1936 On the Continent

and completed by King Alexander, who personally supervised its artistic execution. Well placed on a hill, with a green marble base and fine bronze doors, and wrought entirely in marble and mosaic, the Oplenac represents a masterpiece of modern church architecture. There are thousands of different colours and shades in the mosaics, and the interior of the church includes copies of famous frescoes and a white marble throne. In its crypt, in tombs of plain white marble blocks, lie both King Peter and King Alexander. Near by is the late King Alexander’s villa, built in the English style, and known to the villagers, owing to its simplicity, as his “peasant home.”
    A slightly longer excursion is that by boat to the
Iron Gate
, the wonderful deep canyon between the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains. In the hot summer it is particularly enjoyable to float down the cool Danube, which broadens to a mile and a quarter at Donji Milanovac and narrows to a rocky canal in the shoals of the Kazan (cauldron). Smederevo on this route is famous for grapes and wine, and Kladovo for caviare.
    Another excursion point is
Karlovci
, the seat of the old Serbian patriarchy, a wine-growing district full of monasteries (Fruška gora) and interesting rambles, particularly during the vintage season. There is a hotel (Venac) in this district near Novi Sad.
    Serbia has few facilities to offer the tourist, the Serbian peasant being a smallholder, autochthonous in his culture, and independent. However, you may find it worth while to visit the spa of
Arandjelovac
, which lies pleasantly in the middle of a park, has a good hotel, and supplies the “Bukovika” mineral water. Even finer is
Vrnjci
(Hotel Imperial), with excellent waters for digestive troubles, baths built in marble, all modern treatments, and a beautiful situation in a natural park.
Zagreb
    Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, forms a complete contrast with Belgrade. While Belgrade is a meeting-place and battle-ground of East and West, Zagreb offers a harmonious Western appearance. As the visitor enters the town he is welcomed by a clean spacious square, a pleasant park, regular avenues of trees and well-built edifices, of which the most remarkable are the town museum and the Hotel Esplanade, the largest and most luxurious hotel not only in Jugoslavia, but in the Balkans. Nor is this first impression belied by the rest of the town. Zagreb, with its broad, clean streets, well-kept avenues, good hotels (Palace, Milinov), fine imposing rows of houses, squares and public buildings, is indeed a well-planned Central European town.
    Situated in the industrial part of Jugoslavia, and with many pre-War connections with Vienna, Zagreb is a business centre frequented both by foreign and Jugoslav bankers, manufacturers and merchants. Every year there are industrial and agricultural fairs at Zagreb, and as befits such an important business centre, Zagreb has a Bourse and Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts. Its many fine buildings include the university, the well-stocked university library with over 300,000 volumes, the Academy, the archaeological, natural science and ethnographic museums, each interesting in its own sphere, especially the last, which is visited every year by many foreign scholars. All these buildings are presided over from the Kaptol hill by the cathedral, a fine Gothic building of the twelfth century restored in the nineteenth century. From the hill a fine view of the town may be obtained. Below the hill stretches the famous business street of Zagreb, the Ilica, which is more than two miles long, and lined with all kinds of shops. Every evening the Ilica is turned into a busy “corso” by the young men and girls of Zagreb.
Cafés in Zagreb
    The arts are also well represented at Zagreb. In addition to the art museum there are the Meštrovi, the Modern and the Strossmayer art galleries. The opera is excellent and there is no lack of other entertainmentssuch as theatres, concerts, variety shows, cinemas and lectures. The café life, although it lacks the intimacy of Belgrade, is well developed. The most favoured cafés are “Gradska,” “Corso,” “Zagreb,” “Carlton,” “Esplanade” and the “Kazališna,” where artists meet. The best restaurants are “Gradski podrum” a rendezvous of artists and the intelligentsia, “Kolo,” “Palace,” “Esplanade” and “Gospiš” (for sea fish). Those who like dancing in the evening can be recommended the “Grill