KvatrićThe city's old eastern boundary, with a market, Nama and the Badel block

Kvatrić at a glance

• To the main square by ZET12 min
• To the centre as the crow flies1.5 km
• City districts on the square^4,53
• Spaces in the garage below⁶353

Where Kvatrić is

Kvatrić is the everyday name for Trg Eugena Kvaternika, also called Kvaternikov trg and Kvaternjak.^5,7 It is not Trg kralja Petra Krešimira IV, whose nickname is Krešimirac.⁸ Three city districts meet on the square: Maksimir, Donji grad (Lower Town) and Gornji grad – Medveščak.^4,5

The neighbourhood has no official boundary. By the official street lists, the area around the square is shared by four local committees (mjesni odbori): „Eugen Kvaternik” (Nama and Maksimirska 2–44) and „Dinko Šimunović” (the north side of Maksimirska and Fijanova) in Maksimir, Petrova (Urania and St Peter's church) in Gornji grad – Medveščak, and „Pavao Šubić” (the market, the Badel block, the Arko estate and the library) in Donji grad.^4,9 That grouping is our reading of the lists, not an official division; „Dinko Šimunović” reaches far north, to Srebrnjak and Bijenička.^9,10

For and against: life in Kvatrić

What life is like in Kvatrić

Around 1900 this was the industrial edge of the city. The Patria, Pokorny and Arko drinks factories ringed the square, and the Sila and Elka factories stood around today's Šubićeva and Martićeva.^3,26,27,23 The City Museum of Zagreb reads the mixed architecture around the square as the trace of gradual building since it became a city junction.²⁷

Between Heinzelova, Martićeva and Makančeva, the Arko clerks' estate (Činovničko naselje Arko) went up in 1921–24: eleven houses by the architect Janko Holjac, paid for by Arko for his factory clerks.^28,29 Each has a basement, a ground floor and one upper floor. Most held two two-room flatsTwo-room flat (dvosoban stan)A flat with two rooms, usually a living room and one bedroom. In Croatian listings the room count isn't the number of bedrooms.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), čl. 2., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary and a one-room semi-basement flat, and some were family houses. All are rendered in a dark terracotta red and stand around a long shared courtyard.^29,28 According to Mapiranje kvarta, the estate sits on a small dead-end street in the middle of the block, shaded by big chestnut trees.³

In the Badel block, between Vlaška, Šubićeva, Martićeva and Derenčinova, Pjenica, the former yeast factory, and the Gorica building are decaying. The City's plan allows some buildings to be removed but requires the classicist part of Gorica's south-east façade and its "Gorica" sign to be kept.^21,23,3,22 In 2005 the ten-day Operacija:grad event turned the abandoned block into a temporary cultural venue.²¹

Writing in H-Alter, Saša Šimpraga says Park Bartula Kašića works far better than the square itself as the neighbourhood's meeting place.¹⁷ All four local committees around the square lost residents between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, from about 9% („Dinko Šimunović”) to about 18% (Petrova).^{30,31,10,32,33}

Where the name Kvatrić comes from

People call Trg Eugena Kvaternika Kvaternikov trg, Kvatrić and Kvaternjak.^5,7 Writing in Vijenac, Nives Opačić lists Kvatrić with Tkalča, Cvjetni and Krešimirac as pet names residents come to give their streets and squares.⁸ The square is named after Eugen Kvaternik (Zagreb, 31 October 1825 – Rakovica, 11 October 1871), the politician who, with Ante Starčević, first set out the programme of the Party of Rights in the Sabor in 1861.^34,5

Its older name was Međašni trg or Međašni plac. Međa means boundary, and the square marked the city's eastern edge, by the toll station.^7,26,27 According to Wikipedia, the square was briefly called Trg pobjede (Victory Square) after the Second World War.⁵

Kvatrić is also the name of the market. When the new market hall opened in December 2001, the chronicler Zvonimir Milčec proposed calling it "Novi Kvatrić", because Kvatrić had long been a byword for the market; the contractors had named the building Gorica, after the nearby enamel-ware factory.³⁵ In 2008 he suggested calling the rebuilt square Kvaternjak, since the city already had a Kvatrić, the market, about a hundred metres further south.⁷

A short history of Kvatrić

The square was laid out in the late 19th century, when the city was growing east, as the eastern counterpart of Britanski trg in the west; both were market squares (placevi).^5,26,27 Zagreb's first horse-drawn tram set off on 5 September 1891 from the toll station on Vlaška ulica, on today's Kvaternikov trg, and ran across Trg bana Jelačića, the main square, and along Ilica to today's Zapadni kolodvor station.^36,5 In 1926 a tram turning loop was built on the square, and a temporary line ran down Sajmišna ulica, today's Heinzelova, to the new fairground. That line was removed in 1954.^37,5,3

