Oktogon Pt. 2 - Pluto

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Not many citizens of Zagreb, let alone tourists, know that a monument to a dog was, literally, for years hidden from the public eye within one of the courtyards in Oktogon. The monument was built to honour Pluto, the dog who came one day to the construction site, completely emaciated. The workers, and especially the architect Josip Vancaš, took to the dog immediately, fed him and gave him water. Soon the dog became the construction site's watch dog, which, apparently was not just a title, because looters came to the site to steal clay used to make pottery from the creek in Ilica. During one of these skirmishes, at the very end of construction, the legend says, Pluto lost his life. Mr Vancaš and the workers, grief- stricken, decided to put up a monument to honour the memory of Pluto forever. Fortunately, the monument was recently relocated to a more appropriate and visible place, on a building in Bogovićeva street, where every passer-by can see it and read about it.

 Written by: Gordana Mijatovic

Oktogon

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 Oktogon is the passage within the building of the former First Croatian Savings Bank which connects the longest street in Zagreb's center, Ilica, with the Peter Preradović's square, popularly called the Flower square, after the florists who have their stands there. The building was finished in 1890 (although the sign on the south entrance says it was built in 1889), and the passage,, which at its center has a three-level hall with a stained-glass dome, was named after its octagonal shape.

 Written by: Gordana Mijatovic

Manduševac Pt. 2

There are a lot of legends explaining the name Manduševac. One of them says that a knight asked a young woman named Manda to grab him some water. But the name Manduševac, which etimologically connects the name Manda and a noun 'ševac' which tranlates into 'lover' led historians and linguists to search further. The documents from the Zagreb diocese they discovered reveal the real truth. The incident described happened in 1291, when a knight returning from the latest Crusade passed by the spring, where he met a bautiful girl named Manda. When they surrendered to their passion, the angry mob swarmed them and burned Manda at the stake. The knight kept his head thanks to his status, but was chained and thrown into a dungeon for the rest of his life. After that, when passing by the spring, people would tell the story about Manda who was there grabbed by her 'ševac', and this is how the names Zagreb and Manduševac actually came to be.

 Written by: Gordana Mijatovic