The idea of creation of the first sculpture of the Sun / “The Grounded Sun” in Zagreb belongs to Croatian artist Ivan Kožarić.
In far gone 1971 bronze sphere of 2 meter diameter was installed in front of Croatian National theatre.
The Sun has been relocated around town multiple times and today it proudly stands near the very centre of town just 200 metres away from Zagreb central square in Bogovićeva street.
In 2004 Davor Preis has thought of expanding the idea, he has projected and brought to life the idea of the Nine Views installation: 9 planets of the Solar system were made from stainless steel in scale to the size of the Sun and installed around town in the correspondingly proportional distance to Sun and other planets of the Solar system.
The scale of the system was found to be 1:680 000 000.
Under every sculpture there is a metal plate with information about planets name, it’s diameter and it’s average distance from the Sun.
Consequently Zagreb has received its own miniature of the Solar system out of 9 separate planet installations called Nine Views together with the “The Grounded Sun” of Ivan Kožarić.
Planets are scattered around town: closest planet to the sun is Mercury which is located 75 meters from The Grounded Sun and the furthest is Pluto almost 8 km away from Sun.
Location of Sun and planets in Zagreb, Croatia:
- Sun – Bogovićeva ulica 1B
- Mercury – Margaretska ulica 3 – 75 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Venus – Trg bana Josipa Jelačića 3 – 141,1 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Earth – Varšavska ulica 9 – 193,7 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Mars – Tkalčićeva ulica 21 – 295,2 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Jupiter – Voćarska ulica 71 – 1176 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Saturn – Račićeva ulica 1 – 1851,2 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Uranus – Siget 9 – 3718,2 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Neptune – Kozari 17 – 5833,5 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
- Pluto – Aleja Bologne – 7658,6 meters from The Grounded Sun of Zagreb
Another monument dedicated to Sun and planets is located in Zadar city, but of a much smaller scale – that place is called Sun Greeting and is considered one of the favourite places in Zadar.