City of Zagreb
Two rival medieval hilltop towns merged in 1850 to become Croatia's primate city—now generating 31% of GDP on 1% of territory while draining talent from provinces that drain talent to Western Europe.
Zagreb exists because Medvednica exists. The mountain—whose name means 'Bear Mountain'—provided the defensive high ground where two medieval settlements took root: Gradec, the fortified civil town that sheltered behind walls after the Mongol invasion of 1242, and Kaptol, the cathedral chapter's ecclesiastical seat. For six centuries these rival hilltop communities faced each other across the Medveščak stream, their enmity legendary enough that the phrase 'as friendly as Gradec and Kaptol' became Croatian shorthand for mutual hostility. Only in 1850 did they formally merge into a single city.
The Habsburgs made Zagreb capital of Croatia in 1845, and the city has never relinquished its grip. Today it exhibits classic primate city dynamics: 767,000 people on 1.1% of Croatian territory generate 31.4% of national GDP. 34% of all Croatian companies are headquartered here; 38.4% of the workforce is employed here; Zagreb-based firms produce 52% of the nation's turnover and 60% of its profits. The next largest city, Split, has barely a quarter of Zagreb's population. This isn't just concentration—it's apical dominance, where the primary growth point suppresses development elsewhere.
The economic logic is self-reinforcing: banks, universities, ministries, and corporate headquarters cluster where other banks, universities, ministries, and corporate headquarters already exist. Young professionals migrate to Zagreb from Slavonia and Dalmatia; then many continue westward to Vienna, Munich, or Dublin, where wages run 40-60% higher than Croatian norms. Zagreb is simultaneously a sink draining Croatia's provinces and a source leaking talent to wealthier EU capitals—a transit node in a continental brain drain pipeline.
Croatia's 2023 euro adoption and Schengen accession further cemented Zagreb's role as the gateway through which EU money flows and through which Croatian workers leave. By 2026, the question is whether Zagreb's dominance helps or hollows Croatia: does concentrating resources in one globally competitive city strengthen the nation, or does it starve the periphery until only the capital remains viable?