DubecFamily houses along curving Dubečka, sculptors' streets and the end of the tram line

Dubec at a glance

• To the main square by ZET47 min
• To the centre as the crow flies8.2 km
• Residents (2021)²4,060
• Outside the City¹1967–1974

Where Dubec is

Dubec is in the east of Zagreb, in the city district of Gornja Dubrava, and is covered by one of the district's 16 local committees (mjesni odbori), Mjesni odbor Dubec.^9,1,2 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Dubec through that committee. It is bounded by the Donja Dubrava district to the south, the Trnava stream to the west and the Sesvete district to the east.³ At the 2021 census the committee area had 4,060 residents on 58.78 hectares.²

For statistics Dubec is split between two settlements, Zagreb and Sesvete, even though, as the geographer Ivana Crljenko writes, it looks like one place.^6,3 Administratively all of it is in Gornja Dubrava, because the settlement line is not a district boundary.^2,3 It runs along the streets: the school at Dubečka 5 is in the Zagreb settlement, while Trg Antuna Mihanovića and Ulica Rudolfa Ivankovića, where the library is, are in Sesvete.^3,10,13 The City's statistical profile of the district calls the Sesvete part the former independent settlement of Dubec.⁴

For and against: life in Dubec

What life is like in Dubec

Dubec is a planned estate of family houses. Building began in the late 1960s, with regularly laid-out houses grouped along the semicircular Dubečka ulica.⁷ The geographer Ivana Crljenko groups it with Trnovčica as orderly estates of family houses built between the 1960s and the early 1980s, unlike the parts of Dubrava that grew without a plan.⁶

At the 2011 census the Dubec committee area had 4,405 residents, 1,398 households and 1,514 dwellings; at the 2021 census it had 4,060 residents.^5,2 According to the City's statistical profile, the population had also fallen between 2001 and 2011, by 11%.⁴

The 2015 Sesvete master plan counts Dubec, with Novo Brestje and Inino naselje, among the areas with a valuable urban pattern built to detailed plans. On the Sesvete part of Dubec the plan keeps the existing plots and the pattern of semi-detached and terraced houses.²⁹ The Zagreb part has an almost identical rule in the City of Zagreb's master plan. When a single rule for the whole neighbourhood was requested in 2026, the City replied that the split stays because of the settlement boundary.³⁰

Several streets in the Dubec committee area are named after Croatian sculptors: Ivan Meštrović, Toma Rosandić, Ivo Kerdić, Frane Cota and Raoul Goldoni.^{3,32,33,34,35,36}

The same plan lists Dubec, with Centar and Luka, among the smaller, physically recognisable parts of Sesvete, although administratively Dubec belongs to Gornja Dubrava.^29,2 Crljenko cites Dubec as an example of how administrative changes confuse residents.⁶

The Sesvete side

Trg Antuna Mihanovića; Ulica Rudolfa Ivankovića, Pavla Perića, Frane Cote, Franje Laurana-Vranjanina, Ivana Meštrovića, Ive Kerdića, Jurja Škarpe, Marina Studina, Petra Smajića and Tome Rosandića; and most of Dubečka ulica (house numbers 9–95 and 10–92).³

The Zagreb side

Bulinačka, Ulica Dujma Penića, Ulica Raula Goldonija, VI. Retkovec, Pete Poljanice 7–15, Avenija Dubrava from 241 to 319, and the two ends of Dubečka (1–5, 97–99, 6–8 and 94). Dunavska, Krndijska, Prominska, Visočička and Zemunska run through both settlements.³

Where the name Dubec comes from

The sources checked for this guide don't explain where the name Dubec comes from. In Croatian the name changes form, so on signs and in the news you'll see Dupca (of Dubec) and u Dupcu (in Dubec); the adjective is dubečki.^1,11,18

A short history of Dubec

After the Second World War the area of the future local community of Dubec belonged to the Sesvete local people's committee, unlike the rest of today's Gornja Dubrava.¹ From 1952 it was in the Sesvete municipality, and the new municipality of Zagrebačka Dubrava, formed in 1955, took in all of Gornja and Donja Dubrava except Dubec and Resnik.¹ Dubec does not yet appear on the 1965 plan of Zagreb; a spatial plan for Dubec from the same year is kept in the State Archives in Zagreb.⁶

