Square of the Victims of Fascism ( hr, Trg žrtava fašizma) is one of the central squares in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

. It was designed in 1923 urban plan on the site of the former fairground that was east of Draškovića street as the new center of then new eastern part of the town that was deliberately and systematically built in the 1920s and 1930s. Four streets lead directly to the center of the square; Rački street from the northwest, Višeslavova street from the southeast, Zvonimirova street from the east, and Dukljaninova street from the northeast.

About

Square form of the square was achieved by four representative residential and partly commercial buildings. Car and tram traffic flows anti-clockwise with tram roundabout around the rim of the square. In the center of the square is the green area with a building called

Meštrović Pavilion The Meštrović Pavilion ( hr, Meštrovićev paviljon), also known as the Home of Croatian Artists () and colloquially as the Mosque (), is a cultural venue and the official seat of the Croatian Society of Fine Artists (HDLU) located on the Squ ...

which has a circular layout with a colonnade around the rim and a low dome. Pavilion was built in 1938 following designs made by

Ivan Meštrović Ivan Meštrović (; 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's ...

. In 1941, the building was converted into a mosque. Three minarets and fountains designed by architect Stjepan Planić were erected at the Pavilion's entrance. The minarets were removed in 1948, and the building was converted in 1949 to the Museum of the Croatian Revolution (in the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

). At the beginning of the 1990s, the building was returned to the Croatian Association of Visual Artists and was restored to its original state in 2003. On the north side of the square is the business-residential building made by architect Viktor Kovačić in 1922, while the entire south side of the square is enclosed by large five-storey residential-commercial block built in 1933 as a residential building for- the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop J ...

built by architects

Edo Šen Edo Šen (born Edo Schön; 1877–1949) was a Croatian Jews in Croatia, Jewish architect notable for creating the foundation of the modern Croatian architecture. Early life Šen was born in Zagreb on 10 March 1877. After high school gradua ...

and Milovan Kovačević. Today, it is used as Student Dormitory of Ivan Meštrović, but it is currently closed for renovation. Tram line that goes from Rački street and goes around the square to the Zvonimirova street was built in 1935.

Former names

Being one of the most prominent squares in Zagreb its name was often changed in accordance to political circumstances of the time: *x–1927 ''Trg N'' (Square N) *1927–1941 ''Trg Petra I. osloboditelja'' (Square of Peter I, the liberator) *1941–1942 ''Trg III'' (Square number III) *1942–1946 ''Trg bana Kulina'' (Square of

Ban Kulin Kulin ( sh-Cyrl, Кулин; d. November 1204) was the Ban of Bosnia from 1180 to 1204, first as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire and then of the Kingdom of Hungary, although his state was de facto independent. He was one of Bosnia's most prom ...

) *1946–1990 ''Trg žrtava fašizma'' (Square of the Victims of Fascism) *1990–2000 ''Trg hrvatskih velikana '' (Croatian Nobles Square) *2001–present ''Trg žrtava fašizma'' (Square of the Victims of Fascism)

Literature

*Atlas of Zagreb (M-Ž). "LZMK", Zagreb 2006, p. 434.-436. *http://www.matica.hr/vijenac/174/Trg%20u%20vje%C4%8Dnom%20zagrljaju%20politike/ Squares in Zagreb Donji grad, Zagreb