Industry grew up around the square. Mijo Arko's firm was founded in 1867, and the Patria cognac and liqueur factory in 1886, on the east side of the square, which according to Dino Igrec was then outside the city municipality.^38,39,26 In 1918–21 Mijo's son Vladimir built new works, and he also rebuilt the family house at Vlaška 116; Ignjat Fischer designed both.^40,38,23 Vladimir also founded an enamel-ware works in the block, in 1928 according to the Croatian Technical Encyclopaedia or in 1931 according to the City Museum curator Goran Arčabić; from 1936 it traded as Gorica.^41,38,23 After nationalisation Arko, Patria and Pokorny were merged, drinks production was brought together at Vlaška 116, and from 1950 the firm was called Marijan Badel.^39,23,26

Around 1960 Šubićeva ulica was cut through the factory land, leaving Gorica's halls on both sides of it.^23,3,24 Arčabić told Index that a tunnel was built under the street to keep the factory connected; Mapiranje kvarta says only that a tunnel reportedly linked the two plots.^23,3 Nama opened in 1968.^42,43

In December 2001 the market moved off the square into a building at the corner of Šubićeva and Martićeva.^35,27 The square was then rebuilt over 22 months to a revised design by Miroslav Geng, for more than 250 million kuna, and the end of the works was marked on 12 April 2008.^6,7,5 The City also announced a monument to Eugen Kvaternik; according to Wikipedia, it was never put up.^6,5

1. 1867The Arko wine and spirits firm is founded.^38,39
2. 1891Zagreb's first horse-drawn tram sets off on 5 September from the toll station on today's Kvaternikov trg.^36,5
3. 1921–1924The Arko clerks' estate goes up: eleven houses by Janko Holjac.^28,29
4. 1926A tram turning loop is built on the square.^37,5
5. 1939The Urania cinema is built.^44,45
6. c. 1960Šubićeva ulica is cut through the factory land.^23,3
7. 1968The Nama department store opens.^42,43
8. 1991On 8 October the Sabor meets in the basement of the INA building on Šubićeva.^1,2
9. 1992–1993Park Bartula Kašića is laid out on the site of the Elka factory halls.^3,16
10. 2001The market moves off the square to the corner of Šubićeva and Martićeva.^35,27
11. 2008The rebuilt square, with its underground garage, opens on 12 April.^6,7
12. 2023An urban plan for the Badel block is adopted.^21,22

What to see in Kvatrić

• Nama department store

  Kvaternikov trg 5, built in 1963–68 to a design by Josip Hitil and Slobodan Jovičić. Its façade of dynamic geometric forms has largely kept its original look.^42,5

• The Patria building

  Maksimirska 2. The Patria factory's late-historicist corner building, with a dome and a tower shaped like a truncated pyramid, was built in 1889 to a design by Janko Jambrišak. According to the Arhitektura Zagreba catalogue, Patria was the first local factory to make cognac by the French method.⁴⁶ A McDonald's has been in the building since 1997.^46,7

• Urania

  Trg Eugena Kvaternika 3/3. In 2018–19 the studio 3LHD converted the 1939 cinema into offices and a public multimedia space linked to a bistro with courtyard and roof terraces, keeping its early ribbed concrete ceilings.^44,45

• Park Bartula Kašića

  Laid out on the site of the Elka factory halls to a design by the landscape architect Branka Aničić, and finished in 1992–93.^3,16,17 Its playground is well used: in 2014 residents collected more than 500 signatures to have it enlarged, and the park's designer refused.¹⁶

• St Peter's church

  Vlaška 93. A church on this site is first recorded in 1334, then dedicated to St Anthony. Today's church was built in 1769–70 and consecrated on 5 May 1795, and took its present form when it was enlarged in 1930–32.^47,48 The earthquakes of 22 March and 29 December 2020 cracked its walls and vault.^47,48

Did you know?

• 1In 1969 Nama's façade carried a 36-metre computer-generated light installation by Vladimir Bonačić, DIN. PR 18, which ran through 262,143 images. On the then poorly lit square it doubled as street lighting. In 1971 Bonačić replaced it with DIN. PR 16.^43,42
• 2Gorica's 1930 catalogue listed 738 products, from pots to soap dishes, toothbrushes and chamber pots, and in 1955 the factory also made road signs, house numbers and number plates.^41,23
• 3In June 1941 a clandestine radio station of the Communist Party of Croatia (KPH) ran from the Engel brothers' flat at Tuškanova 15. According to a book chapter published on znaci.org, around 23–24 June it broadcast the party's proclamation after the German attack on the USSR.^49,3

Everyday life in Kvatrić

Renting in Kvatrić

Nearby neighbourhoods

• PeščenicaNeighbourhood guide
• RibnjakNeighbourhood guide
• KanalNeighbourhood guide
• MaksimirNeighbourhood guide
• ZrinjevacNeighbourhood guide
• ŠalataNeighbourhood 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 Kvatrić