Pokraj fontane stoji novi spomenik koji još nisam stigla dobro pogledati.

Because pokraj requires the genitive case.

• Basic form: fontana = fountain
• After pokraj: fontane

So:

• pokraj fontane = beside the fountain / next to the fountain

This is very common in Croatian: certain prepositions always trigger a specific case, and pokraj is one of the prepositions that takes the genitive.

Pokraj means beside, next to, or by.

It is very close in meaning to pored and often also to kraj. In many everyday contexts, these can be interchangeable:

• pokraj fontane
• pored fontane
• kraj fontane

All can mean next to the fountain.

That said:

• pokraj can sound a little more formal or literary than pored
• pored is very common in everyday speech
• kraj can also mean at the edge of / by / near, depending on context

In this sentence, pokraj simply sets the location.

In Croatian, stajati / stoji is often used for objects that are upright and fixed in place, not just for people.

So spomenik stoji naturally means something like:

• a monument stands
• a monument is standing
• there is a monument standing

It sounds more vivid and descriptive than just using je.

Compare:

• Pokraj fontane stoji novi spomenik. = Beside the fountain stands a new monument.
• Pokraj fontane je novi spomenik. = There is a new monument beside the fountain.

Both are possible, but stoji paints more of a visual scene.

Novi spomenik is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.

• spomenik = monument
• novi = new

The adjective novi has to agree with spomenik in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

So:

• novi spomenik = a new monument

This is a basic Croatian agreement pattern: adjectives match the nouns they describe.

Koji refers back to spomenik.

So the structure is:

• novi spomenik
• koji još nisam stigla dobro pogledati

= the new monument that I still haven’t managed to look at properly

Why koji?

Because it stands for spomenik, and in this clause it functions as the direct object of pogledati. Since spomenik is a masculine inanimate noun, its accusative singular has the same form as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: spomenik
• accusative: spomenik
• relative pronoun form here: koji

If the noun were masculine animate, you would expect a different accusative form, such as kojeg/kojega.

Yes, stići literally can mean to arrive or to reach, but with an infinitive it often means:

• to manage to
• to get around to
• to have time to

So:

• nisam stigla dobro pogledati means
  I haven’t managed to get a good look at it or
  I haven’t had time to look at it properly

This is a very common Croatian pattern:

• Nisam stigao jesti. = I didn’t have time to eat.
• Jesi li stigla nazvati? = Did you manage to call?

So here, it is not really about physical arrival.

Because the speaker is female.

In Croatian past tense, the l-participle agrees with the subject’s gender and number:

• stigao = masculine singular
• stigla = feminine singular
• stigli = masculine personal plural or mixed group
• stigle = feminine plural

So nisam stigla tells us the speaker is a woman.

A man would say:

• još nisam stigao dobro pogledati

Here još means still or yet, depending on how you translate it.

So:

• još nisam stigla = I still haven’t managed
• or I haven’t managed yet

In negative sentences, još often gives that not yet / still not sense.

Examples:

• Još nisam jela. = I haven’t eaten yet.
• Još ne znam. = I still don’t know.

In this sentence, it suggests that the speaker may look at the monument later, but up to now, she has not done so properly.

Dobro is an adverb here, meaning well, properly, or carefully.

So:

• pogledati = to look at / take a look at
• dobro pogledati = to look at properly / to get a good look at

The speaker is not saying she has never seen the monument at all. The idea is more:

• she has not examined it properly
• she has not had a good look at it yet

In natural English, this is often best translated as:

• I haven’t had a good look at it yet
• I haven’t properly looked at it yet

Because it depends on stigla in the pattern stići + infinitive.

The structure is:

• nisam stigla pogledati
  literally: I didn’t manage to look at

So pogledati stays in the infinitive because it is the action the speaker did not manage to do.

This is similar to English:

• I managed to see
• I didn’t have time to visit
• I failed to notice

Croatian often uses an infinitive after verbs like this.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

Starting with Pokraj fontane puts the location first and sets the scene:

• Pokraj fontane stoji novi spomenik...
  = Beside the fountain stands a new monument...

This sounds natural and slightly descriptive or narrative.

You could also say:

• Novi spomenik stoji pokraj fontane.

That version is also correct, but the emphasis is a bit different:

• location-first = scene-setting
• subject-first = more neutral statement about the monument

So the original word order is chosen for focus and style, not because the other order would be wrong.