KajzericaNapoleon's guardhouse, the Hippodrome and the Fair on the Sava's south bank

Kajzerica at a glance

• To the main square by ZET36 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.6 km
• Residents (2021)²5,476
• Committee area²285.75 ha

Where Kajzerica is

Kajzerica is on the south bank of the Sava, in the city district of Novi Zagreb – zapad (New Zagreb – West). Officially it is the Kajzerica local committee (mjesni odbor), number 7 in that district, based at Podbrežje IV. 5; it isn't a separate settlement but part of the settlement of Zagreb.^2,3 The committee area is much larger than the residential part: it runs from the Sava south to Avenija Dubrovnik, and from Avenija Većeslava Holjevca west, past the Remetinec roundabout, to Lanište.³

The committee area takes in the Zagreb Fair (Avenija Dubrovnik 15), the Hippodrome (Ulica Radoslava Cimermana 5) and NK Lokomotiva's ground (Cimermanova 7).^3,6,21 According to Petra Pejinović's 2013 diploma thesis, the Hippodrome and the Fair take up a little over half of it.¹⁵ The houses and blocks of flats, according to Croatian Wikipedia, stand in the strip between Jadranski most, Avenija Dubrovnik, Cimermanova and the Sava.¹

For and against: life in Kajzerica

What life is like in Kajzerica

Kajzerica began as a settlement of family houses with large gardens; today it is densely built, with little greenery.^1,13 The residential part is two strips: Južna obala along the embankment, and Podbrežje south of Bencekovićeva ulica.^1,3 Ulica Stjepana Bencekovića is one of the main streets.^43,37

Old wooden single-storey houses with gardens still stand between the new blocks.^30,24 In 2025 the magazine Bilten wrote that apart from the school playground and one park, children have nowhere to play.³⁰

According to tportal, medium-density "half-blocks" like those at Jarun were being prepared in the 1980s, but the war stopped them.²⁴ The architect Branko Kincl won first prize in a 1989 competition for part of the Kajzerica housing estate, and in 1990 and 1991 he worked on the area's detailed plan.^25,26 Detailed urban plans were abolished in the early 1990s, tportal says. Developers then built blocks of flats and "urban villas" on the narrow plots of family houses, and for more than ten years building heights were not limited; the limits in the 2003 General Urban Plan came too late.^24,15

According to the 2013 thesis, the flats of around 40 m² sold in the early 1990s were bought mostly by young families and single people.¹⁵ The same thesis puts the settlement's population in 2001 at about 1,500.¹⁵ The committee area, which is larger than the settlement, had 4,387 residents at the 2011 census and 5,476 in 2021, roughly a quarter more.^4,2

Where the name Kajzerica comes from

The name comes from kajzer, an old word for emperor: there was an imperial military drill ground here.^6,5 Nives Opačić wrote in the weekly Vijenac in 2003 that the low land by the river, often muddy and waterlogged and grown over with wild grass and willows, was worthless for farming, which is exactly what made it suitable for the emperor.⁵

Sources disagree on which emperor. Croatian Wikipedia and Jutarnji list link the name to Napoleon, the "French kajzer", while Opačić and Sportski objekti, the City company that runs the Hippodrome, say only "the emperor".^1,7,5,6 According to Opačić, the riverside was simply called Nasip ("the embankment") until 1919.⁵

A short history of Kajzerica

Under the 1809 Treaty of Schönbrunn, Austria ceded the Croatian lands between the Sava and the sea to Napoleon. French rule lasted until late 1813, and the Sava at Zagreb was the border.^8,9 By the south end of what is now the old Savski most, the French built a border guardhouse in the early 19th century; Saša Šimpraga gives the year as 1809.^10,11,9

Gradska ekonomija, the city's farming company set up in 1915, became an independent city-owned company in 1919, based on city land in Kajzerica.¹⁴ According to Petra Pejinović's thesis, which draws on a local history by Đurđa Pamić-Marušić, the first house in the settlement went up in 1933; it belonged to the Crnecki family and was demolished in June 2006.¹⁵ The settlement began to grow only after the Second World War, as families arrived looking for a roof over their heads, and the thesis describes it as a "classic workers' periphery".¹⁵ From 1945 to 1947 it was run by a local people's committee, Mjesni narodni odbor Podbrežje Kajzerica, and in 1947 the area was joined to Zagreb, in the city's IV district, Trnje.¹⁶

According to Mladen Klemenčić, the first big builds south of the Sava were the Brodarski institut (shipbuilding institute), the Hippodrome and Lokomotiva's stadium, in the early 1950s.¹⁷ The Hippodrome was built from 1947 as part of a planned Croatian Olympic Centre, according to Sportski objekti partly by prisoners convicted of economic offences from the then Kajzerica camp; all three of its tracks opened in 1950.⁶ Marijan Haberle designed the new Fair town, built in 1955 and 1956, and mayor Većeslav Holjevac is credited with moving the Fair across the Sava.^19,18 According to Klemenčić, the first fair on the new site, on 7 September 1956, was held there only in part, and the move was completed the next year.¹⁷ The thesis says the Fair brought Kajzerica electricity, with street lighting a year later, and that residents paid to have streets partly asphalted between 1960 and 1964.¹⁵

