BukovacA winegrowing village above Maksimir that became a neighbourhood of family houses

Bukovac at a glance

• To the main square by ZET35 min
• To the centre as the crow flies4.0 km
• Residents (2021)³6,658
• Committee area³182.33 ha

Where Bukovac is

Bukovac lies directly north of the Maksimir park-forest, and its southern boundary follows the forest's north and west edges.^4,7 Officially it is the Bukovac local committee (mjesni odbor), the first of the eleven committees of the Maksimir city district, which takes in the old village of Gornji Bukovac and the newer streets around it, among them Oboj, Trnac, Prilesje, Kosa and Požarinje.^3,4 The committee is part of the settlement of Zagreb, so Bukovac is not a separate statistical settlement.⁴ Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Bukovac through that committee.

Donji Bukovac, the old lower village along today's Bukovačka cesta, is not in the Bukovac committee.^5,4 Bukovačka cesta is split among four committees, Mašićeva, Dobri Dol, Maksimir and Remete, and the longest, upper stretch belongs to Remete.⁴ Remete is the neighbour to the north and to the west, beyond the Putrenjak stream and Bukovačka cesta, and Maksimir park lies to the south.^4,7 To the east, beyond the Bliznec, Dotrščina begins; the official boundary there follows the Dotrščina stream.^7,4

For and against: life in Bukovac

What life is like in Bukovac

Bukovac is a neighbourhood of family houses. ZGportal says they predominate, and the school's history ties the settlement's growth to people building their own homes.^41,2 According to Mapiranje kvarta's 2025 walk, modern houses and "urban villas" have been filling the area for decades, with orchards, meadows and copses left between them.⁷ According to the same walk, the central part lies on a gently rolling plateau cut by shallow hollows.⁷

At the 2011 census the committee area had 6,859 residents in 2,319 households, almost three people per household, and 2,820 dwellings.²¹ In 2019 the City listed it as the second-largest committee in the Maksimir district by population.³⁵

The city's master plan lists the vineyards of Gornji Bukovac and Brezinščak as protective green space, and allows only vineyard cottages (klijeti) of up to 20 m² in protected vineyards.³¹ The local societies are the volunteer fire brigade DVD Bukovac, which dates itself to 1950, and the folklore society KUD Bukovac, with children's groups, dancers, a women's vocal group and a tamburica orchestra.^19,18

Gornji Bukovac

The old upper village, Gornji Bukovec in Kajkavian. Between 1953 and 1971 it grew from 448 to 2,295 people.⁵

Oboj

NK Maksimir's ground is at Oboj 1. Next to it, on the edge of the forest, is a shooting range that Mapiranje kvarta counts among the oldest in Zagreb.^23,7

Where the name Bukovac comes from

The sources we used don't explain where the name Bukovac comes from. The Kajkavian form is Bukovec, and the villages were Gornji (upper) and Donji (lower) Bukovec.^1,5

The name is old. In the charter of 9 September 1344 that founded Nova Ves, the Zagreb cathedral chapter gave the future settlers the use of "its land Bukovec".⁶ Lelja Dobronić doesn't map that land, so it can't be said that it lay exactly where Bukovac is today.⁶

A short history of Bukovac

The Medvednica slopes around Bukovac were wine country where citizens of old Zagreb had estates, and the people of both villages lived mainly from their vineyards.^2,5 The villages belonged to the cathedral chapter, which ruled in 1651 that its subjects in Bukovac must give the people of Nova Ves four buckets of wine every autumn for grazing in their woods.⁶ Between the wars Donji Bukovac, along today's Bukovačka cesta, had 11 summer houses of wealthy Zagreb families.⁵

After the Second World War Gornji Bukovac had its own local people's committee, and in 1949 it was attached to the city's Maksimir area.^36,9 In the 1960s locals sold their land as building plots, and newcomers, especially from Bosnia and Herzegovina, settled in Remete, Gračani and Gornji Bukovac.⁵

