DugaveBlocks set on the diagonal, a park along Savišće and a Dinamo crest on the tarmac

Dugave at a glance

• To the main square by ZET38 min
• To the centre as the crow flies5.6 km
• Residents, local committee (2021)⁴9,167
• Estate built^2,91977–1981

Where Dugave is

Dugave is a housing estate in Novi Zagreb, in the city district (gradska četvrt) of Novi Zagreb – istok. It is covered by the Dugave local committee (mjesni odbor), the second of the district's eleven, based at Ulica sv. Mateja 93.^4,24,25 The committee covers 85.02 hectares and is part of the settlement of Zagreb, so Dugave is not a separate settlement.^4,24 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Dugave through that committee.

Under the committee's 2017 rules, the boundary runs along Vatikanska ulica to the north, Sarajevska cesta to the east and Ulica Savezne Republike Njemačke to the west. In the south it follows Ulica Aleksandra Brdarića and then the cadastral line between Zaprudski Otok and Jakuševec.²⁴ Travno lies across Vatikanska, Sloboština across Ulica SR Njemačke, Jakuševec to the east and Hrelić to the south; Hrelić has its own local committee.^1,13,25

For and against: life in Dugave

What life is like in Dugave

Dugave is the only Novi Zagreb estate without a right-angled street grid. Its blocks and paths are set at 45 degrees to the surrounding roads.^13,2,9 According to a 2020 paper by Tamara Bjažić Klarin and Luka Korlaet, the diagonal blocks and footpaths were meant as a homage to the diagonal streets of interwar Zagreb, and the "green ring" road around the estate as a nod to the Green Horseshoe of the Lower Town.⁹

As planned, the estate has thirteen semi-open blocks in three zones. The buildings average four storeys, rise to ten at most, and step down towards the low houses at the edge of the estate.⁹ The zone 1 blocks are horseshoes open to the south, with green courtyards inside. Zone 2 has broken rows, and zone 3 a closed, heart-shaped block.^9,12

The block built to Tomislav Odak's award-winning 1980 design has two-level flats and internal gallery corridors.¹¹ That year Odak won the Borba daily's architecture award for Dugave.⁹ The flats were designed to be flexible, so small ones could be joined into bigger ones without major building work. The plan also included a central system running the lifts, heating and cable television of the whole estate, with a central caretaker service.⁹

The estate was planned with plenty of green space.^1,13,9 According to HRT Radio Sljeme's report from a public meeting on the 40th anniversary, Dugave was known for having the largest park area per resident.¹⁶ The plan provided for 4,550 flats for 13,600 people on 78.2 hectares.^30,9

In the east, by the Hrelić bus turnaround, a planned area of two-storey terraced houses went up in the second half of the 1980s, each with a garage and a garden. It earned the nickname "dugavski Beverly Hills".^3,12 According to Jutarnji list, the streets there are named after Croatian architects, among them Stjepan Gomboš, Stjepan Planić, Janko Holjac and Aleksandar Brdarić.^3,24 In its 2023 amendments to the general urban plan, the City added a rule protecting the original design of the terraced rows in Dugave – istok.³⁸

At the 2021 census the Dugave local committee area had 9,167 residents, about 1,300 fewer than in 2011.^4,31

Where the name Dugave comes from

Dugave is an old name for low, flood-prone land by the Sava, or for fields made on such ground.^2,3 The 1974 implementation plan for the area, adopted in 1975, was called Dugave – Dračevica.^9,5

A short history of Dugave

Until the 1960s the area of today's Novi Zagreb – istok district had only villages: Buzin, Otok, Jakuševec and Hrelić.¹⁷ Dugave was planned around the old villages. Some blocks run on the diagonal because they follow the line of the village streets, and new plots for family houses were laid out beside the villages.^9,11 According to the City's website, Dugave and Sloboština now form one whole with the former villages of Hrelić and Otok.¹⁷

The Dugave – Dračevica plan was drawn up in 1974 by a team from the Zagreb Urban Planning Institute: Vlasta Benić, Borislav Doklestić and Ivan Tepeš.^9,5 Doklestić had spent a year training in France, and the plan took up ideas from the French new towns (villes nouvelles).⁹ An open urban and architectural competition was called in October 1975 and drew 25 entries. First prizes for the centre and residential zone 1 went to a team from the Urban Institute of Croatia: the urban planner Ivan Čižmek, the architect Tomislav Odak, the traffic expert Tomislav Bilić and the building technologist Zdenko Vazdar.^2,5,9

Dugave was the first estate built under the new model of "socially directed housing construction", and the first in Zagreb chosen through a public competition.^9,2 Banks and housing cooperatives were among the investors, and the cooperatives held a 15 per cent share of the new flats.⁹ The foundation stone was laid on 25 May 1977, the Day of Youth, which was Josip Broz Tito's official 85th birthday.^2,9 That December, Čižmek's exhibition on the project filled seven rooms of the Gallery of Contemporary Art.⁹ Building was finished in 1981.⁹ According to Radio Sljeme's report from the 40th-anniversary meeting, more than 11,000 people moved into about 4,500 flats.¹⁶

