Professors Anić and Sabotič Delivered Lectures at the Opening of the Exhibition “A Sip of the Past – Old Zagreb Cafés, Taverns and Inns (1887–1939)”

The Museum of the City of Zagreb is currently hosting the exhibition “A Sip of the Past – Old Zagreb Cafés, Taverns and Inns (1887–1939).” The exhibition concept and scenario were authored by Kristian Strukić (museum advisor at the Museum of the City of Zagreb), Dr Tanja Kocković Zaborski (museum advisor at the Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb) and Prof. Tomislav Anić, PhD (Department of History, Catholic University of Croatia).

Within the exhibition space, Associate Professor Ines Sabotič, PhD, and Prof. Tomislav Anić, PhD, from the Department of History, delivered lectures on Thursday, 11 December 2025.

In her lecture “Zagreb Cafés: Spaces Under Surveillance and Spaces of Freedom (Turn of the 19th to the 20th Century),” Prof. Sabotič presented numerous insights into the rules and regulations governing cafés of that era: from minimum spatial requirements and mandatory equipment such as billiard tables to the interior layout and the profile of café employees.

In his lecture “From Café to Inn: The Social Life of Zagreb Between Bourgeois Representation and Popular Everyday Life (1901–1939),” Prof. Anić discussed the cafés of that period as symbols of bourgeois culture—places of refined conversation, newspaper reading and social visibility. Inns, on the other hand, particularly in the city’s outskirts, preserved a spirit of popular spontaneity and communal joy. He also explained who the kafe-ziceri were and at what time of day Zagreb of that period transformed into “one big stomach.”

The exhibition “A Sip of the Past” is open to visitors until 15 March 2026.

Photos and text: Museum of the City of Zagreb