ZAGREB

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental center of the Republic of Croatia in the Prigorje region. The city's population in 2006 was 784,900 (approx. 1.1 million in the metropolitan area). It is situated between the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain and both northern and southern bank of the Sava river at an elevation of approximately 122 m above sea level.
Its favorable geographic position in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin, which extends to the Alpine, Dinaric, Adriatic and Pannonic regions, provides an excellent connection for traffic between Central Europe and the Adriatic Sea.

Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia, and is the only Croatian city whose metropolitan population exceeds one million people. Most people live in the city proper. There are 1,088,841 people in the Zagreb metropolitan area, which includes the smaller cities of Samobor, Velika Gorica and Zaprešić. While the official 2001 census states that the population of Zagreb itself is 779,145, the official estimation for 2006 is 784,900. The majority of its citizens are Croats making up 91.94% of the city's population (2001 census). The same census records 40,066 residents belonging to ethnic minorities. Such ethnic minorities comprise: 18,811 Serbs (2.41%), 6,204 Bosniaks (0.80%), 4,030 Muslims by nationality (0.52%), 3,389 Albanians (0.43%), 3,225 Slovenians (0.41%), 1,946 Roma (0.25%), 1,131 Montenegrins (0.17%), 1,315 Macedonians (0.17%), together with other smaller minor ethnic communities.

The climate of Zagreb is continental, with four separate seasons. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are cold. The average temperature in winter is 1°C (34°F) and the average temperature in summer is 20°C (68°F). The end of May, particularly, gets very warm, with temperatures rising above 30°C (86°F). Snowfall is common in the winter months, from December to March, and rain and fog are common in autumn.