The market opened in 1930, after the city decided to move its main market off the central square; old houses and a stretch of the old town walls were cleared to make room for it. Its famous red market umbrellas, in the style of the traditional umbrella of Šestine, a former village on the slopes of Medvednica, shade an open-air terrace piled high with fruit and vegetables, while the covered hall beneath sells meat and dairy products.
Many stalls are run by kumice, women from the villages around Zagreb who sell their own produce and the local speciality of fresh cheese and cream (sir i vrhnje); a statue of a kumica by the sculptor Stjepan Gračan has stood at the market since 2006. A separate fish market offers freshwater and sea fish, and flower sellers line Splavnica, the lane leading up from the main square.
Come in the morning, when the market is at its liveliest, and continue up to the cathedral or the Upper Town.
