Gornja DubravaFrom Ulica Dubrava to the Medvednica slopes: estates, old villages, a hospital and Grad mladih

Gornja Dubrava at a glance

• Residents (2021 Census)³⁷58,255
• Households renting³⁸5.6%
• Area⁴¹40.4 km²
• Neighbourhoods in our guide3
• Local committees⁴²16

Rents are asking prices from active listings on NajamStanova; residents and renting come from the 2021 Census. Households renting are those paying a market rent.

Where Gornja Dubrava is

Gornja Dubrava lies north-east of the inner city centre and covers part of the settlement of Zagreb and smaller parts of the settlements of Sesvete and Goranec.^5,2 It stretches north–south, from Ulica Dubrava up to the city boundary on Medvednica.^5,2 Donja Dubrava lies to the south. The border follows Ulica Dubrava, along its north side east of the Trnava stream and along its south side west of it, then the south side of Maksimirska cesta to Avenija Gojka Šuška.^1,2

In the west the border follows the west side of Avenija Gojka Šuška, with Maksimir on the other side. Further north, along Štefanovec and the Markuševec cadastral lines, the neighbour is Podsljeme. A 2020 amendment moved every building on Šuškovići from number 29 to number 69 into Gornja Dubrava.^2,3,5 The northern edge is the city boundary, and Sesvete lies to the north-east and east. There the border follows cadastral lines and paths, the Novoselec, Rijeka and Sopnica streams and the east side of Dubečka ulica.^2,5 No railway forms part of the border; the Zagreb – Dugo Selo line runs further south, along Donja Dubrava's southern edge.^1,2

Neighbourhoods in Gornja Dubrava

• DubravaDensely built flat land around the main street, grown from the 1930s Janeković subdivision; its northern part, with Studentski grad, Poljanice and Trnovčica, is here.Dubrava neighbourhood guide
• KlakaA planned estate of 1970s and early-1980s blocks, with Branko Kincl's centre buildings, the Mate Lovrak school and the Grana – Klaka sports centre.Klaka neighbourhood guide
• DubecA planned estate of family houses along curving Dubečka ulica, built from the late 1960s, with sculptors' streets and the end of the tram line.Dubec neighbourhood guide

District council and local committees

Zagreb's 17 city districts were created by the City Statute of 14 December 1999.⁴ Their borders and seats are set by the decision on district borders and seats, adopted by the City Assembly on 26 February 2009 and amended in 2017 and 2020. The amendment of 28 October 2020 rewrote Gornja Dubrava's border description, and the consolidated text has applied since 12 November 2020.^1,2,3 The district's local committees (mjesni odbori) were set up in February 2009.^9,10

Before that, the area changed administrative hands often. The area of the Zagrebačka Dubrava local people's committee joined the City of Zagreb at the end of 1947, and part of the Granešina committee's area two years later. In 1951 the XI. rajon was formed in the south. The municipality of Zagrebačka Dubrava was set up in 1955 without Dubec and Resnik; from 1962 to 1967 the area belonged to the municipality of Maksimir, and the municipality of Dubrava existed from 1974 to 1990.⁹ The district council elected in 2025 has 19 members and first met on 17 July 2025.^6,7 The district and its local office are based at Dubrava 49, which is also Donja Dubrava's seat.^1,8

16 local committees (mjesni odbori) in Gornja Dubrava: Branovec - Jalševec, Čučerje, Dankovec, Dubec, Dubrava - središte, Gornja Dubrava, Granešina, Granešinski Novaki, Klaka, Miroševec, Novoselec, Oporovec, Poljanice, Studentski grad, Trnovčica, Zeleni brijeg.⁴²

People in Gornja Dubrava

At the 2021 Census, 58,255 people lived in Gornja Dubrava in 20,305 households. 1,134 households, or 5.6%, paid a market rent (Zagreb: 7.7%). The average household had 2.9 members.^37,38

The district covers 40.4 km², about 1,441 people per square kilometre (Zagreb average: 1,196).⁴¹

Its parts: what is where in Gornja Dubrava

The City's 2020 leaflet divides the district into two parts: the hills on the eastern slopes of Medvednica, and the flat land south of Oporovečka ulica, which is the most densely settled. The valleys of the Trnava, Čučerska Reka and Branovec streams cut through the hills, and the far north lies in Medvednica Nature Park. Farmland and unmanaged land take up 40.7% of the district, and forest 31.8%.⁵

The hill villages, on what was once church land, are the oldest layer. Čučerje is recorded in 1201, Oporovec in 1217, Branovec, Čugovec, Dankovec and Jalševec in 1328, and Miroševec, Novaki and Novoselec in 1334. Granešina appears in the 16th century.⁹ In the 19th century the area formed two municipalities, with their seats and parishes in Čučerje and Granešina. In the early 1980s all the villages lost their status as separate settlements and became parts of the settlement of Zagreb.^9,5

Until the 1930s the flat land was almost empty and largely covered by oak forest.⁵ Settlement began with the Janeković subdivision of more than 200 jutara (an old land measure) between today's Ulica Dubrava, Avenija Gojka Šuška, Oporovečka and Grižanska, and after the Second World War the tram line from Maksimir to Dubrava sped up growth.⁹ Building on Studentski grad began in 1949. It was planned as a student campus, but the campus was never built. Most of its low blocks were up by the 1960s and its most visible parts went up in the mid-1970s, the City's cadastre office writes, citing the Zagreb Lexicon.^11,9 Blocks of flats stand along Ulica Dubrava, in Klaka, Studentski grad and Poljanice, and the rest of the flat land is mostly family houses.⁵ The Hrvatska tehnička enciklopedija singles out the clusters of three tower blocks on Avenija Dubrava and Koledinečka ulica.¹²

