MedveščakFrom a free village of 1344 to an avenue above a stream

Medveščak at a glance

• To the main square by ZET13 min
• To the centre as the crow flies1.3 km
• Residents (2021)^3,4,56,903
• Nova Ves charter^16,141344

Where Medveščak is

Officially Medveščak belongs to the city district of Gornji grad – Medveščak and is covered by three local committees (mjesni odbori): Medveščak (based at Medveščak 2), Nova Ves (Nova Ves 36) and Gupčeva zvijezda (Ksaver 203).^2,3,4,5 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Medveščak through those three committees. None of them is a separate settlement: each covers part of the settlement of Zagreb.²

The Medveščak committee takes in the whole street of that name up to the south side of Gupčeva zvijezda. The Nova Ves committee covers Nova Ves, Medvedgradska, Mlinarska cesta, Mallinova and Lepa Ves, and the Gupčeva zvijezda committee the square itself, Ksaverska cesta, Jandrićeva, Podgaj, Tošovac, Mihaljevac and part of Ksaver.^1,2 The other house numbers on Ksaver belong to the Gornji grad committee.¹ The Medveščak committee officially also takes in the Šalata hillside with Rockefellerova and Grškovićeva, but this guide counts that slope as part of neighbouring Šalata.^1,2 Kaptol and Ribnjak lie to the south, Šalata to the east, Gornji grad to the west and Tuškanac to the north-west.^2,1

For and against: life in Medveščak

What life is like in Medveščak

Nova Ves is still lined mostly with single-storey houses and the odd two-storey one.^17,10 For centuries the cathedral's twelve prebendaries lived here; in the 18th and 19th centuries their small wooden houses were replaced by brick ones, most of which keep their look.^17,10,16 In the Middle Ages the street was home to craftsmen with workshops in their own houses, the burghers of Nova Ves; in the early 19th century there were 35 of them.^10,17,16

Medveščak street is a tree-lined avenue with the tram on its own track down the middle, above the vaulted bed of the stream.^28,29 The track was renewed in summer 2025.⁵¹ The art historian Snješka Knežević writes that by 1938 the street had become "the most lavish Zagreb avenue of the era".²⁸ Oton Goldscheider's firm Goldscheider i Mihok built the apartment buildings at numbers 31, 39, 67 and 97.⁵⁵

North of Gupčeva zvijezda, in the valley of Ksaverska cesta, the neighbourhood is far less built up. At the 2011 census the Gupčeva zvijezda committee area had 1,074 dwellings on 230.79 hectares, against 1,526 on 47.58 hectares in Medveščak and 1,667 on just 27.52 hectares in Nova Ves.^8,3,4,5 The City describes the central and northern parts of the Gornji grad – Medveščak district as an area of urban villas and family houses, much of it on the slopes of Medvednica.⁶

On the western slope of the valley, at Orlovac, stands the estate usually called Ksaver, designed by the architect Vahid Hodžić.^56,57 According to Željko Žutelija's column in Nacional, it was built between 1976 and 1984 and consists of densely packed identical housing units and a cluster of office buildings.⁵⁷

Medveščak

The committee area along Medveščak street and the slope east of it. It is based at Medveščak 2 and had 2,351 residents on 47.58 hectares at the 2021 census.^2,3

Nova Ves

The smallest and most densely settled of the three: Nova Ves, Medvedgradska, Mlinarska cesta and the streets around them. It had 2,397 residents on 27.52 hectares at the 2021 census.^1,4

Gupčeva zvijezda

The square and the valley north of it, with Ksaverska cesta, Jandrićeva, Podgaj, Tošovac, Mihaljevac and part of Ksaver. It had 2,155 residents on 230.79 hectares at the 2021 census.^1,5

Where the name Medveščak comes from

The neighbourhood, the street and the former municipality all take their name from the Medveščak stream.^9,12 The stream's oldest recorded name is Cirkvenitza; in the Middle Ages it was also called Matičina, and it is also known as Crikvenik.^13,9,12 The sources don't prove where the name Medveščak itself comes from. The Medvednica Nature Park's management plan only says that the names Medvednica, Medveščak and Medvedgrad suggest bears once lived here (medvjed is Croatian for bear).⁶²

Nova Ves means "new village": ves is an old word for a village. The 1344 charter calls it "villa nostra libera", our free village, and the chapter's statutes also call it Lepa Ves, "fair village"; a short street of that name still exists.^16,14,10,1 Ksaver is named after St Francis Xavier: the Jesuit estate with his chapel was called Sveti Ksaver, and the name passed to the whole area.^22,23

Gupčeva zvijezda's official name is Zvijezda Matije Gupca, Gubec's Star, after Matija Gubec, the legendary "king of the Croatian peasants"; it has also been called simply Zvijezda.^2,11,7

A short history of Medveščak

The stream is first mentioned in 1201, as Cirkvenitza, in King Emeric's charter confirming the boundaries of Kaptol. For centuries it divided the bishop's and chapter's Zagreb from the free royal town of Gradec.¹³ According to the historian Lelja Dobronić, the Templars had a seat in Nova Ves from the time of Bishop Prodan (about 1170–1175), and when the order was abolished in 1312 the Croatian Templars withdrew to their house there.¹⁶

Nova Ves appears in the chapter's statutes of 1334, and on 9 September 1344 the chapter issued its founding charter: a free village for settlers, north of the canons' houses, on both sides of the road into the hills. Every year on 1 May the village elected its own head, the villicus or judge.^16,14,15 In 1347 the parish of St John the Baptist was founded, one of Zagreb's four oldest.^19,16 According to the City Museum, a flood of the stream in 1651 took 52 lives.¹³

