BrezovicaA baroque castle, a parish church and a Carmel in Zagreb's far south

Brezovica at a glance

• To the main square by ZET60 min
• To the centre as the crow flies10.8 km
• Residents, Brezovica settlement (2021)³⁹642
• Residents, Brezovica local committee (2021)³⁴4,153

Where Brezovica is

Four areas share the name Brezovica: a city district, a local committee, a statistical settlement and a neighbourhood. The city district of Brezovica is the southernmost and mostly rural part of the City of Zagreb: 127.3 km², 12,046 residents (2021), 12 local committees (mjesni odbori) and 20 separate settlements, nearly all outside the settlement of Zagreb itself.^{31,32,36,39,35} The first of those committees, Brezovica, has 4,153 residents (2021) and takes in parts of the settlements of Brezovica and Kupinečki Kraljevec plus Desprim, Drežnik Brezovički, Goli Breg, Grančari, Hudi Bitek and Zadvorsko.^34,37,38 The statistical settlement of Brezovica covers 4.50 km² and had 642 residents in 2021; it has been counted separately only since 1991, when it was split off from Zadvorsko. Not all of it lies in the district of the same name: part of it, including Brezovička cesta 48E to 84B, belongs to the Botinec local committee in the Novi Zagreb – zapad district.^{39,40,41,38,43}

The neighbourhood of Brezovica has no official boundary, so this guide uses a working definition of its own: the village centre along Brezovička cesta between Golobreška and Desprimska ulica, with the castle, its park and pond, the parish church, the Carmelite convent, the Caritas house, the school and the football pitch. On our reading of the decision on local committees, all of it lies in the Brezovica committee, although the Ministry of Culture and Media places the church "at the very end of the settlement of Goli Breg".^38,29,30,5

For and against: life in Brezovica

What life is like in Brezovica

The City describes the district as scattered settlements of family houses with farm buildings, and large farmed areas such as the Brezovica field (Brezovičko polje).^31,32 In 2011 the district had Zagreb's largest households, 3.4 people on average, and its second-largest average home, 89.2 m², which the City reads as a sign of family-house building.³² In the village centre family houses of up to three storeys, with outbuildings, mostly line the streets. Between Golobreška, Desprimska and Brezovička cesta lies an unbuilt block of about 22 hectares, mostly farmed, crossed by a channel of the Moćirat stream that ends in the castle pond.^29,30

Between the 2011 and 2021 censuses the settlement of Brezovica grew from 594 to 642 residents.³⁹ In 2024 the people behind the Novi naručitelji community art project wrote that new families have been moving into the district, especially since the Zagreb earthquake.⁵⁰ Under the Desprim urban plan, adopted by the City Assembly in December 2025, a new neighbourhood with family houses, a nursery and a clinic is to be built on 15 hectares off Desprimska ulica, for about 900 to 1,200 people.^48,49

Where the name Brezovica comes from

According to Pavao Krmpotić, who studied the historical place names of Turopolje, the name Brezovica is formed from breza, birch, with the suffix -ovica.⁵¹ According to Croatian Wikipedia, the Ivanović family, who held the estate from the late 14th century, added "de Brezovica" to their name.⁴²

A short history of Brezovica

Stone remains of graves, settlements and roads have been found in the district, most of them Roman.² Brezovica is first mentioned in 1277, when Ivan, lord of Okić, gave his Brezovica estate and chapel to the Cistercians; the parish first appears in 1334, in a list of the Zagreb diocese's parishes.^2,10,3,4 From 1522 records mention a fortified castle held by Katarina Ivanović.^2,10 Later owners were the Mrnjavčić family, then the Zrinskis, and from the late 17th century the Draškovićs.^2,7,10

As the parish's patrons, the Draškovićs had today's church built in 1756, on the site of a wooden one, and paid for it.^1,3,4,5 The castle was built in the 18th century, and in 1776 its main hall was painted with frescoes of battles of the Seven Years' War.^1,2,8 Ivan VIII Drašković inherited Brezovica in 1766, and in 1783 he left the army and retired to the estate.^11,12,14 Janko Drašković, born in 1770 and later a leader of the Illyrian movement, got his basic education from private tutors on the family estates, Brezovica among them.^13,14 According to the Croatian Biographical Lexicon, he later sold Brezovica.¹³

