Great things to do in Zagreb in June

Compact and easy to navigate, Zagreb contains plenty of historic sights and fascinating galleries, complemented by destination restaurants, clusters of busy bars and numerous live-music venues. The main square divides the hilly Upper Town – museums, institutions of national importance, panoramic views – from the flat, grid-patterned streets of the Lower Town, with its gastronomic landmarks, designer boutiques and art galleries. Spread out east and west are areas of bucolic greenery while south over the Sava river stretches the post-war residential blocks of Novi Zagreb. Done something on this list and loved it? Share it with the hashtag #TimeOutDoList and tag @TimeOutEverywhere. You can also find out more about how Time Out selects the very best things to do all over the world, or take a look at our list of the 50 best things to do in the world right now.

Zagreb is quickly gaining the big-city vibe of Vienna and Budapest, its Habsburg-era counterparts, while managing to hold on to its distinctive charm. Set below Mount Medvednica, where the last Alpine foothills meet the Pannonian plain, the city still feels like a big village. You can walk to most places you'd want to visit and the majority of tram routes pass through Trg bana Josipa Jelačića, the main square, making the city easy to navigate. Everything has an order common to German-speaking Europe, but with a Balkan sense of fun and after dark hedonism. Read our daytripper's guide to experiencing the best of Zagreb in one day. RECOMMENDED: more great things to do in Zagreb.

Born out of the ubiquity of concrete and a love for functional shapes, the architecture of Brutalism is frequently misunderstood. The very term seems to attract us for all the wrong reasons, inviting us to admire buildings for their roughness, or their obstinate refusal to be pretty. Recent years have seen the word Brutalism fall victim to a warped social media aesthetic in which it is exoticized as something east European, communist, falling to bits – an object of nostalgia or pity that is shorn of its social context. Touring the modernist neighbourhoods of Zagreb is something of an antidote to this – Croatian Brutalism is restrained and sympathetic to its surroundings in a way rather different to the application of the same style in, say, Sheffield or South London. Not all of it is pretty – Brutalism was above all a functional style designed to provide social planners with cheap solutions to big problems. However, there is plenty here of compelling interest – enough to justify Zagreb’s growing reputation as an unsung treasure-trove of Central-European modernism.

For the first-time visitor, Zagreb seems distinctly urban, the historic thoroughfares of the Upper Town and grid-patterned streets of the Lower Town far removed from the narrow river Sava to the south. Yet waterside recreational attractions are within easy reach of the centre, whether it’s windsurfing on Lake Jarun, swimming in Bundek, bird watching at Savica or even golf the other side of the Sava. RECOMMENDED: More great things to do in Zagreb.

Editor's note: the events are cancelled until further notice. The days are longer, the skies are brighter: Spring has well and truly sprung in Zagreb. Discover the hottest happening in the capital with our round-up of upcoming events, exhibitions and concerts this April. RECOMMENDED: Our round-the-clock guide to Zagreb.

Whether you're having a night off the booze or have called time on drinking altogether, there are plenty of ways to socialise in Zagreb and still have fun. Board and tabletop game nights provide a sober, sociable alternative and are a great place to mingle with new people. Zagreb is no exception to the popularity of tabletop game culture and you can find both playrooms dedicated to tabletop games and venues which hold regular events. Here are five of the friendliest where you'll be welcomed for your gaming enthusiasm and not for your Croatian skills. RECOMMENDED: the 71 best things to do in Zagreb.

Like Budapest, Zagreb is two cities divided by a river. Novi Zagreb lies to the south of Zagreb, across the river Sava, and was developed to house the growing population. Its skyline is dominated by the socialist realist monoliths, that I, on a grey January morning, set out to explore on foot.  As an important hub within Tito’s Socialist Yugoslavia up until the ‘90s, when the country broke apart in the bloodiest wars of Europe’s recent history, Zagreb at one point vied with Belgrade for leadership of the country. During this period Croatia got more than its fair share of socialist realist architecture, made from identical concrete panels that were rolled out on vast production lines. The city now boasts some of the largest examples of this architecture in Central Europe, much of which can be found south of the river.  Visitors staying in the pastel coloured Old Town may be put off by nicknames such as ‘Commie blocks’, but should remember that at the core of the housing blocks is a utopian vision of how the cities of the future might look. Forget the oxidised copper roofs of the Austro-Hungarian centre, the boxy housing estates are where you’ll find the interesting stuff. I don’t walk far from the centre before I hit Béton brut (raw concrete, from which we get the word ‘Brutalism’). Down Savska cesta just before the river are the Rakete, three rocket shaped towers that were modified after the 1963 Skopje earthquake to withstand further tremors. The nickname comes from the...

Zagreb's appealing al fresco vibe, great nightlife and guaranteed warm weather makes it an enjoyable city break in summer. Summer festivals like INmusic and Strossmartre are keeping people around for longer, before half the city packs its bags and heads for the coast in midsummer. Here are just ten suggestions of fabulous things to do in Zagreb this summer. RECOMMENDED: more great travel destinations in Croatia

Zagreb attractions number plenty of stately icons among their ranks, owing to the city's status as a former Habsburg hub and capital of a new nation. Towering cathedrals, a venerable zoo and a stately cemetery all provide plenty of things to do in Zagreb. Our experts pick out the best.

Sick of being bombarded with the fake smiles and ridiculous pouts captured in selfies on social media? Zagreb's Museum of Broken Relationships is the reality check you need. A collection of mementoes and texts which mark the end of love affairs, its intriguing artillery of objects will fascinate you and bring forth a variety of all-too-recognisable emotions. © Museum of Broken Relationships Created as a temporary exhibition in 2006 by former couple, artist Dražen Grubišić and festival producer Olinka Vištica, souvenirs of their own failed relationship helped make up the first exhibit. It proved such a hit that eventually a permanent home was found for their souvenirs of stunted love and the museum opened in Zagreb’s Upper Town in 2010. Since then, the museum has become one of Zagreb's most popular and unique attractions. It has toured the world, everywhere from Tokyo to London and Mexico City, and found a permanent second home in Los Angeles, picking up tokens of failed relationships everywhere it travels. Inundated by donations, the love letters, objects and photographs on show are just a fraction of the fascinating tragedies the museum now possesses. Accompanied by bittersweet explanatory texts, the exhibits depict the surreal but understandable narratives formed from fraught, post-breakup emotional states. © Museum of Broken Relationships If you’re recently heartbroken, you can cheer yourself up at its appetising new restaurant, which features playfully experimental...