Toast to century of stars, sovereigns

East met West and often went for cocktails afterwards in Zagreb's Esplanade hotel.

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The most glamorous and storied hotel in the Balkans is 100 years old this month and is still packing in the stars from Shakira to David Beckham.

Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev were both guests in its heyday with a galaxy of Hollywood legends from Elizabeth Taylor to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock crossing the Iron Curtain to hang out in its Art Deco bar.

Others came to gamble in its casino - the only one allowed in then Communist Yugoslavia.

Robert Mitchum, Pierce Brosnan and Richard Chamberlain all starred in films shot in the hotel, which was built close to the Croatian capital's main railway station to accommodate passengers on the Orient Express, the luxury train that ran between Paris and Istanbul.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II loved its Dalmatian seafood dishes so much she asked to see the chef before presenting him with a gold coin.