Lenuci's Horseshoe

The Lenuci Horseshoe or the Green Horseshoe (Croatian: Lenucijeva potkova, Zelena potkova; "Lenuci" is also sometimes spelled "Lenuzzi") is a U-shaped system of city squares with parks in downtown (Donji grad) Zagreb, Croatia. The horseshoe was conceived in 1882 by Croatian urbanist Milan Lenuci. The parks were projected between 1883 and 1887, at a time when today's Donji grad formed the southern outskirts of Zagreb. The construction was helped by the efforts to rebuild the city after the 1880 Zagreb earthquake, and in 1889 the entire horseshoe was finished—its two ends were connected by the newly built Zagreb Botanical Garden. The park system consists of seven squares aligned on three straight lines.

The squares comprising the horseshoe are arranged in three straight lines on Donji grad's grid plan, forming the west, south and east side of the horseshoe. Starting from northeast and going clockwise, the horseshoe is formed by Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square (locally known as Zrinjevac), Josip Juraj Strossmayer Square, King Tomislav Square, Ante Starčević Square, Lenuci fitness park, Zagreb Botanical Garden, Marko Marulić Square, Ivan Mažuranić Square and Republic of Croatia Square. The horseshoe is home to the headquarters of many organizations and institutions in Zagreb, as well as several museums: Archeological Museum,Modern Gallery,Art Pavilion,Croatian State Archives,Ethnographic Museum and Museum of Arts and Crafts. The greenery is interrupted between Ante Starčević Square and the Lenuci fitness park. The Esplanade Zagreb Hotel is located there. The south side of the horseshoe lies next to the Zagreb Glavni kolodvor, the city's main railway station. Republic of Croatia Square is home to the Croatian National Theatre, while Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square houses the buildings of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

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