Six kilometres of shopping street running west from the main square, from luxury to hardware in about four blocks.
Ilica is the longest street in Zagreb — around six kilometres, running dead straight west from Ban Jelačić Square along the foot of the Upper Town hill.
It has been the city’s main shopping street since the nineteenth century and it still is, though what that means changes every few blocks.
The first stretch
From the main square to about Frankopanska is the smart end: international brands, jewellers, and a run of nineteenth-century buildings with good ironwork above the shopfronts.
Look up. The ground floors have been remodelled a dozen times but the upper storeys are largely intact Historicist and Secession, and there is more Vienna in this street than the pavement suggests.
The arcades
The best shopping in Zagreb is not on Ilica, it is off it, through passages.
Oktogon — an octagonal glazed arcade of 1899, running between Ilica and Trg Petra Preradovića, built as part of a bank. It is the most beautiful commercial interior in the city and it takes ninety seconds to walk through.
Cvjetni prolaz and the other passages around Cvjetni trg — the flower square — where the cafés of špica are.
Kaptol Centre and the newer developments, which are ordinary shopping centres and can be skipped.
What to actually buy
Croatian design has become genuinely good and there are a number of small independent shops in the streets off Ilica — Preradovićeva, Bogovićeva, Masarykova, Dežmanova — selling clothing, ceramics and jewellery made here.
The tie. The cravat is a Croatian invention — the word derives from hrvat, Croat, and it entered French from the neckwear worn by Croatian soldiers in the seventeenth century. There is a shop devoted to them and it is not a gimmick; the ties are well made.
Licitar hearts — the red iced honey-dough decorations on the UNESCO intangible heritage list. Sold all over the Upper Town and on Radićeva.
Food to take home: Paški sir from Dolac, kulen, rakija, and Bajadera chocolates from Kraš, the Zagreb confectioner, which are what Croatians actually give as presents.
Vegeta, the seasoning that has been in every kitchen in the region since 1959, if you want the genuinely everyday souvenir.
Practical
Shops generally 9 to 8 on weekdays, shorter on Saturday, and most are closed on Sunday outside the shopping centres and the tourist streets.
Croatia uses the euro since 1 January 2023. Prices in kuna have gone; anything quoting them is very out of date.
VAT refunds are available for non-EU residents above a threshold — ask for the form in the shop.
