Until the 1890s a small stream — the Medveščak — ran along this line, separating the two rival medieval settlements of Gradec and Kaptol. They feuded for centuries: bishops cursed merchants and vice versa. Then the stream was piped underground, the bridges were removed, and the resulting valley became Tkalčićeva, a long pedestrian street that is now the busiest café strip in Zagreb.
It is almost entirely bars, restaurants, and cafés on the ground floors of 19th-century townhouses, with tables spilling out into the street from morning coffee through to late-night drinks. The vibe shifts over the day from coffee-and-pastry to long lunches to early-evening aperitifs and finally bar-hopping. There is also a small monument to the 19th-century novelist Marija Jurić Zagorka — the first female journalist in Croatia — partway down the street.