The City describes the district as mainly residential, a "dormitory", where people have moved from practically the whole of the former Yugoslavia, and still do.⁹ Jadran film settled in Dubrava in 1954 and 1955, when film studiosStudio flat (garsonijera)A flat where living, sleeping and cooking share one room, with a separate bathroom. Often spelled garsonjera.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), Art. 2, checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary were built there.¹³ Jugoton, now Croatia Records, worked nearby.⁹ The City's 2020 leaflet lists both companies' sites as disused industrial land with significant development potential.⁵

Studentski grad

An estate north of Ulica Dubrava, between Dankovečka, Koledinečka and Ulica Gjure Prejca.^11,10 The Pioneer Railway ran from here up the Trnava valley to Slanovec and Markuševačka Trnava, and the Zagreb bus factory (Tvornica autobusa Zagreb) worked here for several decades.⁹ Dom zdravlja Zagreb – Istok has a surgery at Ulica Vile Velebita 1k.^25,26

Čučerje

The earliest recorded village in the district, first mentioned in 1201. On the 1862 cadastral map it had a brick church and school, four more brick buildings and 30 farmsteads scattered over the hills.⁹ Bus 209 runs from the Dubrava terminus to Čučerje.²⁰

Granešina

A village recorded from the 16th century; in the 19th century it was, with Čučerje, a municipal and parish seat. In 1862 it had about twenty houses, only three of them brick.⁹ Grad mladih is next to Granešina.¹⁴

Grad mladih

Pionirski grad (the Pioneer Town), called Grad mladih since 1992, was built from 1948 to 1951 to an urban plan by Josip Seissel, with most buildings designed by Ivan Vitić. More than a million children have visited it.¹⁴ It is a protected cultural property used for organised stays by Zagreb's children and young people.^5,14

Miroševac

According to the City's 2020 leaflet, Zagreb's second-largest city cemetery.⁵ The first burial took place in November 1952, and the landscaping was designed by Silvana and Josip Seissel.¹⁵

Where the name Gornja Dubrava comes from

The name Dubrava comes from the oak forest that largely covered the empty flat land in the south of today's district until the 1930s.⁵ While the Janeković subdivision was taking shape, the Zagreb press called the new settlement Dubravnik.⁹

Roads, rail and lines in Gornja Dubrava

In the hills the main roads follow the stream valleys: Miroševečka cesta in the west, Sunekova ulica and Čučerska cesta in the middle, and Novoselečki put and Branovečka cesta in the east.⁵ In the south are Ulica Dubrava, Avenija Gojka Šuška and Maksimirska cesta, which partly form the district's border.² According to the City's 2020 leaflet, the city plan (GUP) provides for new roads from Kolakova towards Sesvete, from Avenija Gojka Šuška towards Markuševec, from Degidovec to Jalševec, from Koledinečka eastwards and from Studentski grad northwards.⁵

ZET's Dubrava bus terminal, at the tram terminus, has routes to the villages on the Medvednica slopes.¹⁸ Bus 206 runs to Miroševec, 209 to Čučerje and 230 to Granešinski Novaki.^19,20,21 Buses 205 and 232 run from the terminus to KB Dubrava hospital, and bus 212 runs from Dubec to Sesvete.^16,22

The Zagreb – Dugo Selo railway runs further south, outside the district. The nearest passenger stops on it are Trnava, on Nova Branimirova, and Čulinec, at Čulinečka 77.^1,23,24

Office, health, police and libraries in Gornja Dubrava

Being built in Gornja Dubrava

• OŠ Dubrava – Centar, a new primary school: in October 2025 the City launched a design competition for a school and sports hall on unbuilt land between Međurička, Koledinečka and Ulica Klin, for about 450 pupils in 16 classes and two preschool groups. The first cost estimate was about €14.6 million before VAT.³² The Zagreb Society of Architects published the results on 2 April 2026; 37 entries came in.³³
• Centre for Autism in Oporovec: in September 2026 the City obtained a building permit for a school for about 200 children, with more than 9,600 m² on three floors. It is estimated at about €35 million, of which €19.3 million comes from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. According to the announcement, construction would start in summer 2027 and take 18 months.³⁴
• Centar kulture Dubrava: in December 2025 the City Assembly approved buying the unfinished office building and parts of the 1980s cultural complex for €6.9 million. According to the City, this settles 93% of the complex's property issues, and the plans include space for workshops and programmes, a larger Knjižnica Dubrava and landscaping.³⁵
• Čučerska Reka retention basin: the final proposal of the amendments to the City of Zagreb spatial plan, from September 2025, plans it north of Trnovčica at the request of Hrvatske vode, the national water authority.³⁶

Did you know?

• 1The settlement of Dubrava, now the most populous part of the district, was first recorded in 1842, when nine people lived there.⁹
• 2All the villages in the area of today's district had 3,600 people in 1869 and 6,600 in 1931, when the settlement of Dubrava was taking shape.⁹
• 3KB Dubrava descends from Zagreb's military hospital. Its new building in Dubrava was finished and opened in May 1988, Croatia took the hospital over from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) by an agreement of 6 December 1991, and more than 2,000 seriously wounded were treated there in the Homeland War.¹⁷

Renting in Gornja Dubrava

Nearby districts

• Donja DubravaDistrict guide
• MaksimirDistrict guide
• PodsljemeDistrict guide
• SesveteDistrict guide

• Compare districts: Gornja Dubrava and Donja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Gornja Dubrava and Maksimir
• Compare districts: Gornja Dubrava and Podsljeme
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

For listings across the district, see flats for rent in Gornja Dubrava. To compare the neighbours, read what living in Donja Dubrava is like and the Maksimir district guide.

Questions: living in Gornja Dubrava