Dežmanova street is a short and exclusively pedestrian street in the very center of Zagreb full of unique and unusual bars, stores and workshops that let you find yourself in a whole different setting once you’ve passed through its passage.

Starting from a niche perfumery that also serves coffee and tea on its terrace from where you can admire a florist designer shop and gallery with its gorgeous and ever-surprising shop window vis-à-vis, you can stroll along antique stores that sell vintage  clothes and books, grab a drink or bite at the elegant Dežmanova bar, glance into a bright and inviting “made in Croatia” graphic and product design store and finally amble up into the wonderful Velvet cafe and gallery in its white or black version. Dežmanova is hip and chic – in a less officious and more subtle way than the popular Cvjetni trg.

From the more peculiar spots, I have to mention a wig shop that looks antique but does not advertise itself to be, and a furrier’s workshop  – the business with the longest tradition in the street. 

With Dežmanova ending at the Tuškanac cinema it feels like an introduction to the arthouse itself, a portal from the mundane world embodied in the Ilica-shopping street to the world of beauty, elegance, aesthetics and art. The street finally leads you to the Aleksander stairs on top of which the quietness of Rokov perivoj lingers, or invites you for a calming walk along Dubravkin put, through the city’s forest Tuškanac.