Tkalciceva Street
Encyclopedia
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
city center. Extending from the vicinity of the central Ban Jelačić Square
Ban Jelacic Square
Ban Jelačić Square is the central square of the city of Zagreb, Croatia, named after ban Josip Jelačić. The official name is Trg bana Jelačića...
to its northern end at the Little Street , the street flows between the Gornji Grad
Gradec, Zagreb
Gradec or Grič is a part of the Zagreb, Croatia, and together with Kaptol it is the mediaeval nucleus of the city. It's situated on the hill of Gornji Grad.- History :Gradec was given a royal charter by King Bela IV in 1242...
in the west and Nova Ves
Nova Ves
The Nova Ves is a historic street north of the Kaptol neighborhood in Zagreb, Croatia. It is administratively within the bounds of the Gornji Grad - Medveščak city district. According to the 2001 census, the street and its surrounding area had 3,456 inhabitants. In 2009, it had a population of 3,575...
in the east. The street is officially within the Gornji Grad - Medveščak
Gornji Grad - Medvešcak
Gornji Grad – Medveščak is one of the districts of Zagreb, Croatia; Gornji Grad translates as Upper Town. It is bordered by four other districts: Donji Grad in the south, Črnomerec in the west, Gornja Dubrava in the east and Podsljeme in the north...
city district, constituting the former "August Cesarec
August Cesarec
August Cesarec was a Croatian writer and left-wing politician.Cesarec was born in Zagreb, which was part of Austria-Hungary at a time. As a high school student he was involved in radical nationalist politics and joined the group that tried to assassinate Croatian ban Slavko Cuvaj...
" commune (abolished in 1994). According to the 2001 Croatian census, the street has 1,591 inhabitants.
History
Centuries before the today's street emerged, the route of Tkalčićeva Street was covered by the Medveščak creekMedvešcak (creek)
Medveščak is a creek in central Zagreb, Croatia. It flows from Kraljičin zdenac in Podsljeme down along the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain to the Manduševac Fountain, its mouth. The creek was covered in 1898 and today forms part of the Zagreb sewer system...
. Medveščak (at that time also called Crikvenik or Cirkvenik) had been the center of Zagreb industry since the early days of the city, spawning numerous watermills. The watermills caused the development of Zagreb industry, leading in turn to the construction of Zagreb's first cloth, soap, paper and liquor factories and, later, animal skin industry. The watermills were often the subject of feuds between the twin cities, Kaptol and Gradec. A 1392 peace treaty forbade construction of new watermills along the shared city border, between today's southern end of Medvedgradska Street and Ban Jelačić Square
Ban Jelacic Square
Ban Jelačić Square is the central square of the city of Zagreb, Croatia, named after ban Josip Jelačić. The official name is Trg bana Jelačića...
, leaving only two mills within the city. Both mills were owned by a Cistercian monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. However, they were both razed during the 1898 covering of the creek.
Although both sides of the creek had been inhabited before, the 1898 covering left a full-scale street, which was aptly named Ulica Potok (Creek street). Most of the houses were dated to 18th or 19th century and the street was surfaced with gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
from Sava River
Sava River
The Sava is a river in Southeast Europe, a right side tributary of the Danube river at Belgrade. Counting from Zelenci, the source of Sava Dolinka, it is long and drains of surface area. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through Serbia....
excavated in Trnje
Trnje
Trnje is a district in the City of Zagreb, Croatia. According to the 2001 census, the district had 45,267 residents. It is located in the central part of the city, south of Donji grad across the railway , east of Trešnjevka , west of Pešćenica , and north of the river Sava...
. Around the middle of the 20th century it was modernized and paved with asphalt. The creek-based industry was quickly transformed into small businesses and stores and the skin industry stopped working in 1938. According to several records, the transformation of Medveščak creek valley was orchestrated in 1900 by Milan Lenucci, a well-known architect. In 1908, Viktor Kovačić
Viktor Kovacic
Viktor Kovačić was a Croatian architect. His projects are marked with subtle purity of reduced elements of historicism, like in monumental Stock Exchange Palace in Zagreb, 1924...
also displayed some of his ideas about Ulica Potok in his studies of Gornji Grad
Gradec, Zagreb
Gradec or Grič is a part of the Zagreb, Croatia, and together with Kaptol it is the mediaeval nucleus of the city. It's situated on the hill of Gornji Grad.- History :Gradec was given a royal charter by King Bela IV in 1242...
, Kaptol
Kaptol, Zagreb
Kaptol is a part of Zagreb, Croatia in the upper town and it is the seat of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Zagreb.-History:The existence of Kaptol, the settlement on the east slope, was confirmed in 1094 when King Ladislaus founded the Zagreb diocese. The bishop, his residence and the Cathedral...
and other city neighborhoods. In 1913, Ulica Potok's name is changed to Tkalčićeva Street in honor of the 19th century Zagreb historian Ivan Tkalčić, who originated from the nearby Nova Ves
Nova Ves
The Nova Ves is a historic street north of the Kaptol neighborhood in Zagreb, Croatia. It is administratively within the bounds of the Gornji Grad - Medveščak city district. According to the 2001 census, the street and its surrounding area had 3,456 inhabitants. In 2009, it had a population of 3,575...
.