Zagreb

Zagreb grew from a quarrel between two hills — episcopal Kaptol and civic Gradec, medieval rivals whose merger made the Croatian capital — and the upper town still keeps the double inheritance: the cathedral's neo-Gothic spires on one height, and on the other St Mark's Church, whose tiled roof spells out coats of arms in colour, the most cheerful heraldry in Europe. The world's shortest public funicular, sixty-six metres of blue carriage, connects the upper town to the café parade of Ilica below; the Dolac market spreads its red umbrellas behind the main square every morning.

Habsburg Zagreb built its culture in yellow neo-baroque: the Croatian National Theatre of 1895, opened by Emperor Franz Joseph himself, still houses opera, ballet and drama. The modern counterpart stands south of the railway: the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, opened in 1973 and named for the composer of the first Croatian opera — the city's principal concert stage, home of the Zagreb Philharmonic, and the venue documented (under two of its names, one hall in fact) in the concert record. The Zagreb Soloists carried the city's chamber tradition around the world. Add the Museum of Broken Relationships — Zagreb's gift to the world's exes — and an Advent season repeatedly voted Europe's best, and the capital emerges as it is: Central European in manner, Mediterranean in appetite, and walkable between both.