Lenuci Horseshoe or the Green Horseshoe ( , ; " Lenuci " is also sometimes spelled " Lenuzzi " ) is a U-shaped system of city squares with parks in downtown ( Donji grad ) Zagreb , Croatia . The horseshoe was conceived in 1882 by Croatian urbanist Milan Lenuci . The parks were designed between 1883 and 1887 , at a time when today 's Donji grad formed the southern outskirts of Zagreb . The construction was helped by the efforts to rebuild the city after the 1880 Zagreb earthquake , and in 1889 the entire horseshoe was finished — its two ends were connected by the newly built Zagreb Botanical Garden . The park system consists of seven squares aligned on three straight lines
1880 Zagreb earthquake
1880 Zagreb earthquake
Lenuci Horseshoe