MartinovkaParomlin, Lisinski and streets named after rivers

Martinovka at a glance

• To the main square by ZET19 min
• To the centre as the crow flies1.4 km
• Residents (2021)¹2,417
• Area¹89 ha

Where Martinovka is

Martinovka is in the city district of Trnje, and officially it is the Martinovka local committee (mjesni odbor).^1,2 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Martinovka through that committee: the strip from the railway in the north to Vukovarska in the south, between Savska cesta in the west and Strojarska cesta in the east.² In 2006 Jutarnji list also used the name for a narrower area, between Miramarska, Vukovarska, Savska and Koturaška.⁴⁰

Across the railway is Donji grad, across Savska is Trešnjevka, and south of Vukovarska are the Miramare and Trnje committees.² Lisinski (Trg Stjepana Radića 4), the City administration building, FER, Paromlin and the old Gredelj works are all in the Martinovka committee.^2,15 The National and University Library (Hrvatske bratske zajednice 4) is not: it stands south of Vukovarska, in the Miramare committee.²

For and against: life in Martinovka

What life is like in Martinovka

In 2026 Jutarnji list described Martinovka as a neighbourhood of big contrasts: some high points of modern architecture along Vukovarska, and a little further in the remains of an old workers' settlement, former factory sites and empty plots close to the city centre.⁴¹

Drago Galić designed two blocks of flats on Vukovarska.^18,19 The block at Vukovarska 35–35A, designed in 1953 and completed in 1957, was modelled on Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation in Marseille.^19,18 It is 104 metres long and has 68 flats; those on the first to sixth floors are on two levels and face both ways.^19,20 Since 2009 it has been a protected cultural property in its own right.^19,20 Galić's second block, from 1954, stands on the corner of Vukovarska 43 and Miramarska.^18,19 Jasna Savničar Ivković calls the two "certainly the best examples of postwar Zagreb housing".¹⁹

Many of the small streets are named after Croatian rivers: Bednjanska, Dobranska, Koranska, Kupska, Mrežnička, Sutlanska, Unska.² According to the local-history site Mapiranje Trešnjevke, small old houses survive in Dobranska, Mrežnička and Radonjska, and Radonjska, a winding dead end, shows best what old Trnje looked like.⁹ The same site says the railway workers' settlement by the old Gredelj works still stands, and that in 2024 the club "Peti kupe" opened in one of its houses, leased from the railway company HŽ for 20 years.⁹

At the 2021 census the Martinovka committee area had 2,417 residents, 339 fewer than in 2011. The 2011 census counted 1,762 dwellings there.^1,3 In February 2026 the "villa with a little tower" on Bednjanska, once the farmhouse of the city nursery, was demolished, and Jutarnji list reports that a residential and commercial complex with a kindergarten is planned on the site.⁴¹

Where the name Martinovka comes from

None of the sources we checked says where the name Martinovka comes from. It was in official use by 1945.⁴ On 27 May that year the provisional city people's committee set up the IV. rajon Martinovka, a district much larger than today's committee area. In the second half of 1945 it was renamed IV. rajon Trnje.⁴

The street names are better documented. Koturaška is named after cycling: kotur is an old Croatian word for a bicycle, and in the 1890s the First Croatian Cyclists' Society built a racing track with a 500-metre oval just south of the street.^21,22,9 According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, Miramarska cesta is named after the Miramare inn, opened in the early 20th century and named after the castle near Trieste.⁹ Građanski's ground was known as Purgerija, writes Večernji list.²³

A short history of Martinovka

Paromlin, the steam mill, was started in 1862 by a group of Zagreb merchants led by Vatroslav Egersdorfer, and Zagreb's first steam engine was installed there that year.^5,6 A fire destroyed the mill building completely in 1906, and in 1908 J. Dubský designed its reinforced-concrete silo.^5,6,30 The Hungarian State Railways' engine works, later Gredelj, went into operation on 26 August 1894 at the start of Trnjanska cesta.^8,6 According to the Croatian Railway Museum, they were then the largest industrial plant in Zagreb.⁸ According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, a railway workers' settlement was built next to them in 1898.⁹

In 1923 the City leased land by Koturaška cesta, on the site of a former cycling track, to the football club Građanski.⁷ The ground opened on 19 October 1924 with a speech by Stjepan Radić, and the club won six more league titles there before moving to Maksimir in 1948.⁷ In late May 1942 the Ustaša regime rounded up 69 Roma from six families on the site of today's Park 5. studenoga and deported them to camps, most of them to Jasenovac.^14,13