On 6 March 1969 Kajzerica became a parish of its own, at first called Župa Podbrežje, split off from Knežija.^22,23 Telephones, mains water and sewers arrived only in the 1990s: the parish got its first phone line on 25 November 1991, work on a 9.5 km water network for 1,000 people began on 21 June 1996, and the sewer was connected in 1999.^23,24 On 11 September 1994 Pope John Paul II said Mass at the Hippodrome, during his first visit to Croatia and for the 900th anniversary of the Zagreb archdiocese.^27,5,1

Until 2014 Kajzerica had no primary school and no nursery, and parents campaigned for them for years. The new education complex opened on 8 September 2014.^28,30,15,29

1. 1809–1813The Sava at Zagreb is the border of the French-ruled Illyrian Provinces.^8,9
2. 1933According to local history, the first house in the settlement is built.¹⁵
3. 1947Podbrežje Kajzerica is joined to Zagreb, in the Trnje district.¹⁶
4. 1947–1950The Hippodrome is built; all three tracks open in 1950.⁶
5. 1952–53NK Lokomotiva starts playing at its new stadium in Kajzerica.²⁰
6. 1956The Fair opens on the south bank on 7 September, at first only in part; the move is complete the next year.^17,18
7. 1969Kajzerica becomes a parish of its own on 6 March.^22,23
8. 1989Branko Kincl wins first prize in a competition for part of the Kajzerica housing estate.²⁵
9. 1994Pope John Paul II says Mass at the Hippodrome on 11 September.²⁷
10. 2014The complex with the primary school, IV. gimnazija and a nursery opens.^28,29
11. 2026A contract is signed to design the guardhouse's restoration.¹¹

What to see in Kajzerica

• Napoleon's guardhouse

  The border guardhouse at Remetinečka cesta 1, at the western edge of the settlement, is a protected cultural monument owned by the City.^12,13,10 Beside it stand an old chestnut tree and a small pyramid-shaped memorial with a French inscription, marking the Illyrian Provinces border, put up for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.^9,5 A storm in July 2023 destroyed its roof.^7,11 In 2021 the local committee proposed a neighbourhood museum there; according to Bauštela.hr, the conservation guidelines foresee a bistro with rooms upstairs, and a contract to design the restoration was signed in August 2026.^12,10,11

• The Hippodrome

  It covers 47 ha today; the original site had 65.⁶ It has a 1,600 m grass gallop track, a 1,550 m sand training track and a 1,000 m gravel trotting track; the original 2,400 m grass track is gone.^6,41 It hosts gallop and trotting races, show jumping and dressage, and has run a riding school since 2005. There's also a 60 × 26 m indoor riding arena.^41,6

• Zagreb Fair (Zagrebački velesajam)

  A protected cultural-historical ensemble at Avenija Dubrovnik 15.^13,18 According to Klemenčić, the Chinese Pavilion was designed by Cheng Sung Mao, and Louis Armstrong played in the Mašinogradnja pavilion in 1959.¹⁷

• Church of the Nativity

  At IX. Podbrežje 35. On 7 September 1970 the parish bought a family house built in 1954 and opened it as a church at Christmas; it has been rebuilt and extended several times since.²² Radio Marija broadcast from the attic from 22 February 1997 until August 2002.^22,23

• The education complex

  At Ulica Žarka Dolinara 9. It was designed by the Sangrad practice, which won the competition; the lead architect was Vedran Pedišić. The school and the nursery are separate but linked volumes around a shared square, and the existing trees were kept. The project won the Viktor Kovačić award in 2014 and the Vladimir Nazor award in 2015.^31,32

• Vodan

  A stone sculpture by Robert Zdarilek under the green railway bridge known as the Hendrix bridge, on the south bank. Zdarilek spent three years carving it by hand from a 19th-century bridge-foundation stone; it is 1.3 m tall, weighs 600 to 700 kg and was finished in 2020. The Sava sometimes covers it completely.^39,40

• Monuments to Antall and Lojda

  A bronze monument to József Antall, Hungary's prime minister from 1990 to 1993, by László Marton, stands in the street named after him. Hungarian President Ferenc Mádl unveiled it in March 2002.^38,3 In front of the former Kajzerica health centre on Podbrežje IV, a bronze bust of Dr Velimir Lojda (1931–1997), a doctor there, by Mladen Mikulin, has stood since 1999.^38,23

Did you know?

• 1In November 2003 Večernji list wrote about Kajzerica as Zagreb's Chinatown: six Chinese wholesale shops had opened there since the spring alone.³⁶ By 2014 the shops had moved to Jankomir. Most had been on Bencekovićeva, where none was left, and new buildings went up in their place.³⁷
• 2According to the 2013 thesis, groundwater flooded a large gravel pit for years, until in 1986 it was filled with marl and clay dug out for the Cibona hall and tower.¹⁵
• 3Stadiums were planned in Kajzerica twice: a 2006 competition for a football complex with a stadium and a hall, and a 2008 competition for a city stadium, "Zagreb", in which Kincl won second prize. Neither was built.^25,26

Everyday life in Kajzerica

Renting in Kajzerica

Nearby neighbourhoods

• TrnskoNeighbourhood guide
• Savski gajNeighbourhood guide
• Cvjetno naseljeNeighbourhood guide
• New ZagrebNeighbourhood guide
• SigetNeighbourhood guide
• KnežijaNeighbourhood guide

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

Questions about life in Kajzerica