Ban Josip Jelačić Park

The park named after Ban Josip Jelačić is the green centre of Glina, a town on the river of the same name in the Banovina region. It fills the middle of the town and is framed by the town hall, the parish church of St John of Nepomuk and a row of classicist houses, so most walks through Glina pass through it.

Glina was rebuilt mainly in the 18th century after the Ottoman period and grew up as a garrison town of the Military Frontier. Josip Jelačić, later Ban of Croatia, served here as an officer, and the central open space was used for military parades and for fairs. The first trees of the park were planted in his time, and the promenade took his name. Over the following century and a half the square was renamed several times as regimes changed, and in 1991 it was the scene of fighting for the town during the Homeland War. Today it again carries Jelačić's name.

The park was renovated in recent years. It is planted with about 167 trees, mostly plane trees and horse chestnuts, whose tall trunks shade gravel paths, lawns and round flower beds. A wooden gazebo stands among the trees, and there is a modern children's playground. On the edge of the park, in front of the town administration building, stands a monument to Ban Jelačić, and next to the town hall is a musical fence of tuned pipes on which visitors can play the Croatian national anthem.

Glina was badly hit by the earthquake of 29 December 2020, centred near Petrinja, and almost every building in the town was damaged; repairs to the buildings around the park have continued since.

The park is a public space, open at all times and free. Allow half an hour to walk through it, look at the church and the monument, and try the musical fence.