The works should be finished by spring 2018.
You’ve passed by the legendary coffeehouse a hundred times, probably without even realising what it was – the mysterious building at the Gundulićeva/Ilica intersection with dark windows, actually used to be one of the most notable Zagreb coffeehouses (read more about them here).
Originally a bank, the gorgeous and spacious building became a coffeehouse in 1907 and it was a place where Croatian writers, journalists and other upper-middle-class Zagreb inhabitants loved spending their time at, and, just to prove how important the building really was, a place where some of the first scenes of Zagreb on film were made in 1915.
Initially the Hrvatsko-slavonska zemaljska banka (The Bank of Croatia and Slavonia), the Art-Deco building was built on the location where Ferdinand Budicki (the man who drove the first car in Zagreb in 1901) used to live.
The coffeehouse became notorious for money-lenders who used to gather here and give out loans to people, and as a place where Miroslav Krleža liked to spend his time.
It was renovated in 1933 and it lost its Art-Deco features after the renovation process in the ‘70s. Corso still held on to its famous history and stayed popular in the ‘80s, but it was finally closed in the ‘90s.
The Mayor promised that the building would be restored to its old glory in May, and, as Kult Plave Kamenice reports on September 30, 2017, the Crnjac Family (owners of Okrugljak and Dubravkin put restaurants) will be in charge of the renovated coffeehouse, and, judging by the materials outside it, it seems that the process has finally started. Hopefully, we will be able to visit it in spring 2018.
All photos from Zagreb – kakav je bio nekada, Facebook.
