The idea and realization of the installation of the first sculpture of the Sun in Zagreb belongs to Croatian artist Ivan Kozaric.
In 1971, the bronze sphere with a diameter of 2 meters was installed in front of the Croatian National Theatre.
The sun has been moved around the city several times and today it is located in the very center on Bogovićeva Street, 200 meters from the main square of Zagreb.
In 2004, Davor Preis came up with an idea to expand the idea, he designed and produced the installation Nine Views: 9 planets of the solar system were made of stainless steel in scale to the size of the Sun and installed around the city at a distance proportional to the distance between the Sun and the planets of the solar system.
The scale of the system is 1: 680,000,000,000
Under each sculpture is a metal plate with information about the name of the planet, its diameter and average distance from the Sun.
As a result, Zagreb got its own miniature of the solar system from 9 separate installations of Nine Views planets together with Ivan Kozarić’s “terrestrial sun”.
The planets are scattered around the city: the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, is located 75 meters away from The Grounded Sun, while the most distant Pluto is almost 8 km away from the Sun.
Location of the sun and planets in Zagreb, Croatia:
- Sun – Bogovićeva ulica 1B
- Mercury – Margaretska ulica 3 – 75 meters from the Zagreb Sun
- Venus – Trg bana Josipa Jelačića 3 – 141.1 meters from the Sun
- Earth – Varšavska ulica 9 – 193.7 meters from the Sun
- Mars – Tkalčićeva ulica 21 – 295.2 meters from the Sun
- Juriter – Voćarska ulica 71 – 1176 meters from the Sun
- Saturn – Račićeva ulica 1 – 1851.2 meters from the Sun
- Uranus – Siget 9 – 3718.2 meters from the Sun
- Neptune – Kozari 17 – 5833.5 meters from the Sun
- Pluto – Aleja Bologne – 7658.6 meters from the Sun
Another monument to the sun and planets is located in the city of Zadar, but on a much smaller scale – this place is called Greetings to the Sun and one of the favorite places in Zadar