MaksimirThe neighbourhood around a 316-hectare park, the zoo and the stadium

Maksimir at a glance

• To the main square by ZET23 min
• To the centre as the crow flies2.7 km
• Maksimir Park^1,2316 ha
• Park opened^1,21794

Where Maksimir is

The city district of Maksimir is named after the park-forest and has 11 local committees (mjesni odbori).^15,22 It borders Donji grad and Gornji grad – Medveščak to the west, Podsljeme to the north, Gornja and Donja Dubrava to the east and Peščenica – Žitnjak to the south.^27,28 The Maksimir neighbourhood has no official boundaries. In this guide it means the residential streets around the park, which by the official street lists of 2009 fall roughly within four local committees: Maksimir, Maksimirska naselja, Mašićeva and Ružmarinka. That grouping is our reading of the lists, not an official division.^{22,23,24,25,26}

All four are part of the settlement of Zagreb, so Maksimir is not a separate statistical settlement. It is a cadastral municipality, and it was a municipality in its own right from 1953 to 1967 and from 1974 to 1990.^22,3,15 The district's other committees, among them Dobri Dol with upper Jordanovac, Bukovac, Remete and Dotrščina, are not covered by this guide.²²

For and against: life in Maksimir

What life is like in Maksimir

According to a City Museum text, Maksimirska cesta has been built up since the 19th century. Late in that century craftsmen and traders put up small houses there, and in the 20th century three- and four-storey buildings replaced them. Shops at street level with flats above are typical.⁵

Željeznička kolonija, a garden settlement for railway workers, was drawn into the 1923 regulation plan and mostly built in 1927–1928 between Maksimirska cesta and the railway. It had about thirty buildings, mostly ground-floor terraced houses with rooms in the attic.^6,32 It was laid out around a square with public buildings, today's Kažotićev trg, and a triangular square with a playground.^6,22

Ravnice and the Maksimirska naselja estates, east and south of the park, belong to the Maksimirska naselja local committee.^22,24 From 1964 Kraš gradually moved its production from the city centre to Ravnice, where its address is still Ravnice 48. East of the stadium, on Hondlova ulica, was the seat of Fotokemika, founded in 1947 to make photographic materials.^4,34,33

For the district as a whole, the City analysis describes the southern, mostly flat part as highly urbanised and criss-crossed by roads, while the north lies on the foothills of Medvednica, where settled areas mix with remnants of forest.^27,28 Housing is denser in the south.²⁷ The same analysis notes that the open lowland between the Medvednica slopes, the east side of the Maksimir forest and Ravnice gives a clear view of the mountain and brings fresh air into the dense, flat part of the city.^27,28

At the 2011 census the district had 24,525 dwellings. Among occupied flats, three-room (35.2%) and two-room (28.9%) flats were the most common, and the average flat for permanent living was 75.2 m².^27,28 The average age of residents was 43.5, above the city average of 41.6.^27,28 Between 2001 and 2011 the population fell by 18% in the Mašićeva committee area and by 15% in Ružmarinka.²⁷

Maksimir

The streets west and north of the park, along Bukovačka cesta and Rebar, and most of the park-forest. The committee is based at Barutanski breg 5 and had 3,782 residents on 243.21 ha in 2021.^22,23

Maksimirska naselja

Ravnice, the Maksimirska naselja estates, the former railway workers' colony, the zoo and the stadium. The committee is based at IV. Maksimirsko naselje 29 and had 8,308 residents on 245.83 ha in 2021.^22,24

Mašićeva

The north side of Maksimirska cesta up to Petrova, with lower Jordanovac. The committee is based at Trg Vlaha Bukovca 3 and had 4,090 residents on 33.45 ha in 2021.^22,25

Ružmarinka

The south side of Maksimirska cesta between Šulekova and Svetice, with Harambašićeva and Kennedyjev trg. The committee is based at Ružmarinka 21 and had 2,654 residents on 25.85 ha in 2021.^22,26

Where the name Maksimir comes from

The park was named after its founder, Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac of Zagreb. It was called Maksimilijanov mir, Maksimilijan's peace, or Maksimir for short.^1,4 According to the district history on the City's website, the name Maksimir is recorded as early as 1791.³ The city district later took its name from the park.¹⁵

In 1839 the park was renamed Jurjaves in honour of Archbishop Juraj Haulik, and after Haulik's death in 1869 the old name came back.^1,2,3 According to the City Museum, Maksimirska cesta was officially named after the park in 1900, while the route itself is first recorded in 1223 as Velika cesta, the eastern road into town along today's Maksimirska, Vlaška and Bakačeva.⁵

A short history of Maksimir

The farm (majur) is older than the idea of the park: the first Habsburg military survey of 1783–1784 shows four farm buildings there, labelled Mayerhof.⁷ In the late 1780s Bishop Vrhovac decided to turn the old bishop's forest into a park for the citizens, and it was formally opened in 1794.^1,2,3,4 The park authority and the City call it the first public park in south-east Europe.^1,28

Juraj Haulik, bishop from 1837, began redesigning the park the following year with a group of Viennese artists led by the imperial garden architect Michael Sebastian Riedl, among them Franz Schücht and Franjo Serafin Körbler. In 1843 Haulik marked the end of the works with an obelisk in the Dolina dalija, the dahlia valley.^1,2,8

According to Darja Radović's study, the church land south of the park began passing to the city in 1876, which opened eastern Zagreb to planned building.⁶ Maksimir was formally incorporated into Zagreb in 1900 according to the City Museum and the same study, and in 1902 according to the district history on the City's website.^4,6,3 South of the park, HAŠK's football ground opened on 5 May 1912.^16,17 The zoo, founded by the civil engineer Mijo Filipović, opened on 27 June 1925.^19,20