On the stream's right bank the Jesuits bought land rising towards Cmrok in 1608, and today's church of St Francis Xavier was built between 1748 and 1752.^22,23 An imperial patent of 7 September 1850 united Nova Ves with Gradec, Kaptol, Vlaška Ves and Horvati into one city municipality.^18,7,16

Between 1896 and 1898 the stream was moved into a new channel further east while the sewer system was being built, and most of the mills along it were bought up and removed.^28,13 The tram line from Trg bana Jelačića to Mirogoj opened in 1911 and at first ran via Nova Ves. In 1930 the stream bed on Medveščak street was vaulted over, in 1931 the tram moved to a new route along Ribnjak and Medveščak, and in 1933 the line was extended up Ksaverska cesta to Jandrićeva.^32,13,28,29

On 31 October 1954 a line 13 tram coming down Mirogojska cesta lost its brakes and left the rails on the last bend above Gupčeva zvijezda, by today's Dr Fran Mihaljević Clinic for Infectious Diseases. Nineteen people died and 37 were badly injured.^32,33,11 The municipality of Medveščak, much larger than today's neighbourhood, existed from 1953 to 1955 and from 1974 to the end of 1990.^7,9

1. 1201The stream is first mentioned, as Cirkvenitza, in King Emeric's charter.¹³
2. 1344On 9 September the chapter issues the charter making Nova Ves a free village.^16,14
3. 1347The parish of St John the Baptist is founded on Nova Ves.^19,16
4. 1651A flood of the stream takes 52 lives.¹³
5. 1748–1752The church of St Francis Xavier is built on Ksaver.^22,23
6. 1850Nova Ves is united with Gradec and Kaptol into one city municipality.^18,7
7. 1896–1898The stream is moved into a new channel as the sewers are built.^28,13
8. 1911The tram line from Trg bana Jelačića to Mirogoj opens.³²
9. 1930The stream bed on Medveščak street is vaulted over; a year later trams run along the street.^28,13
10. 1935The tram shelter on Gupčeva zvijezda is completed.^29,30
11. 1954Nineteen people die in a tram accident on Mirogojska cesta.^32,33
12. 1961The primary school on Mlinarska, now OŠ Ksavera Šandora Gjalskoga, opens.³⁷
13. 1998A medieval stove-tile workshop is found on the Centar Kaptol building site.¹⁵
14. 2022The rebuilt and extended OŠ Ksavera Šandora Gjalskoga reopens.³⁹

What to see in Medveščak

• Church of St John the Baptist

  At Nova Ves 64a. The Ministry of Culture regards its interior as the most significant late-baroque and classicist church interior in Zagreb, with baroque marble altars moved here from the cathedral.^19,16 After the March 2020 earthquake the church was temporarily unusable, and structural repairs began in December 2022.²¹

• St Dismas chapel

  Canon Ivan Zebec built this small baroque chapel at the entrance to Nova Ves in 1706. According to HRT, it stands about four hundred steps north of the cathedral.^16,20

• St Francis Xavier and the Calvary

  A small, mature-baroque, single-nave pilgrimage church with a dome over the sanctuary. It is reached through a park lined with Way of the Cross chapels, and the church, the park and the approach are protected as one cultural property.^23,22 The church and monastery were badly damaged in the earthquakes of 22 March and 29 December 2020.^22,23

• Mallinov park

  A 1.69-hectare park on Ksaver, protected as a monument of park architecture since 4 March 1960. It was laid out after 1861, when the Jesuits' summer house passed to the Mallin family. It is known for its exotic conifers, above all two giant sequoias that the park authority, Priroda Grada Zagreba, counts among the oldest in Europe.²⁴

• Gliptoteka HAZU

  A sculpture museum at Medvedgradska 2, in the old tannery buildings, with over 11,000 objects. The museum calls its collection the largest in Croatia, and its sculpture park was laid out by Miroslav Begović in 2000.²⁶ According to the Academy (HAZU), the full and energy renovation was finished on 30 June 2026, while the museum's own page still says it is closed for renovation.^27,26

• Gupčeva zvijezda and its 1935 shelter

  The square where Medveščak, Ksaverska cesta, Mirogojska cesta and Vrančićeva meet first appears on Lenuci's plan of 1899.^11,28 The tram shelter, completed in 1935, is a small reinforced-concrete pavilion with a glass skin and a built-in phone booth. It has been a registered cultural monument since 6 May 1996, and the register describes it as the only surviving example of modern functionalist municipal equipment in Zagreb.^29,30,31

Did you know?

• 1Twenty-five mills once worked along the Medveščak, and in the first half of the 19th century Zagreb had more than a hundred master millers.¹³
• 2According to a 2007 Jutarnji list survey of literary addresses, Ivan Goran Kovačić lived at Mlinarska 16 from 1939 to 1942 and wrote his poem Jama there, Ranko Marinković wrote Kiklop at Medveščak 41, and Slobodan Novak wrote Mirisi, zlato i tamjan at Nova Ves 45.⁵⁸
• 3From 1925 the Trajković bakery on Nova Ves baked in a wood-fired oven built of more than 9,000 bricks. In November 2022 it announced that it would put the oven out at the end of that year.^59,17

Everyday life in Medveščak

Renting in Medveščak

Nearby neighbourhoods

• ŠalataNeighbourhood guide
• TuškanacNeighbourhood guide
• RibnjakNeighbourhood guide
• Upper TownNeighbourhood guide
• KaptolNeighbourhood guide
• PantovčakNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Upper Town – Medveščak and Črnomerec
• Compare districts: Upper Town – Medveščak and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Upper Town – Medveščak and Maksimir
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Medveščak