In 1966 a resident told Večernji list that Gornji Bukovac, only about 9 km from the centre, was cut off from the city by bad roads, and that you could spot a worker from Gornji Bukovac in the morning by his muddy shoes.⁸ None of the roads was asphalted yet.⁵ Residents then pressed the city services for roads, sewers and water. In 1971 Večernji reported that they had paid half of a 3,000-metre water main themselves, 400,000 dinars from household budgets.⁸

Bukovac's first school, a prefabricated building, opened in 1958, and a bigger building followed in 1967, with 563 pupils.^2,7 According to Mapiranje kvarta, in 1979 the area east of the Bliznec, with Čret and Jazbina, split off as the local community of Dotrščina.⁷ The 2020 earthquake badly damaged the school, and until 2024 its pupils were bussed to four other schools.^12,11

1. 1344The cathedral chapter gives the settlers of Nova Ves the use of its land Bukovec.⁶
2. 1924NK Maksimir is founded, and by its own account KUD Bukovac too.^24,18
3. 1949Gornji Bukovac is attached to the city's Maksimir area.⁹
4. 1958Bukovac's first school opens.^2,7
5. 1971Gornji Bukovec has 2,295 residents. Večernji reports that they paid half the cost of a new water main themselves.^5,8
6. 1973The school is renamed OŠ Viktor Bubanj, and a military plane arrives in its yard.^2,7
7. 1979According to Mapiranje kvarta, Dotrščina splits off from Bukovac.⁷
8. 1999Under the City Statute, Bukovac belongs to the Maksimir district.^1,3
9. 2018The park named after Father Vjenceslav Mihetec opens.¹⁰
10. 2024The new OŠ Bukovac opens, and a solar plant starts up on the reservoir roof.^11,13,20

What to see in Bukovac

• OŠ Bukovac

  At Trnac 42. The new building opened on 26 February 2024; only the old sports hall, rebuilt, survives from the old school.^11,13 There's an athletics track on the roof.¹⁴

• Father Vjenceslav Mihetec Park

  At the entrance to IX. Bukovački ogranak, opened in 2018 beside a monument to the long-serving Remete parish priest, who was born about fifty metres from the Bukovac fire station.^10,33

• Donji Brezinščak

  The street's western slope is a protected agricultural landscape (Z-1532), a surviving piece of vineyard country with klijeti.^31,32,7

• Summer houses on Bukovačka cesta

  In old Donji Bukovac, now in the Remete committee, the summer houses at nos. 220, 245, 254 (Tkalčić), 267 (Heinzel) and 341 ("Veseljak") are protected.^31,4

• Double Villa Bukovac

  The architects Hrvoje Njirić and Iskra Filipović designed two houses of 180 m² each for two generations of one family, finished in 2024, and present them as a critique of the city's master plan.^25,27 The villa was among the 40 works shortlisted for the EU Mies van der Rohe Award 2026.^26,27

• Bukovac reservoir

  A 350 kW solar plant has been running on its roof since October 2024.²⁰ The water tower that stood there was demolished on 29 April 2020, after the earthquake, according to Mapiranje kvarta.^30,7

Did you know?

• 1The teacher Mladen Stern recalled that in 1974 the Jastreb jet in the yard made him choose to work at the school. The writer Zvonimir Milčec wrote that it was the only school with a plane in its yard.^34,28
• 2According to a teacher's memories in the school magazine, in 1974 the bus stop at Gornji Bukovac had a hand pump where people washed their muddy shoes before going into town.³⁴
• 3The Croatian Encyclopaedia says Milčec's children's novel "Zvižduk s Bukovca" (1975) builds a mythology of his neighbourhood, Bukovac and Maksimir.²⁹

Everyday life in Bukovac

Renting in Bukovac

Nearby neighbourhoods

• MaksimirNeighbourhood guide
• RemeteNeighbourhood guide
• ŠalataNeighbourhood guide
• RavniceNeighbourhood guide
• MedveščakNeighbourhood guide
• KvatrićNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Maksimir and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Maksimir and Gornja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Maksimir and Upper Town – Medveščak
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Bukovac