Dolac Market: Flavours, Scents, and Rhythm of the City
In the nine decades of its existence, Zagreb’s central farmer’s market Dolac has become an institution and a place where you can find out the most about citizens of Zagreb, their lives and habits, even in just a few words.
It is nearly impossible to find a visitor to the city, even someone who is just passing through, who has not visited Dolac Market. This is one of famous sites in the heart of the city. Coming to Dolac, which became the “belly of the city” in 1930, is one of the rituals which citizens of Zagreb would find most difficult to give up. It is often a meeting place where lively conversations take place which contribute to the overall atmosphere. The street called Splavnica, where flowers are sold, takes you from Ban Josip Jelačić Square to the market. The market itself consists of an open-air section where fruit and vegetables are sold as well as dairy product in showcases and an indoor section, mostly with meat and dairy products. The fish market, which is located in a separate building next to the open-air part of the market, attracts attention with a wide range of top quality freshwater and seawater fish.
In the morning, in addition to housewives and tourists, chefs of Zagreb’s restaurants also come to the market. They owe the quality of their dishes to a wide range of high-quality fruit and vegetables, meat and fish from the Adriatic, and dairy products from the area surrounding Zagreb. Dolac is the right place to see, taste and buy goods from small producers, an increasing number of family farmers who combine tradition and the most recent findings in the field of nutrition and food industry. They are one of the most important factors that make the gastronomy of Zagreb and Croatia recognisable. Citizens of Zagreb expressed their gratitude to the local food producers for supplying quality homemade products to the city by putting up a monument to kumica, which is a word for a market woman in the local dialect. It is a symbol of all vendors which was erected in 2006 and made by sculptor Stjepan Gračan.
Dolac is also visited by tourists searching for a local souvenir or for an opportunity to enjoy a truly unique atmosphere and the sight of colourful umbrellas from Šestine which protect the vendors in the open-air market from the weather. They are also cherry on the top of the experience of visiting the most popular farmer’s market in Zagreb.