In the first air raid on Zagreb, on 22 February 1944, the railway workers' colony and Ravnice were badly hit. The south wing of the school building collapsed, and the whole south wing of the Dominican monastery was destroyed.^30,31,6

According to the club, Dinamo moved to the Maksimir ground in 1948.¹⁷ Today's stadium, designed by the architect Vladimir Turina, was built stand by stand from the early 1950s to the late 1960s.^4,16,17 The park was first protected in 1948 and declared a monument of park architecture in 1964.^1,28 According to Saša Šimpraga's piece on the H-Alter portal, after the 1964 Sava flood, barracks for flood victims went up quickly on the former city amusement ground beside the park. When he wrote, some were still standing and partly lived in.⁴⁸ In 1987 the Summer Universiade opened at the stadium, and the basketball player Dražen Petrović lit the flame.^18,54 The Dedek oak, estimated at about 600 years old, fell in a storm on 15 May 2026.^49,14 In September 2026 a 35,000-seat design won the City's competition for a new stadium.⁵¹

1. 1783–1784A military survey records four farm buildings labelled Mayerhof.⁷
2. 1794The park is formally opened to the public.^1,2,14
3. 1839The park is renamed Jurjaves in honour of Juraj Haulik.^1,2
4. 1843An obelisk in the Dolina dalija marks the end of Haulik's redesign.⁸
5. 1892According to the City Museum, the horse tram reaches the park's main gate.^4,5
6. 1912HAŠK's ground opens on the site of today's stadium.^16,17,3
7. 1925The zoo opens.^19,20
8. 1927Most of the railway workers' colony goes up (1927–1928), and the Dominican monastery on Kažotićev trg opens.^6,32
9. 1944The air raid of 22 February badly hits the railway workers' colony and Ravnice.^30,31
10. 1947A children's pioneer railway is built from Maksimir towards Novaki.^46,47
11. 1964The park is declared a monument of park architecture.²⁸
12. 1987The Summer Universiade opens at Maksimir stadium.^18,54
13. 2026A March storm fells more than 5,000 trees in the park, and in May the Dedek oak falls.^50,49

What to see in Maksimir

• Vidikovac (the lookout)

  A two-storey, 17-metre lookout, also called the Kiosk, built by Franz Schücht between 1841 and 1843. The park's paths branch out from it. It was restored in 2002.^9,1,2

• Švicarska kuća (the Swiss house)

  Built to Schücht's design and finished in autumn 1842. Haulik's salon upstairs has a carved Baroque ceiling from Klosterneuburg monastery and 12 stained-glass panes of Swiss and Tyrolean landscapes by Anton Kothgasser. It was restored in 2005.^10,1

• Paviljon Jeka (the Echo pavilion)

  The park's only surviving pavilion, raised after 1840 to Schücht's design on a twelve-sided stone base. It is dedicated to the goddess Echo and known for doubling and throwing back sound. It was restored in 2001.^11,1

• Sokolska mogila

  A memorial mound for the millennium of the Croatian kingdom. The Croatian Sokol federation raised it on the site of the former Kišobran pavilion and finished it in 1926.^12,2 It is built of clods of earth from 155 places in Croatia, and the ten lime trees around it stand for ten centuries.^12,14

• The farm and Fakultetsko dobro

  The oldest built part of Maksimir.⁷ The farm keeps Haulik's summer house (Schücht, 1839–1840) and the 1853 apiary with a beekeeper's flat.⁸ The university faculty has run it since 1 January 1922, and since then it has been called Fakultetsko dobro, the faculty estate. The Faculty of Agriculture is on the farm today, at Svetošimunska cesta 25.^7,35

• Zagreb Zoo

  It opened on 27 June 1925 with a handful of foxes and owls and marked its centenary in 2025. Its address is Ulica Fakultetsko dobro 1.^19,20,21 Its oldest structure is the stone entrance tower of 1926, and visitors enter over a bridge with four stone lions.¹⁹

• Maksimir stadium

  Home of GNK Dinamo, at Maksimirska cesta 128.^16,15 According to the City's competition brochure, the first sports building on the site was a wooden velodrome of 1897 by the engineer Gustav Hermann.¹⁸ After the 2020 earthquake its capacity was cut to 24,851 seats.¹⁶

• Kažotićev trg

  The central square of the railway workers' colony, named after Augustin Kažotić.²² The Dominican monastery here opened in May 1927 on land given by Archbishop Bauer. Its north wing was added in 1930.⁶

Did you know?

• 1Leeches were bred at Maksimir: east of the Bliznec stream the farm had a leech garden with a pond, next to the bee garden and a mulberry grove for silkworms.⁷
• 2Fernkorn's equestrian St George stood at the park's main gate from 1867. A bronze cast has stood on Trg Republike Hrvatske since 1908.^8,53
• 3From 1947 to 1953 a 600 mm narrow-gauge pioneer railway, 2,552 m long, ran from Maksimir towards Novaki, staffed by children in railway uniforms. It was the first pioneer railway in socialist Yugoslavia and closed because it made a loss.^46,47
• 4The park authority says the population density of the middle spotted woodpecker in Maksimir is one of the highest in the world, and more than a hundred bird species have been recorded there.¹

Everyday life in Maksimir

Renting in Maksimir

Nearby neighbourhoods

• PeščenicaNeighbourhood guide
• KvatrićNeighbourhood guide
• RavniceNeighbourhood guide
• ŠalataNeighbourhood guide
• VolovčicaNeighbourhood guide
• BukovacNeighbourhood 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 Maksimir