BorongajFrom an airfield and tin-can blocks to a university campus

Borongaj at a glance

• To the main square by ZET34 min
• To the centre as the crow flies4.2 km
• Residents, MO Bruno Bušić (2021)²⁵4,394
• Estate built¹⁶1964

Where Borongaj is

Borongaj is a neighbourhood in the east of Zagreb, in the city district of Peščenica – Žitnjak.^24,25 The housing estate between the railway along Branimirova and Borongajska cesta is officially the local committee (mjesni odbor) Bruno Bušić, while the campus, Borongajski lug and the Lugovi streets belong to the neighbouring committee of Borongaj – Lugovi.^24,25,26 Both are part of the settlement of Zagreb, so Borongaj is not a separate settlement.²⁴

The Bruno Bušić boundary runs along the south side of Branimirova, east of Svetice, to the edge of the Maksimir district, then south-west to Borongajska cesta and back along its south side.²⁴ The Borongaj tram terminus and the parish called Zagreb – Borongaj are not in this area. They are north of the railway, in the Maksimir district, in the Maksimirska naselja committee.^2,28,44

For and against: life in Borongaj

What life is like in Borongaj

Borongaj's best-known buildings are the "limenke" (tin cans), prefabricated blocks of flats built with the YU61 (JU-61) system. With Folnegovićevo and Zapruđe, Borongaj is one of the main examples of the system in Zagreb.^13,2 It was designed in 1961 by Bogdan Budimirov, Željko Solar and Dragutin Stilinović and developed at the building firm Jugomont.^12,13 The blocks were clad in aluminium.¹² According to the Zagreb Society of Architects, YU61 delivered large numbers of cheap flats quickly at a time of housing shortage, to a higher standard and a lower price than other builders.¹²

ZGportal counts the estate south of the railway among the oldest housing estates in Zagreb.² Besides the blocks there are many family houses with gardens, and new buildings are going up nearby, according to the school's 2023/24 annual plan. The same plan says Borongaj is proud of its green spaces and many parks.¹⁶

Aero Borongaj is unlike the tin cans. Tomislav Odak designed this late-1980s estate at Borongaj aerodrom 10–10D and 14–16A.^18,19

In April 2025 a proposal called "Šesti kat" (sixth floor) suggested adding a storey to existing blocks to pay for lifts, solar panels and energy renovation. Večernji list reported that 260 new flats could be added in Borongaj alone. At the time it was only a proposal.⁵²

Bruno Bušić committee

Residential Borongaj between Branimirova and Borongajska cesta, with streets such as Borongaj aerodrom, Vidrićeva, Ksavera Šandora Gjalskog, Jure Kaštelana and Ante Jakšića.²⁴ It is based at Ulica Ante Jakšića 29a. Its 68.7 ha had 4,394 residents at the 2021 census, 177 fewer than in 2011.^25,27

Borongaj – Lugovi committee

East of it, out to Slavonska avenija, Ulica grada Gospića and Getaldićeva: the campus at Borongajska cesta 83A–83G, Borongajski lug, the Lugovi streets (Beramska, Grožnjanska, Kanfanarska, Žminjska and others), Getaldićeva 1–5 and Vukomerec 1–42. It is based at Vukomerec 41 and had 2,068 residents in 2021.^24,26

Where the name Borongaj comes from

The name goes back to Baran, the oldest known canon of Zagreb. According to the Croatian Biographical Lexicon, today's Borongaj appears in the records of the Kaptol (the cathedral chapter) as Barangaj until the 16th century, probably after him.¹ Baran is first recorded around 1193, and after his death around 1217 his estates passed to the Kaptol.¹ ZGportal says the neighbourhood took its name from a wood called Borongaj, and the wood from the canon Boran or Baran.²

The linguist Petar Skok, as quoted by Marko Grčić, derived the old name from Boronj gaj, "Boron's grove".³ Sabljar's gazetteer of 1866 lists Borongaj – Lugovi with six inhabitants.⁴

A short history of Borongaj

In 1899 Zagreb took in new tax municipalities, Borongaj among them.⁵ In 1923 a new marshalling yard was built at Borongaj to relieve the main station; its shunting work passed to the new Ranžirni kolodvor in 1978.⁸ On 15 April of the same year Stjepan Radić's HRSS party held assemblies in Zagreb, and the one at Borongaj is known as the Borongaj assembly.⁹

The Borongaj military airfield was built in 1926 with a 750-metre runway, and from 1928 it also handled civil traffic.^6,7 The first passenger planes landed in February 1928, and Aeroput opened its first domestic route, Zagreb to Belgrade, with French Potez 29 aircraft.⁷ The hangars were finished in 1932, and the passenger building in 1928–1929 or 1933, depending on the source.^6,10 Domestic flights resumed in 1946, from Borongaj among other fields, but in 1947 civil traffic moved to the military airfield at Lučko because of unsuitable conditions at Borongaj.^6,7

