Just over three hours’ drive from Zagreb, Vukovar has plenty to offer the visitor for a city-break weekend. With many of its attractions lining the Danube, it makes perfect sense to stay at a hotel or apartment overlooking the river. From here, most sights, museums and restaurants are only a short walk away.
Having arrived and checked in, you might choose to dine at your hotel restaurant – or perhaps explore a little closer to the Danube, with restaurants which offers Slavonian specialities such as fiš paprikaš, a spicy fish soup, or grilled perch, smuđ. A white from Ilok, a Traminac or Graševina, is just the right accompaniment. To finish, there are all kinds of cream cakes, but you may wish to save that pleasure for Sunday, and order a slice of grape cake, pita s grožđem.
Cafés cluster around the city’s post office – the Onyx has a pleasant terrace overlooking the pedestrianised main street of ulica Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, allowing you to watch passers-by over a morning coffee. Depending on the time of year, you can then take a short stroll to the river and take an hour-long Danube cruise. If it’s not running, then you can head straight to the Vukovar Municipal Museum in the Eltz Palace, the former seat of local nobles from the 1700s. The permanent exhibition is here is extensive, ranging from the significant Bauer Collection of modern Croatian art, including pieces by Ivan Meštrović and Vlaho Bukovac, and the archaeological finds from the Early Stone Age to medieval times, tools, weapons and jewellery. Since renovation, the museum now also features a multimedia centre.
After a drink and a light lunch, you can take in the historic sights along the river, from the statue of locally born Nobel-Prize winning chemist Leopold Ružička – a plaque also marks the house where he was born on ulica Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, just past the Baroque Church of St Roch on Županjska ulica.
This is also part of Vukovar’s Baroque centre, that spreads either side of the narrow Vuka channel at right-angles to the Danube. Before you cross the water, though, pay a visit to the Cross commemorating those who gave their lives to defend Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence.
Across the water stand the Grand Hotel, a former theatre and workers’ hall built in the 1890s, and, another iconic landmark relating to the terrible Siege of Vukovar in 1991, the Old Water Tower.
Today is the day to explore further down the riverbank. Starting with coffee on ulica dr Franje Tuđmana, you can stroll along to St Philip & Jacob Church, the third-largest in Croatia, and the Franciscan Monastery, built during the 1700s and renovated after the Croatian War of Independence. The Franciscan library here was one of the most extensive in the country.
From here on Samostanska, you’re only a couple of kilometres or short taxi hop from Vučedol, an archaeological site of global importance. It was here that a thriving civilisation existed around 3,000-2,500 BC, known for it production of bronze and ceramics, including the famous Vučedol Dove now on display at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. Other finds are exhibited at the Vučedol Culture Museum here. Nearby, on the Vukovar side, Dunavski Raj is a recreation centre with horse riding and communal outdoor activities.