The Scent of June in Zagreb

Ask any person from any Slavic country what they call that tree, and the answer will always be the same: lipa. It’s one of the rare words that hasn’t changed over the centuries while travelling from the far north to the Mediterranean Sea, across the countries that use Slavic languages. Croatia is one of those countries.  

Did you know that the Croatian language doesn’t use Latin-derived words for the months of the year? Instead, we have our own wording that follows the wheel of the year. Can you guess how we call June? We call it lipanj, after the tree. 

Look for the heart-shaped leaves.

Not all Croats are very skilled at distinguishing tree species. But most of them will know a lipa when they see one. Or when they smell one in June. Lipa is so easy to recognise because it has nearly heart-shaped leaves. Perfect to craft life-bringing metaphors. Actually, they are not just metaphors. Lipa truly is a life-bringer. When you feel the scent of a lipa tree, find its source and stand underneath it. Look up and focus on the sounds. Soon enough, you will discover you’re not the only one attracted by the sweet scent. The humming will give the little bees away, and it won’t be long until you start spotting them somewhere in the tree crown. Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you; they’re too busy chasing the best nectar they can find.  And they are willing to share, judging by the fact that people use the flowers, too. Lipa tea or honey will calm everything from nerves to all sorts of inflammations. If you haven’t tried it or even heard of it before, go to a market or a pharmacy, and you will easily find the tea made from dried lipa. 

It might be easy to recognise a lipa, but there are more than 40 species, and only an expert will know that each of the three lipas at the Jezuitski Trg square belongs to a different species. 

Back in the day, many towns used a large lipa as their gathering place. Of course, when it creates a thick shade, it offers shelter and can even serve as a perfect hiding spot for a romantic couple after dark. Even further back in the day, this would be a great place for decision-making, passing of public judgments, and announcements… or even organising rebellions. An iconic case is Gupčeva lipa - the lipa of Matija Gubec, a Croatian historical hero who led the farmers’ revolt in the 16th century. The tree, the only surviving witness to those historical events, is still there after all those years, in the nearby town of Gornja Stubica. And it is so deeply meaningful in Croatian lore that they recently created 60 clones and planted them across Croatia and beyond! 

Under a lipa tree, somewhere in Zagreb

There is an even older lipa that was supposedly planted on the orders of King Bela IV in 1242. The tree’s home is the town of Visoko, but any Zagreb resident will recognise both the king and the year. The year marks the start of the civil part of Zagreb, upon the decision of King Bela IV. 

Lipa might love the company of animals or people. But when it won’t be happy in the company of other trees. That’s why it thrives when it’s all by itself….

…or in the company of other lipas. 

The lipa lore and importance predate all of these events. How could the unchanged name survive the differences in time and space across the Slavic countries? We share or at least recognise a lot of words from other Slavic languages, but a word that is exactly the same all over is quite a rarity. The word lipa survived because it was the name of a sacred tree - that’s what the Old Slavs considered the lipa. 

Ilirski Trg square with 12 lipas. If 12 is a sacred number, and lipa is a sacred tree, could this place have a dash of ancient mysticism?

Centuries have passed, and the importance of lipa trees has somewhat faded away. It still has a strong symbolism, especially due to the Gupčeva lipa, but people generally don’t think of it as sacred anymore. Or even life-bringing. That is, until we walk around Zagreb in the month of lipanj, and the enchanting scent pulls us back to the dawn of the days and then returns us to our time in a split second. That’s too quick for us to remember it, but we will remember the scent of June in Zagreb.  

From the old town to the modern neighbourhoods, you will spot lipas all around the city.

Author: Iva Silla