Between 1956 and 1962 the Zagreb Urban Planning Institute drew up a partial plan for Borongaj, one of many new estates it planned.¹¹ In 1963 the tram was extended from Harambašićeva to Borongaj, to a terminus north of the railway.^14,2 The school dates the estate to 1964.¹⁶ On 1 October that year a primary school, then named after Božidar Maslarić, opened in Borongaj-sjever on market-garden land, with 806 pupils enrolled.¹⁵ After the flood of late October 1964 the Urban Planning Institute named Borongaj south of the airfield as one of three sites for emergency barracks for flood victims.¹⁷

In autumn 1991 there were no classes from 15 September to 22 October. The school gives the immediate danger of war, the lack of shelters and the nearby barracks as the reasons.¹⁵ The old airfield, then part of the Končar factory, was registered as protected heritage on 24 May 2004.¹⁰ The Croatian Army's Borongaj barracks were handed to the science ministry in 2006 for conversion into a campus, and on 12 October 2007 the university campus opened in the converted buildings. Teaching began for 4,500 students and 200 professors of three faculties: Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Transport and Traffic Sciences, and Croatian Studies.^22,20,21

The campus urban plan was based on a public competition the university held in 2011, and was adopted on 17 April 2013.²² In 2014 the government agreed to give the land to the university.^23,46 The summary of the plan's 2019 amendments says that not one of its planned buildings or roads had been built since it was adopted.²² In June 2026 the firm N3 Capital Partners proposed a €500 million public-private model: the university would keep the land, and an investor would build the facilities and run them for 50 years. The proposal was repeated on HRT on 24 October. It has not been approved, and there is no tender.^48,50

Students have been asking for a safe way across the railway to the campus since 2011. An informal path to the campus was asphalted on 9 March 2026, with lighting promised.^46,47

1. to 16th c.Kaptol records call the place Barangaj, probably after canon Baran.¹
2. 1899The Borongaj tax municipality is joined to Zagreb.⁵
3. 1923A marshalling yard is built, and Stjepan Radić's Borongaj assembly is held on 15 April.^8,9
4. 1926A military airfield with a 750-metre runway is built.⁶
5. 1928Aeroput opens its first domestic air route, Zagreb to Belgrade.⁷
6. 1963The tram is extended from Harambašićeva to the Borongaj terminus.¹⁴
7. 1964The estate is built, according to the school, and the primary school opens on 1 October.^16,15
8. 1990/91At the residents' wish, the school is renamed after Dobriša Cesarić.¹⁵
9. 2004The airfield's passenger building and hangars are registered as protected heritage.¹⁰
10. 2007The Borongaj university campus opens in the former barracks.^20,21
11. 2013The campus plan is adopted; by 2019 none of its planned buildings or roads has been built.²²
12. 2024Zagreb's first Park & Ride zone opens at Borongaj.³³

What to see in Borongaj

• The old Borongaj airfield

  The passenger building, later the Končar factory's administration block, and the hangars on Borongajska cesta have been protected since 2004 as the industrial landscape "Aerodrom Borongaj". The protection rules require the building to be kept intact and the hangars restored to their original form and structure.¹⁰

• Aero Borongaj

  Tomislav Odak's late-1980s housing on Borongaj aerodrom. Ivo Maroević described its façades of broken white brick, rounded metal roofs and corner loggias.^18,19

• Little Prince park

  On Vidrićeva, with Nada Orel's sculpture Mali princ u Zagrebu (The Little Prince in Zagreb).⁴³

• Borongaj campus

  At Borongajska cesta 83A–83G, in the former barracks. In September 2026 it held students of Croatian Studies, Education and Rehabilitation Sciences and Transport and Traffic Sciences, plus some from Economics and TVZ, the polytechnic, while many barracks buildings still stood empty.^24,49

• Tržnica Volovčica

  The round market building at Trg Volovčica 1, in nearby Volovčica. According to the Nepoznati Zagreb site, it was built in 1964 to a design by the architect Josip Tušek.^38,39

Did you know?

• 1Until the school gym was finished in 1966/67, PE lessons were held on the former airfield, about ten minutes' walk away, the school writes in its history.¹⁵
• 2In 1971/72 the school taught with closed-circuit television, the first such use in Zagreb according to the Školske novine report the school quotes. Its visitors included American experts in educational television.¹⁵
• 3Matko Meštrović showed Borongaj to Udo Kultermann, who wrote about the estate in Neues Bauen in der Welt and judged that the system could have significant consequences for housing worldwide.¹²
• 4The writer Mladen Kušec grew up in Željeznička kolonija, where the Borongaj tram terminus was built, and still regretted that the terminus was given that name.⁵³
• 5The Borongaj scouts have worn burgundy scarves since 1972, and in 1979 their 39th company was named the best scout unit in Croatia.⁴¹

Everyday life in Borongaj

Renting in Borongaj

Nearby neighbourhoods

• RavniceNeighbourhood guide
• VolovčicaNeighbourhood guide
• FerenščicaNeighbourhood guide
• PeščenicaNeighbourhood guide
• MaksimirNeighbourhood guide
• SigečicaNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Donja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Maksimir
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Borongaj