BlatoA village on an 1822 map, an unfinished hospital and geothermal wells

Blato at a glance

• To the main square by ZET53 min
• To the centre as the crow flies6.9 km
• Residents (2021)^2,42,869
• Committee area²670 ha

Where Blato is

Blato is in Novi Zagreb, in the city district of Novi Zagreb – zapad. Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Blato through the Blato local committee (mjesni odbor), the district's first. The committee area covers 670 hectares, and its seat is at Karlovačka cesta 195b. It is part of the settlement of Zagreb; until 1991 Blato was a separate statistical settlement.^2,3,12

The committee area runs from the Sava dike in the north, across Jadranska avenija and Karlovačka cesta and over the railway, to Brezovička cesta in the south, and the Sava–Odra relief canal forms part of its boundary.³ Remetinec lies to the east and Jarun across the Sava, and the other neighbouring committees are Botinec, Lučko, Hrvatski Leskovac and Brezovica.^3,4

For and against: life in Blato

What life is like in Blato

Croatian Wikipedia calls Blato a less urbanised part of the district, and English Wikipedia says it is mostly single-family houses with the occasional semi-detached one.^7,6 In June 2025 tportal found rows of houses and smaller newer buildings there, and reported that more and more people, mostly young families, were moving in.²¹ The committee area's population rose from 2,553 at the 2011 census to 2,869 in 2021, up 12.4%.^4,2

In March 2026 Bauštela reported that VDM Nekretnine was putting up a 33,400 m² block on Karlovačka cesta with 182 flats and 57 apartments, on two underground and nine above-ground floors. Work began in late summer 2025 and is due to finish in May 2027.²² On the south side of the road, the KARL PARK project has 117 flats in three sections, and the developer gave October 2026 for completion.²³

A 2009 study for the City describes the Golf & Country Club Zagreb housing development right next to the hospital. It then had 37 houses of 120, 210 and 260 m², heated by ground-source heat pumps, with more being built.³¹ War veterans were given land in Blato by the City for 30 houses, the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs wrote in 2013.²⁵

Where the name Blato comes from

The City of Zagreb writes that the village's name describes exactly the soil it stands on, and the linguist Branimir Brgles counts Blato (from blato, mud) among Zagreb place names that come from words for marshy ground.^1,8

Brgles also finds a place called Blata in 13th-century charters, but he doesn't say it is this village.⁸

A short history of Blato

The village of Blato appears on an 1822 map of Zagreb and its surroundings.¹ The Remetinec-Blato parish's website gives an older trace: the Zagreb chapter's canonical visitations of 1741 record a roadside cross in Blato. According to a legend the parish tells, in Napoleon's time several soldiers building the road died where the chapel now stands, and three oak crosses were put up in their memory. In the late 19th century a statue of Our Lady of the Snows (Gospa Snježna) replaced the crosses, and in 1934, on the villagers' initiative, a chapel was built on the spot.⁹

In 1955 the municipality of Remetinec was founded, with Blato first on the list of its settlements. As early as 1957 the municipality became part of Zagreb's inner urban area.^11,1 The parish of Majka Božja Remetinec-Blato was founded on 20 December 1964.^9,10 From 1974 to 1990 the same territory was the municipality of Novi Zagreb.¹ In 1991 Blato was merged statistically into the settlement of Zagreb.¹²

The University Hospital project was launched in 1982. It was funded by a citizens' levy, 1.5% of personal income from 1983 to 1987 and then a second five-year levy. Building work started on 11 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of Zagreb's liberation, and was due to finish in 1990. When the second levy ended, the investor ran out of money on 31 December 1992.^13,14 According to its last director, the hospital was then 45% complete.¹³

In May 2025 storage buildings in the complex caught fire. The Ministry of Health then said the City was still formally responsible for the site because the handover, begun on 14 May, had not yet been signed.¹⁷ On 22 October 2025 the Ministry signed a €237.5 million contract, including VAT, to design and build the first phase of the National Children's Hospital on the site.^16,15

1. 1741The chapter's canonical visitations record a roadside cross in Blato.⁹
2. 1822The village of Blato appears on a map of Zagreb and its surroundings.¹
3. 1934The chapel of Our Lady of the Snows is built on the villagers' initiative; the first Mass is said on 10 July.⁹
4. 1955Blato becomes part of the new municipality of Remetinec.^11,1
5. 1964The parish of Majka Božja Remetinec-Blato is founded.^9,10
6. 1976NK Blato football club is founded.²⁴
7. 1985Building work on the University Hospital begins.^13,14
8. 1991Blato is merged statistically into the settlement of Zagreb.¹²
9. 1992The hospital's investor runs out of money and building stops.¹³
10. 1997Water from the Zagreb geothermal field starts heating the hospital's storage buildings.³¹
11. 2010The Montfortian missionaries' monastery is blessed.²⁶
12. 2022The new branch building of OŠ Savski gaj opens.^20,5
13. 2025The contract for the first phase of the National Children's Hospital is signed.^16,15

What to see in Blato

• The unfinished University Hospital

  It stands between the Sava to the north, Jadranska avenija to the south and the Sava–Odra canal to the west, and is reached by Ulica Blato, about 1.7 km west of the Remetinec junction.⁴ It was designed by Jurij Princes, Štefan Kacin and Bogdan Špindler of the Slovenian firm Biro 71.^14,13 Its total floor area is estimated at more than 200,000 m².^13,15 In 2020 the Ethnographic Museum Zagreb used part of its storage space.³³

• Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows

  A single-nave chapel of 8 × 5 metres, built in 1934 where the old crosses stood and blessed that year by the Archbishop of Zagreb, Antun Bauer. A 19th-century statue of Our Lady of the Snows by an unknown master is specially venerated there.⁹

• The Montfortian monastery

  At Ulica Mladena Fiolića 11. The Montfortian missionaries, in Croatia since 1976, began building it on 7 March 2009, and Bishop Valentin Pozaić blessed the monastery and its chapel on 31 October 2010.²⁶

• The Sava–Odra relief canal

  The canal, 32 km long and 200 metres wide, forms part of the committee area's boundary. On 8 August 2023 Večernji list reported that, as a flood wave from Slovenia approached, the canal had been opened at 6 pm on the Friday, and that the water was 2 to 4 metres deep in places.^35,3

• The grove behind the hospital

  According to Punkufer, the grove behind the hospital's western wing, across the meadow towards the golf course, has barbecue spots but no running water, toilets or shelters.³⁴

Did you know?

• 1In April 2008 the City of Zagreb and INA set up Terme Zagreb, owned in equal shares, for a planned health-tourism project in Blato. A 2009 study for the City says the geothermal field there is fully ready to be exploited.³¹
• 2On 6 May 2013 a memorial plaque was unveiled in Blato to Dr Juraj Njavro, a surgeon at Vukovar hospital and Croatia's first minister for war veterans.²⁵
• 3According to the parish website, a wooden cross designed by the Blato architect Ivan Vučković was put up on the villagers' initiative and blessed on 5 August 1999.⁹

Everyday life in Blato

Renting in Blato

Nearby neighbourhoods

• RemetinecNeighbourhood guide
• BotinecNeighbourhood guide
• LaništeNeighbourhood guide
• JarunNeighbourhood guide
• Savski gajNeighbourhood guide
• GrediceNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: New Zagreb – West and Brezovica
• Compare districts: New Zagreb – West and New Zagreb – East
• Compare districts: New Zagreb – West and Podsused – Vrapče
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Blato