Even though the forecast predicts lowering temperatures over the weekend
For the past 10 days, northern Croatia, including the capital Zagreb has been in the grips of incessant heatwave with temperatures regularly hitting above 35 degrees Celsius. This has prompted the local authorities to declare a heat warning and to announce that from 19 July to 21 July inclusive public swimming pools and municipal museums will be free to access essentially converting them into climate shelters.
The upside of this is that Zagreb residents can enjoy sports and culture all free of charge starting from today. It looks like the authorities are also counting on the fact that in the middle of the summer, many people have already escaped the urban heat trap by going away to the coast, rural areas or abroad and that the crowds that will invariably form would be manageable.
Nevertheless, in the event that the number of visitors exceeds the capacity of the pool, for safety reasons and sanitary-technical and hygienic conditions, new users may be admitted to the pool after one of the previous users has left the pool.
Check out the Zagreb pools and museums available as climate shelters
These are the four swimming pools that will participate in the initiative: SRC Šalata, Iver, SP Mladost, ZP Mladost, and BK Utrina.
There are two other municipal pools, however, the Svetice pool will not be available this weekend due to a sporting event, and the Jelkovec pool is currently undergoing regular annual maintenance.
If sports and water are not your thing and you happen to be in Zagreb, you can opt for some free culture instead. The perk here is that museums are air-conditioned.
These include the Archaeological Museum, Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb City Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art.
Curiously enough, the weekend weather forecast (as of today) for Zagreb shows that temperatures will drop on Saturday, including a chance of showers.
