If you're passing through Bogovićeva Street or take a coffee break at one of the numerous cafés, you are bound to notice the intriguing bronze sculpture called The Grounded Sun (orig. Prizemljeno sunce) by artist Ivan Kožarić (1921–2020), which was placed there in 1994. Ten years later, artist Davor Preis (born in 1966) created the ambiental installation Nine Views, which, together with the recently thoroughly restored Grounded Sun comprises the ambiental art installation called The Grounded Solar System.
Preis's planets are stainless steel spheres, whose diameters were determined in reference to Kožarić's sculpture. In addition, steel planet sculptures are placed at distances to the Sun that are proportionate, so that each accurately reflects the actual distances of the individual planets from the Sun as their central star. Thus, you will find the Mercury sculpture in Margaretska Street, 88 m from the Sun, Venus at Trg bana Josipa Jelačića, the city's central square, Earth at 211 meters away in Varšavska Street and so on. The most distant is Pluto, which the international astronomical community demoted from the status of a planet, placing it into the category of planetoids, and its distance to the Sun in the Grounded Solar System is 8,800 meters.
Academician Ivan Kožarić, who died in late 2020, is an internationally recognized, award winning artist whose works have found their place in many museums and private collections around the world.