The parish of St Matthew was founded on 22 May 1978, split off from the Jakuševec parish. It has worked independently since 1981, from a four-room flat of about 100 m² bought at Aleja sv. Mateja 123.^8,6 From Palm Sunday 1991 until 1993, Sunday Mass was said in the entrance hall of the primary school.⁶ The blessing of the new church's foundation stone, set for St Matthew's day on 21 September 1991, was put off because of constant alarms and held on the same feast day in 1992.⁶ The church was built in the early 1990s. Mass has been said there since Easter 1993, when it was still unfinished, and Cardinal Josip Bozanić consecrated it on 12 May 2006.^6,8 In 1996 a memorial to ten fallen Homeland War soldiers from Dugave was placed on the church.²²

The school opened in 1980 as OŠ Josip Kraš. Because it was overcrowded, the city assembly split it on 12 July 1991 into I. and II. osnovna škola Dugave, and in 1992 the second was renamed after Fran Galović.^7,10 The two schools shared one building until September 2025, when OŠ Frana Galovića moved to a new building in Jakuševec.^37,26

1. 1974A team from the Zagreb Urban Planning Institute draws up the Dugave – Dračevica plan.⁹
2. 1975The competition for the estate draws 25 entries; first prizes go to Ivan Čižmek's team.^2,5,9
3. 1977The foundation stone is laid on 25 May, the Day of Youth.^2,9
4. 1978The parish of St Matthew is founded.⁸
5. 1980The school building opens, then called OŠ Josip Kraš.^7,9
6. 1981Building of the estate is finished.⁹
7. 1983Knjižnica Dugave, the library, is founded at the end of the year.¹⁸
8. 1991The school is split into I. and II. osnovna škola Dugave.¹⁰
9. 1992The Oktogon building, designed by Ivan Čižmek, is finished.⁹
10. 1993Mass moves into the new, still unfinished church of St Matthew.⁶
11. 1999Fans first paint the Dinamo crest on the bus turnaround.¹⁴
12. 2006Cardinal Josip Bozanić consecrates the church of St Matthew.^8,6
13. 2011The Street Art Museum brings about thirty artists to paint the estate's walls.^19,20
14. 2025OŠ Frana Galovića moves to Jakuševec, and I. OŠ Dugave moves to a single shift.^26,7

What to see in Dugave

• Savišće

  A dried-up arm of the Sava that runs through the estate from north to south. The planners kept it as the main theme of the park.^9,13,1 When it snows, children sledge down its banks.^13,3

• Church of St Matthew

  At Ulica sv. Mateja 87, designed by Vinko Penezić and Krešimir Rogina. It has an elliptical plan, a blue outer skin and an outdoor stage like an amphitheatre for open-air Mass.^36,11,3 The foundation stone came from the walls of the war-damaged parish church of the Assumption in Pakrac and sits to the right of the entrance door.⁶ In 2014 Jutarnji list reported that some locals call it the tin can, the container or the barrel.³

• Veliki and Mali Oktogon

  The estate's two shopping centres.^1,13 Ivan Čižmek designed the Oktogon building, finished in 1992. Its name and glass-roofed passage recall the Oktogon off Ilica, Zagreb's first shopping arcade, finished in 1899.^9,12

• The Dinamo crest

  A 75 m² crest painted on the tarmac of the bus turnaround next to the primary school. Fans first painted it in 1999 and renewed it in 2005 and in August 2017, when Igor Bišćan paid for the paint.^14,3

• The 2011 murals

  From 1 to 15 September 2011 the Street Art Museum (MUU) brought about thirty Croatian and several foreign artists to paint Dugave's walls. Among them were Phlegm from the UK, Sretan Bor, Lunar, Oko, Puma34, Ninja Tiger and the French-Austrian duo Jana & JS.^19,20 Phlegm's black-and-white mural "Calibrating The Seeing Device", painted in three days, is on the side of an old bomb shelter.^21,19 According to Iva Silla's piece on LoveZagreb, some murals carry the slogan "Dugave republika" and many are dedicated to Dinamo.¹²

Did you know?

• 1All four authors of the winning competition design later moved to Dugave themselves.^12,3
• 2On 8 September 2005 Dinamo's first team came to Dugave and played a 30-minute kickabout with locals on the painted crest. About 2,000 fans turned up, and Eduardo, Silvio Marić and Mathias Chago signed autographs.^15,14
• 3Fans joke that the Dugave crest is "the only one you can see from space", 24sata reported.¹⁴
• 4Residents recalled at the 40th-anniversary meeting that in the early years some year groups had classes running up to the letter k.¹⁶
• 5In October 2021 the two schools sharing the building at Školski prilaz 7 had 1,240 pupils in 59 classes and 37 classrooms, and part of the staff room had become a classroom.³⁷

Everyday life in Dugave

Renting in Dugave

Nearby neighbourhoods

• TravnoNeighbourhood guide
• SloboštinaNeighbourhood guide
• UtrineNeighbourhood guide
• SopotNeighbourhood guide
• JakuševecNeighbourhood guide
• ZapruđeNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: New Zagreb – East and New Zagreb – West
• Compare districts: New Zagreb – East and Peščenica – Žitnjak
• Compare districts: New Zagreb – East and Trnje
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Dugave