Galić's block was among the first large buildings on the new avenue, today's Vukovarska, laid out under the 1953 city plan.¹⁹ In 1961 the Electrical Engineering Faculty moved into building A of the complex designed by Božidar Tušek.^31,32,33 The city assembly decided to build Lisinski in 1957; work began in 1961, and the hall opened on 29 and 30 December 1973.¹⁵

Gredelj began moving to Vukomerec in 1967/68, and its new plant there opened on 30 June 2010, after 116 years on Trnjanska.^39,8 Paromlin burned down on 8 March 1988 and production stopped.^5,6 According to Index.hr, the City bought it in 2005, and on 10 April 2024 work began on turning it into the new central City Library.^30,26

1. 1862Zagreb's first steam engine is installed at Paromlin.⁶
2. 1894The state railway engine works, later Gredelj, open on 26 August.⁸
3. 1908Paromlin's silo is the first reinforced-concrete building in Zagreb's urban fabric.⁶
4. 1924Građanski's ground opens by Koturaška cesta.⁷
5. 1935The school building at Koturaška 75, designed by Ivan Zemljak, is built.^10,11
6. 1942The Ustaša regime deports 69 Roma rounded up on the site of today's Park 5. studenoga.^14,13
7. 1945The IV. rajon Martinovka is set up and renamed IV. rajon Trnje the same year.⁴
8. 1957Galić's block at Vukovarska 35–35A is completed.¹⁹
9. 1961The Electrical Engineering Faculty moves into building A on Unska.³¹
10. 1973The Lisinski concert hall opens on 29 and 30 December.¹⁵
11. 1988Paromlin burns down on 8 March.^5,6
12. 2010Gredelj opens its new plant in Vukomerec; work on Trnjanska ends after 116 years.^39,8
13. 2020The Monument to the Homeland opens on Trg Stjepana Radića.¹⁷
14. 2026FER's renovated buildings B and C reopen.^34,35

What to see in Martinovka

• Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall

  At Trg Stjepana Radića 4, opened in December 1973. The main hall seats 1,874 and the small hall 304.¹⁵

• Monument to the Homeland

  Nenad Fabijanić's monument between the City administration building and Lisinski, facing the statue of Franjo Tuđman, opened on 10 December 2020. It has three parts: the Wall of Light, the Monumentum with an eternal flame and the Portal.¹⁷ The City administration building, built as the New City Hall, was designed by Kazimir Ostrogović.¹⁶

• Paromlin

  At the north end of Trnjanska and Paromlinska cesta, behind the main railway station. The surviving parts of the mill are being restored for the new central City Library and a social and cultural centre, a project worth about €95 million.^30,26,27,28 Opening is expected in early 2027.^28,30

• Galić's block, Vukovarska 35–35A

  A protected block of flats from 1957. The Ivan Goran Kovačić library is on the ground floor.^19,24

• FER, Unska 3

  A complex of four buildings; Tušek's was entered in the Register of Cultural Goods in 2012.^32,36 According to Jutarnji list, the then-new faculty buildings appear in Orson Welles's 1962 film The Trial.³⁶

• The Gredelj water tower

  According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, only a small part of the Gredelj works is left, by Strojarska cesta, with its water tower.⁹ Four workshops and the water tower were registered as cultural goods in 2004, but in 2006 the highest level of protection was kept only for the wagon-equipment workshop.⁸ According to the Croatian Technical Encyclopedia, the only protected hall collapsed in 2023.⁶

• Park 5. studenoga

  Part of the park at Savska and Koturaška, named after World Romani Language Day. Zagreb's first Stolperstein for Roma victims was laid here on 5 November 2021.^25,13

• The Građanski plaque

  GNK Dinamo put it up in 2024 on the site of Građanski's old ground, 100 years after it opened. The ground lay between Kupska, Koranska and Sutlanska streets.^7,23

Did you know?

• 1Galić's Vukovarska block, writes Jasna Savničar Ivković, is not much shorter than Le Corbusier's building in Marseille, but only half as wide.¹⁹
• 2The XV. Mathematical Gymnasium, later known as MIOC, was founded in 1964 with its seat on Sutlanska ulica; it moved to Jordanovac in 1976.⁴³
• 3According to a neighbour's family quoted by Večernji list, the Građanski coach Márton Bukovi lodged at Kupska 17 and could run training from his window.²³
• 4For the Paromlin library the City is buying ten self-driving carts that will take returned books to the sorting room, reports Jutarnji list.²⁹

Everyday life in Martinovka

Renting in Martinovka

Nearby neighbourhoods

• VrbikNeighbourhood guide
• Cvjetno naseljeNeighbourhood guide
• Lower TownNeighbourhood guide
• TrnjeNeighbourhood guide
• TrešnjevkaNeighbourhood guide
• ZrinjevacNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trnje and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – East
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – West
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Martinovka