Do you know the story about Tkalčićeva Street?
Tkalčićeva Street, or simply Tkalča as the citizens of Zagreb like to call it, is a vibrant street in the centre of the city, constructed over a stream bed between two of the ancient settlements of Zagreb which were fortified with walls in the Middle Ages – Gradec and Kaptol. A stream called Medvešćak, or Stari Potok (Old Brook), flowed there long before the street was constructed. A number of small bridges crossed the stream and trees grew along its banks.
All the local landowners, Gradec, canons and feudal masters constructed mills along the stream which descended into the valley from the forests of Mount Medvednica.
The jurisdictions of Kaptol and Gradec often disagreed and even fought over the use of the water from the stream and the construction of mills. After peace was established in 1392, mills were no longer constructed from the middle of today’s Medvedgradska and along today’s Tkalčićeva Street.
In the stretch of Tkalčićeva Street, two mills remained, situated on the property of the Cistercian monastery. The mills shaped the area of the entire stream valley and their production served the needs of the whole of Zagreb until the second half of the 19th century. In the 18th century, the manufacturing tradition of the valley spurred the construction of the first Zagreb workshops for cloth, soap, paper, liqueur and stonework. In 1864, a leather factory was opened which grew into the largest industrial plant in Zagreb.
Industry disrupted the ecological balance of the valley and became the main polluter of the stream, while this watercourse on the other hand obstructed the construction and planning of the part of town through which it flowed. Within the biggest communal intervention of the time - the construction of the city sewage system in 1898 – a vault was built over the brook, and its flow was redirected into the valley of Ribnjak Park, which is today Medveščak Street, and from there it was directed to the River Sava. As a result, all the small bridges disappeared, including the famous Krvavi Most (Bloody Bridge) that was pulled down in 1899, although the street that took its place still bears the same name.
The street which was then created over the stream was called Potok. It kept the tradition of a market town street, which is seen in the architecture of 18th and 19th century buildings. Until the first decades of the 20th century the street was covered with gravel from the district of Trnje.
The large and small factories of the stream valley were transformed over the course of the years into artisan shops and small trades, although leather production was stopped in 1938. Historical records show that the general plan for the area of the stream valley was designed by the Head of the City Construction Office, M. Lenuci, in 1900, followed by a series of regulations for the whole of the Medvešćak valley. The greatest architect in Zagreb of that time, V. Kovačić (1908), also dealt in his studies with Potok as part of the transformation of neighbouring settlements.
In 1913, Potok was named Tkalčićeva Street in honour of the great Croatian historian and prebendary of Kaptol, Ivan Krstitelj Tkalčić (1840-1905), who issued numerous documents on the city of Zagreb and the Zagreb bishopric. At the time, Tkalčić was involved in studying the history of the Zagreb bishopric and the city of Zagreb. He was also librarian of the Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb.
The Regulatory and Conservation Plan for historical parts of Zagreb, including Tkalčićeva, was incorporated in the 1938 General Regulatory Plan of the City of Zagreb. This plan aimed at transforming the slum in Tkalčićeva Street into a comfortable residential area where all blocks and park areas were carefully planned.
World War Two brought about additional destruction of Tkalčićeva Street when some of the bombs dropped on Zagreb landed in the area of the street near Mlinske Stube, demolishing several houses. In 1953, Tkalčićeva Street was protected as an urban unit of high value.
The winners of the town-planning competition, Kollenz, Begović, Knežević and Kollenz, drew up a detailed city plan in 1967 to restore and revitalise Tkalčićeva Street, taking into account the need for its construction and future development.
In his vision of Tkalčićeva Street as a pedestrian zone, architect Kollenz drew up preliminary designs for its restoration, while architect Begović was in charge of the execution of the part dealing with the revitalisation and interpolation of the block Tkalčićeva-Radićeva-Krvavi Most, which was implemented in the period between 1983 and 1988. The implementation of the project met with different kinds of resistance – not only due to questions of style but also because it was the biggest intervention in the historical centre of Zagreb and Croatia at the time. The work gave rise to new spontaneous interventions in the entire street, most of which went beyond public control.
The “Histrioni” theatre group had the monument to Marija Jurić Zagorka, the work of sculptor S. Gračan, erected in Tkalčićeva Street. The premises of the Croatian Society of Naïve Painters are situated at 14 Tkalčićeva Street.
Last year, around 32 million kuna from the city budget was spent on the reconstruction of this old and famous street. Today, it represents one of the main tourism destinations and the centre of the city’s night life. The popular Kaptol Centre, with its numerous shops and five movie theatres, was built at the very end of Tkalčićeva Street.
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