The Zagreb Archdiocese bought the castle in 1912 as a summer residence for Archbishop Antun Bauer, and from 1915 the architect Viktor Kovačić worked on its interiors.^7,8 The first Carmelite nuns arrived in 1939 and lived in the castle, and Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac canonically founded their community the same year. The nuns moved into a new convent in 1944.^15,16 The state took the castle in 1946, and from 1963 to 1965 it was converted for catering.⁷ According to a 1993 Večernji list article, as summarised in the Faculty of Humanities' research, the castle was then run by the hotel company Splendid, with rooms, a restaurant and a disco club, and the government's office for displaced people had housed about fifty people from Vukovar there.⁷ The castle went back to the archdiocese in 2006.⁷

In October 1994 the Caritas house "Blaženi Alojzije Stepinac" opened. According to the City, it was built during the war from donations alone, for children who were victims of the war.^18,2 The earthquake of 29 December 2020 badly damaged the parish church's towers and interior, and the church closed.⁴ After structural renovation, which according to the Ministry of Culture and Media cost €3,560,121.50, it reopened on 21 June 2026 with a Mass for its 270th anniversary.^5,6

1. 1277Ivan, lord of Okić, gives the Brezovica estate and chapel to the Cistercians. It is Brezovica's first mention.^2,10
2. 1334First written record of the parish, in a list of the Zagreb diocese's parishes.^3,4
3. 1756The Drašković patrons build today's parish church.^1,3,4
4. 1775An assembly of four lodges founds Ivan VIII Drašković's Masonic system on 22 October; the Croatian Biographical Lexicon places it in Brezovica.^11,12
5. 1776The castle's main hall is painted with frescoes of battles of the Seven Years' War.^1,2,8
6. 1912The Zagreb Archdiocese buys the castle as the archbishop's summer residence.^7,8
7. 1939Stepinac canonically founds the Carmel on Christmas Eve; the nuns first live in the castle.^15,16
8. 1946The state takes the castle from the archdiocese.⁷
9. 1991Brezovica becomes a separate statistical settlement, split off from Zadvorsko.^40,41
10. 1994The Caritas house "Blaženi Alojzije Stepinac" opens in October.¹⁸
11. 2012The castle with its chapel, park, avenue, pond and farm buildings enters the Register of Cultural Property.⁹
12. 2026The parish church, closed after the 2020 earthquake, reopens on 21 June.^4,5,6

What to see in Brezovica

• Dvorac Brezovica

  A baroque castle with one upper floor, on a U-shaped plan with two cylindrical towers on the front, in a large park with rare old trees.^2,10,1 According to Hrvatski vojnik in 2000, canvas copies of the main hall's frescoes are kept in the Zagreb City Museum.¹⁰ A neo-baroque tiled stove that Viktor Kovačić ordered from the Viennese firm of Edward Fessler in 1916 survives.^7,8 The chapel in the park was consecrated in 1713 to St Donatus, an unusual saint for the region, and later changed its patron saints.⁷

• Remains of the old castle

  Opposite the castle, across the canal, remains of the double ramparts and a round tower of the old Brezovica stronghold still stand.² A division of inheritance from 1551 describes it ringed by a double rampart, with a round masonry tower on the east side.⁷

• Parish church of the Assumption

  A hall church with a rounded apse and two slender cylindrical towers of 1768, individually protected as cultural property.^2,4,5 The sculptor Franjo Straub made the main altar and pulpit in 1762.^3,5

• Karmel

  The convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns has its own building, separate from the castle; the nuns moved in on 14 April 1944.^15,16 According to HKM, a statue of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac by Tomislav Kršnjavi was blessed on the approach to the convent on 15 April 2026.¹⁶

• Caritas house "Blaženi Alojzije Stepinac"

  Residential and day care for children and adults with physical or mental disabilities, with a sensory therapy park. The Breza nursery works inside it.^18,22

Did you know?

• 1According to magazines of 1929 cited in the Faculty of Humanities' research, King Alexander I Karađorđević and his family were due to stay at the castle.⁸
• 2Nives Opačić wrote in Vijenac in 2020 that the Carmelite nuns turn surplus fruit from a local grower into preserves they call karmelada, such as apple and orange.¹⁷
• 3The oldest book in the OŠ Brezovica library dates from 1895. For the school's 170th anniversary the librarian compiled a small Kajkavian dictionary of the local dialects of Brezovica and part of Turopolje.²¹

Everyday life in Brezovica

Renting in Brezovica

Nearby neighbourhoods

• BotinecNeighbourhood guide
• BlatoNeighbourhood guide
• LučkoNeighbourhood guide
• RemetinecNeighbourhood guide
• Sveta KlaraNeighbourhood guide
• LaništeNeighbourhood guide

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

Questions about life in Brezovica