This past weekend my future wife and I finally got to spend a weekend of our free time in the Slavonian city of Osijek, Croatia. A place I have wanted to see since before I ever left the United States last year. It is a lovely old city with a rich history dating back to well over a thousand years ago and more. You can still see the feel the presence of the Turkish who captured the city hundreds of years ago. You can even see the remnants of the Roman rule of even longer ago. What I liked the best about Osijek is that you can see the fragments of so many different cultures, yet it is all so merged together that it is seamless in its appearance. Making it a uniquely culminated treasure all of its own. Hotel Central, of Osijek, was built in 1899. A fact you are made fully aware of the minute you lay eyes on the beautiful old building. As the oldest hotel in Osijek, it is antique by anybody's standards. It is truly a gem, hidden away... yet blatantly dominating command of the center square located in the middle of the city. You can feel the resonance of energy from centuries gone by the minute you walk into the lobby of Hotel Central in Osijek. The place is decorated richly in the style of the early to mid 20th century. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor as soon as I hit the reception area. Checking in was fast and simple. There were no issues. The staff are professionals but still manage to pull of friendly in all the right ways. The minute the door to my room opened I had to do a double take on the room number just to make sure I was in the right place. The view of the square was equally amazing as the overall five-star atmosphere of the place, let alone the room itself. I could imagine being a World War II soldier taking leave from the action to indulge in a bit of luxury for the weekend. The setting was perfect. The ceiling was roughly 6 meters tall, the room was filled with a gorgeous vintage style furniture. Everything had lovely wood grain. We will be staying here again in the future. Aside from the buildings in the center square of Osijek itself, a statue of Ante Starcevic was the first historical landmark that we saw. It stands almost directly lined up with the entrance of Hotel Central. The statue is an immortalization of Ante Starcevic "The first father of the homeland," as he is known by Croats. The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul is not even half a minute away from the Hotel Central in Osijek. It stands on one corner of the square, the tower having a magical view of the center of the square. I have seen many amazing photographs of the city square that were taken from said point. The massive neo-gothic cathedral started construction in 1894 and finished 6 years later in 1900. It stands 94 meters tall (nearly 300ft), and measure more than 6000 sq ft. Franz Langenberg is the German architect who designed it for the Roman Catholic Church. In the early 1990s, it was damaged in the homeland war hundreds of times. It is the second tallest cathedral in the entire country of Croatia. Over 3 million bricks were used in its construction. The second-day Zvjezdana and I spent traveling through Osijek was really poor weather wise. We still managed to see a bunch of awesome stuff though. A couple of the most interesting things being the remnants of the fort built centuries upon centuries ago in order to defend Osijek from invaders, as well as the oldest physical district of the city including churches several hundreds of years old. We actually rented a hostel in that area on Sunday night, which was really a cool experience as the area was mostly deserted for the time being. Earlier on Sunday morning, our first stop of the day was to see the Cat Momma and the famous Cat House of Osijek. Built during the years of 1922 and 1925 by Pauline Hermann. The gorgeous over-sized house would become her permanent home. At one point in time, there was a small public park attached to the property surrounding the house. Pauline herself was quite the controversial figure in the history of Osijek, Croatia. She came from a well-to-do family and married into another well-respected family line as well. She is known best for her zealous love for animals. She owned everything from cats, dogs, birds, to such exotic pets as a lion at one point. Needless to say, she was quite an interesting piece of work. The coffee bar inside of the Cat House was quaint and pleasant. Though it ended up being packed out by noon. It was a very nice stop-over before catching the tram back to the center of Osijek and onto the oldest district, Tvrdja. It was there we rented a room and spent the rest of the day exploring. Ana's Place, the hostel we ended up finding, had a cozy little room for us that was quiet and warm. The staff was kind and super friendly. They even made us coffee. We would definitely stay there again some time. Have you been to Osijek? What was your favorite thing about it, and what did did you think of the Cathedral? Let me know in the comments section below! Thanks for reading! Happy traveling, folks!
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December 2018
AuthorWriter, nature lover, poet, pagan, occultist and blogger. Categories
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