If you’re planning a trip to Europe, we recommend visiting Zagreb, a central European capital with Mediterranean flair. You will love the lively atmosphere, lush green parks, historic architecture, picturesque open-air markets, and can’t-miss festivals. Here are the prime reasons you should incorporate Zagreb into your itinerary.

For a brilliant duet of historic buildings and innovative exhibits, go to Croatia’s capital city.

The (traditionally) defining feature of Croatia’s capital city: art and architecture, from the thirteenth-century Saint Mark’s Church to the neo-Renaissance arcades at the Mirogoc Cemetery. But in Zagreb, travelers with an eye for design will also appreciate the city’s new street-art initiatives and constantly changing landscape, which includes temporary and permanent urban art installations, indoor/outdoor cultural performances, and museums catering to a wide variety of interests. Here’s a quick look at what to see.

Progressive Exhibits Meet Classical Theater

Approximately forty museums, eighty galleries, and private art collections make up a cultural treasure of this millennium-old city, whose university dates back some 350 years.

Meandering through Zagreb, travelers can see vestiges of the city’s deep roots in European history and the arts. Numerous artists, acclaimed domestically and internationally, add to the city’s allure and robust music, theater, and art programs. The Croatian National Theatre, which opened in 1895 stages operas, dramas, and ballets that range from a festival commemorating Moby Dick to a ballet reimagining of Pride and Prejudice. Other theaters in the city follow suite, with performances that run from classical favorites to contemporary interpretations.

Modern museums are shifting the cultural landscape, too – and vice versa. Try the Museum of Broken Relationships, a crowd-sourced global art project with a sister location in Los Angeles. Located in a baroque palace, the museum comments on human’s ability to love and lose, filled with mementos and anecdotes from real-life stories. The mind-bending Museum of Illusions plays tricks on visitors’ visual and sensory perception, with more than 70 exhibits, including a large hologram, a human-sized kaleidoscope, and an anti-gravity room.

Art in the Open

Many visitors end up experiencing Zagreb the way you’d drift through an open-air gallery, encountering the works of artists such as sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, who have left priceless signatures on the town’s buildings and monuments. But new street-art programs are thriving here too.

Today, the city increasingly serves as an open exhibition space, shaped in part by the outlines of Zagreb’s streets, squares, and lush parks. Initiatives such as Street Triptych, which calls for Croatian artists to spray-paint, sketch, or paint outdoor murals every three months, and the Ilica Q’Art Project, which throws an annual festival with artwork, open-air music, fashion displays, a flea market, and local cafes and restaurants, enrich city spaces throughout the year. The newest of these programs, called Artupunktura, aims to boost the city’s artistic energy with pieces scattered throughout Zagreb’s exhibition spaces. Nearly wherever travelers find themselves across town, the playful tension of ancient and modern, traditional and outside-the-box, brings a lively, joyful thrum to Zagreb.

Gastronomy in the Heartland

Zagreb is finally coming into its own as a center of good eating. RougeMarin, once a lightbulb factory outside the center of town, has a casual atmosphere, but takes on Croatian fare with worldly flair in dishes such as marinated pork loin on an amaranth rice cracker, and panko-encrusted monkfish. Go traditional at Kod Pere, a neighborhood spot within walking distance of Zagreb’s main square that serves up hearty central Croatian fare in large portions – think blood sausage and schnitzel. For something more stylish, one-Michelin-starred Noel’s softly lit, modern space sets the stage for chef Goran Kocis’ elevated regional fare: grapefruit-accented sea urchin risotto, say, or foie gras with Dalmatian raisins. Pair your meal with local wines, an artisan cocktail, or a recommendation from sake sommelier Ivan Jug; the restaurant also offers tea tasting menus that match teas to each course.