Temple had previously been erected. The Archbishop Juraj Haulik, the creator and landscaper of the Maksimir Park wished to be buried there. The foundations were built in the shape of a cross with short transept wings and a polygonal sanctuary. The walls are made of brick and the constructive parts of stone. The head with a portal, whose extension is a tall window with a pointed arch, ends with a distaff. The other two windows are placed on the transept wings. The roof used to be slated. The construction and decoration of the chapel is a joint work of the local and foreign architects and artists.
The Fourth lake - Built: 1862, Surface: 1.1 ha, The depth: 0,5 - 1 m
Birch Cottage - Birch cottage or Fisherman’s cottage was built between 1853 and 1862 on the eastern coast of the Fourth Lakein stimulus of Archbishop Haulik. It is a small semi-opened pavilion, designed in a gothic style, dressing coated birch branches with a high roof of wooden shingles. Its special feature is black and white birch bark ornament. It was completely destroyed in 1934 and renovated in 2007, in the works to rebuild the Fourth lake. This unique pavilion, with its calm view on the lake, formerly called the New fishpond, provides a sense of harmony of nature and architecture.
The Fifth lake - Built: 1869, Surface: 3 ha, The depth: 6 m
Sculpture: Stairs by Milena Leh
Obelisk - Pyramidal shaped monument Obelisk, work of sculptor Josepha Käschmann, Archbishop Juraj Haulik placed in 1843 in the Valley of dahlias in the honor of the end of works in Park Maksimir. It was built in a way that a square pedestal was placed on the bottom steps, and on it a pyramidal shaped obelisk was placed. On the back, left and right side of square pedestal three bronze laurel corollas were embedded. On the pyramidal part of the monument, on each side embedded are another four smaller bronze laurel corollas. On the front side of the square part stands a metal panel with text written in Latin. In it Haulik stated his motive for designing Park Maksimir.
The Gazebo - The building in the Maksimir Park also know as Kiosk, was built in the period from 1841 to 1843 based on Franz Schücht’s design. Its most prominent part is the center from which paths fork and around which the main segments of the park are situated. It’s a stereo metrical three-storey and 17 meter tall corpus of square layout on the ground floor and surrounded by the porch above which the terrace is placed. Pylons, pilasters openings completed in a semicircular shape and a triangular gable which ornament the Gazebo are typical palladium motifs varied by the Vienna architecture in the arrangement of the head of the cubically founded corpus of the building.
The Swiss House - Single-story house, known as Tyrolean house, was constructed by Franz Schücht’s design, during 1841, and was completed in fall 1842. Ground floor was made of hewed stone, first floor made of roughly hewed oak beams, encircled with wooden balcony supported with four wooden beams. A balcony is located under the canopy as well. Two-parted truss is covered with shiest. It belongs to stylized rustic architecture, and that is where it got its name from. Haulik’s salon gives a special value to the house, made of wooden plating and richly carved baroque ceiling, which Michael Sebastian Riedl from Augustinian monastery in Klosterneuburg acquired as a gift from Provost Jakob Ruttenstock. Windows and balcony doors are decorated with 12 stained-glass windows with scenes from Swiss and Tyrol landscapes made by Antun Kothgaser according to Antun Gurk’s sketches. Public institution Maksimir has renovated the house in 2005.
The Third lake - Built: 1911, Surface: 2 ha, The depth: 1-4 m
The Mogila - The memorial mound was built in 1925 on the occasion of celebrating the thousandth anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom. The Mogila was designed by Aleksandar Freundenreich and erected by the Croatian Association. It was built in a place where the Umbrella pavilion had been situated. It is made of soil lumps brought from 155 places in various Croatian regions in which some important historical or cultural event had happened during the thousand years of Croatia’s history. The objects belonging to the Croatian cultural heritage are laid down in the mound foundations. It was reconstructed in 1994 on the initiative of the association called Brothers of Croatian Dragon.
Stories source: Public Institution Maksimir
Hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to @AGarner who approved this meetup, to my friend @aeoden who joined me on this amazing journey through the Maksimir Park and to @OSAMA who organized the World Wide Geo Walk Meetup.
Here is my recap: @SalmaanN , @NareshDarji , @VictorOmebije , @BishowvijayaP , @tashantamim , @DanielaBP , @SarahKa
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