Green colour is coming to Croatia on St. Patrick’s Day.
Embassy of Ireland in Croatia, in cooperation with Croatian towns Zagreb, Rijeka and Pula, will once again participate in the annual “Global Greening” initiative of Tourism Ireland, to mark Ireland’s national day, the St. Patrick’s Day on 17 March. For Zagreb and Rijeka, this will be their first participation in the event, while Pula will participate for the second year in a row, reports Večernji List on March 15, 2017.
Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić agreed with the proposal to turn green the city fountains at the Croatian Fraternal Union Street – which is the main road leading from the south into the heart of Zagreb.
Mayor of Rijeka Vojko Obersnel agreed to paint green the Trsat Castle above the city. In the 19th century, Trsat was bought by Irish Laval Nugent of Westmeath, a military leader in the Austrian army who married a Croatian noblewoman. Also, the Rijeka Port Authority confirmed that the Molo Longo pier and port cranes will be green on St. Patrick’s Day. Rijeka and the Irish city of Galway will be European Capitals of Culture in 2020, and the cooperation between the two towns and embassies has already commenced.
Finally, the town of Pula – which was the first Croatian town that participated in the Global Greening initiative in 2016 – will once again turn green its “luminous giants” at the Uljanik shipyard. Uljanik is one of the oldest still operational shipyards in the world and last year its cranes created an amazing scene. Each year, Pula hosts Bloomsday Croatia Festival, the celebration of Ireland’s literary giant James Joyce, who lived in the town in 1904 and 1905. This year, the 7th Bloomsday Croatia will take place on 25 to 26th June.
The participation of the three towns in the “Global Greening” project brings Croatia to a select company of just a few countries which have decided to be actively involved in the initiative. The list of world famous attractions that will participate in the celebration of the St. Patrick’s Day includes the Empire State Building in New York, the London Eye, the Colosseum in Rome, Matsue Castle in Japan, and the Great Wall of China.
