Krapina

Zagorje's quaint administrative and cultural center is on the tourism radar screen primarily as home of krapinski covjek (Krapina man)—no, not the town's one male inhabitant but a Neanderthal of a sort, whose bones were discovered on a hillside a short walk from the town center in 1899, in what was a settlement of these early humanlike creatures 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Indeed, this may be one of the few places in the world today where you can meet up with a family of such hominids and even a fearsome bear in the woods—that is, with life-size statues of Neanderthals going about their daily business (wielding clubs, throwing rocks, tending fire), at the spot where the discovery was made.