According to Kristian Strukić of the Zagreb City Museum, building here began partly because of the great flood of 1964: families from flooded areas were given land here free of charge, and people who bought plots followed later.⁷ When Zagreb's city municipalities merged into a single City of Zagreb in 1967, Dubec was still in the Sesvete municipality, and from 1967 to 1974 it was the only part of today's Gornja Dubrava left outside the City of Zagreb.¹ In the early 1980s the Sesvete municipality joined the Zagreb association of municipalities, and with it the Dubec area came into the City of Zagreb's administrative framework.¹

Teaching in the new primary-school building began in early spring 1973.^9,7 In the late 1970s and early 1980s the school had about 1,400 pupils and worked a six-day week in three shifts. Its catchment shrank when schools opened in Trnovčica in 1992 and in Brestje in 1999.⁹ The library opened on 15 October 1974 as a book station of the Sesvete library.¹²

The tram line was extended from Dubrava to Dubec on 11 October 2000, and the tram loop was built at the same time. According to the HINA news agency, crowds from Dubrava and Dubec met the first tram, decorated with flowers and blue ribbons.^7,18 The Dubec local committee was set up in February 2009, along with Gornja Dubrava's other 15 committees.¹

1. After 1945The area of future Dubec belongs to the Sesvete local people's committee, unlike the rest of today's Gornja Dubrava.¹
2. 1955The new municipality of Zagrebačka Dubrava takes in Gornja and Donja Dubrava, but not Dubec.¹
3. 1964The great flood. According to Strukić, it partly explains how Dubec began: families from flooded areas were given land here free of charge.⁷
4. 1965A spatial plan for Dubec dates from this year; it is kept in the map collection of the State Archives in Zagreb.⁶
5. 1967–1974Dubec is the only part of today's Gornja Dubrava outside the City of Zagreb.¹
6. 1973Teaching begins in the new primary-school building.^9,7
7. 1974Knjižnica Dubec, the library, opens on 15 October as a book station of the Sesvete library.¹²
8. 2000The first tram reaches the new Dubec loop on 11 October.^18,7
9. 2009The Dubec local committee is set up.¹
10. 2018The school gets four new classrooms and moves to a single shift, and the post office moves into the Super Konzum.^11,26
11. 2019Tržnica Dubec – Modni centar, the market, opens.²³
12. 2024Knjižnica Dubec turns 50.^15,16

What to see in Dubec

• Trg Antuna Mihanovića

  The square with the neighbourhood's only two residential blocks and, at number 3, a health centre of Dom zdravlja Zagreb – Istok.^7,25

• Dubec tram loop and bus terminal

  The tram loop was built in 2000, when the line was extended to Dubec.^7,18 Next to it is the bus terminal, which has 11 platforms on ZET's November 2023 plan.²²

• Tržnica Dubec – Modni centar

  The market at Dubečka ulica 2 opened on 19 September 2019 with a fashion show, as a permanent home for the textile sellers from the Borongaj tram terminus.^23,24 Its 6,000 m² hold 52 small selling huts around a central space laid out as a square, so it can be used outside market hours too. It cost about 12 million kuna before VAT; the City paid two thirds and Tržnice Zagreb, the market company, one third.²³

• Knjižnica Dubec

  The library at Ulica Rudolfa Ivankovića 34, open since 1974.^13,12 It holds regular exhibitions, such as Teo Herceg's "Presjecanje" in 2022.¹⁵ According to the artist's biography, his public sculpture "Knjiški niz" from the same year is there too.¹⁷ For its 50th anniversary, 24 artists who had shown there before exhibited together.^15,16

• OŠ Antuna Mihanovića

  The primary school at Dubečka 5, built, in its own words, right on the border between Dubrava and Sesvete.^10,9 It is named after the poet whose 1835 poem "Horvatska domovina" became the Croatian national anthem, and since 2002/03 it has marked its school day on 10 June, Mihanović's birthday.⁹

Did you know?

• 1According to HINA, on the line's opening day in 2000 Mayor Milan Bandić drove the tram for part of the way, with a ZET driver supervising.¹⁸
• 2Of the book stations Sesvete opened at the same time (Kašina, Sesvetski Kraljevec, Brestje and the Rade Končar factory), only Knjižnica Dubec has run without a break to this day.¹²
• 3According to the Sesvete master plan, in 1991 Dubec had the highest population density in that plan's area, ahead of Luka, Novo Brestje and Centar.²⁹

Everyday life in Dubec

Renting in Dubec

Nearby neighbourhoods

• RetkovecNeighbourhood guide
• DubravaNeighbourhood guide
• KlakaNeighbourhood guide
• SesveteNeighbourhood guide
• JelkovecNeighbourhood guide
• RavniceNeighbourhood guide

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

Questions about life in Dubec