Agram
AGRAM (Hungarian Zagrab, Croatian Zagreb), the capital of Croatia-Slavonia, and a royal free town of Hungary; pleasantly situated between the north bank of the Save and the mountains which culminate in Sljeme (3396 ft.); 187 m. by rail S. of Vienna. Pop. (1890) 38,742; (1900) 57,930, or with garrison 61,002. Agram is the seat of the ban, or viceroy, of Croatia-Slavonia, of the Banal and Septemviral courts, the highest in the land, and of a chamber of commerce. It is also the meeting-place of the parliament; but local affairs are conducted by a municipal council. The city is divided into three districts. The Kapitel-Stadt, sometimes called the Bishop's Town, with the palace of the Roman Catholic archbishop, and his late Gothic cathedral, dating from the 15th century, lies eastward of the Medvescak, a brook which flows into the Save. The Upper Town, on high ground west of the Medvescak, contains the palace of the ban and the natural history museum. On the south, the Lower Town is separated from the other districts by the Inca, a long street traversed by a cable tramway. In it are the business and industrial quarters; the palace of justice; the academy of science, with picture-galleries, a library and a collection of antiquities; the theatre; the Franz Josef University, founded in 1874 to teach theology, law and philosophy; the synagogue; and the only Protestant church existing in the country at the beginning of the 20th century. Roman Catholic churches and schools are numerous. Besides the large Maximir park and botanical gardens, many of the squares are planted with trees and adorned with statues; while the whole city is surrounded by vineyards and country houses. Tobacco, leather, linen, carpets and war-material are manufactured in Agram, which also contains the works of the Hungarian state railways, and has a brisk trade in grain, wine, potash, honey, silk and porcelain.
In 1094 Agram was founded by Ladislaus I. of Hungary, as the seat of a bishop; and on the expulsion of its Mongol colony, in 1242, it was raised to the rank of a royal free city. For centuries a bitter feud raged between the Kapitel-Stadt and the Upper Town, until these rivals were forced to join hands against the Turks. Agram, already the political centre of Croatia-Slavonia, was selected as the capital in 1867. It suffered severely from earthquake in 1880 and 1901.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
