MlinoviA former village of water mills on the Kraljevec, between Mihaljevac and Šestine

Mlinovi at a glance

• To the main square by ZET35 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.8 km
• Residents (2021)³1,850
• Committee area³59.12 ha

Where Mlinovi is

The name Mlinovi belongs to a street, the old settlement along it and a local committee.^1,3 Officially the committee is 3. Mjesni odbor Mlinovi, one of five in the Podsljeme city district; the others are Gračani, Markuševec, Šestine and Vidovec.^3,4 It is based at Jahorinska ulica 5.³ Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Mlinovi through that committee. Mlinovi was once a separate settlement. The national statistics office lists it among the former settlements of the City of Zagreb, and the ordinance on local committees says the committee now covers part of the settlement of Zagreb.^9,4

Mlinovi street starts at Mihaljevac and runs up to Šestine.¹ House numbers 1–137 and 2–132 belong to the Mlinovi committee, the higher numbers (139–187 and 134–186) to the Šestine committee, and the lowest stretch, which has no house numbers, to the Gupčeva zvijezda committee in the Gornji grad – Medveščak district.⁴ The committee borders Šestine to the north-west, Gračani to the east across Graščica, and Mihaljevac to the south.⁴

For and against: life in Mlinovi

What life is like in Mlinovi

The City describes Podsljeme as a district of low-density housing, mostly family houses.⁶ Even so, the Mlinovi committee area is by far the most densely populated part of the district: at the 2011 census it had 1,978 residents on 0.59 km², about 3,350 per square kilometre, against 322 for Podsljeme as a whole.^5,6 It then had 754 households and 959 dwellings, and at the 2021 census 1,850 residents.^5,3

The architecture magazine Oris describes Mlinovi as a residential area at the foot of Medvednica with a fine landscape, but built piecemeal and without a plan.²¹ In 2016 a resident told Večernji list that Mlinovi was "a quiet oasis, partly in the woods", ten minutes from the centre by bus.²² In 2011, 43.3% of the committee area's residents aged 15 and over had higher education, the highest share in Podsljeme.⁶

In the mid-2010s a development of 14 family houses, Mlinovi Hills, was completed here to a design by the British practice Chapman Taylor: 11 detached villas and three semi-detached houses. Tportal reported it finished at the end of 2014; the architects' page gives 2016.^18,19 In 2018 Jutarnji list wrote that nobody had ever moved into the villas and that they were called a ghost town; they were back on the market as Bel Village, at about €1 million a house.²⁰

The parish of St Mirko in Šestine covers part of Mlinovi street and most of the committee area's side streets, from Durmitorska and Bitorajska to Jahorinska and Pirovec.³⁰

Where the name Mlinovi comes from

Mlinovi ("mills") takes its name from the water mills that were built on the Kraljevec stream.^1,10 Kraljevec, also spelt Kraljevac, is the name of the upper course of the Medveščak stream.^14,11 The City Museum notes that the vanished craft of milling survives in the settlement's name, and one street in the committee area is called Vodenica, another word for a water mill.^10,4

According to Snješka Knežević's article on Lenuci's avenues, in 1899 Milan Lenuci drew up a detailed plan for two roads north of the city toll gate, Mlinarska and Žaverska (or Šaverska). Mlinarska was later renamed Ksaverska, and Žaverska became Mlinovi.¹²

A short history of Mlinovi

The City lists Mlinovi among the centuries-old settlements below Medvedgrad, with Šestine, Gračani, Markuševec and Vidovec, and ZGportal describes it as an old settlement on the cart road from Zagreb to Šestine.^2,1 There were mills on Medvednica's streams in the Middle Ages. According to Vladimir Tarnovski, in the mid-13th century the people of Zagreb dug the Pretoka channel from Okrugljak down to Krvavi most to protect the mills from floods.¹¹ Milling rights caused fierce disputes between Gradec and Kaptol, and in the late 14th century a special decree settled who could build mills, where and how.^10,11

In 1889 the Šestine commune took in the villages of Šestine, Bijenik, Dedići, Kraljevec, Lukšići, Mikulići and Mlinovi, and was itself part of the administrative municipality of Stenjevec.⁸ From 1 May 1893 Mlinovi belonged to the new independent municipality of Šestine.^8,2 In the early 1920s the forester Albin Leustek built a family house to his own design beside the Kraljevec, at what is now Mlinovi 72, and laid out a park around it.^13,14 Milling below Medvednica died out completely in the 1960s.¹⁰

From 1945 to 1950 the place was run by the Mlinovi local people's committee, from 1947 as a separate local office of the Zagreb district.⁷ The sources differ on the year it was joined to Zagreb: the City gives late 1949, while the State Archives cite a 1950 decree that abolished the committee and attached it to the city's 1st district (rajon), Centar.^2,7 In 1955 the settlement was split: Gornji (Upper) Mlinovi went to the Gornji grad municipality and Donji (Lower) Mlinovi to Medveščak.² From 1974 Mlinovi was a local community in the Centar municipality, and today's local committee was founded in February 2009.^2,4

In 2017 the City commissioned a concept design for a pavement on Mlinovi street, and its 2024 procurement plan included rebuilding part of the street with a new pavement and a wider bridge over the Kraljevec.^34,35 The Mihaljevac terminus, not renovated since it was built in 1948, was rebuilt for about €4 million and reopened on 7 January 2025.³³ In summer 2026 the carriageway on Mlinovi street was resurfaced, and the district's 2026 plan also covers the carriageway of Bitorajska and a design for a pavement beside the stream on Jahorinska.^38,37

1. 1889Mlinovi is one of seven villages in the Šestine commune.⁸
2. 1893The independent municipality of Šestine is founded, with Mlinovi in it.^8,2
3. 1899Lenuci plans the roads north of the toll gate; the Žaverska road is later named Mlinovi.¹²
4. 1920sAlbin Leustek builds his house and lays out a park at what is now Mlinovi 72.^13,14
5. 1945The Mlinovi local people's committee is set up.⁷
6. 1949/1950Mlinovi is joined to Zagreb: in late 1949 according to the City, in 1950 according to the State Archives.^2,7
7. 1955Gornji Mlinovi goes to the Gornji grad municipality, Donji Mlinovi to Medveščak.²
8. 1963Leustek's garden is protected as a monument of park architecture.^13,14
9. 1974Mlinovi becomes a local community in the Centar municipality.²
10. 2003Vila Leustek and its park are declared a cultural good.¹⁴
11. 2009The Mlinovi local committee is founded.^2,4
12. 2014According to Tportal, the Mlinovi Hills development is completed.¹⁸
13. 2025The rebuilt Mihaljevac terminus reopens.³³

What to see in Mlinovi

• Leustekov park, Mlinovi 72

  The park around the forester Albin Leustek's house was protected as a monument of park architecture on 16 March 1963.^13,14 His daughter Planinka enlarged it into something close to an arboretum, with groups of Norway spruce, blue spruce and Douglas fir, magnolias, Japanese cherries, birches and a rock garden.^13,14 According to Mladen Skoko, the Ministry of Culture declared the villa and park a cultural good in 2003. The owner looks after the park; it is private property.¹⁴

• Okrugljak restaurant, Mlinovi 28

  Its owners date it to 1913, the year of their oldest photograph, and said in 2014 that its look had hardly changed, apart from some alterations in 1971.^16,17

• The mill at Okrugljak

  A mill turns beside the restaurant, but according to Vladimir Tarnovski (2022) it isn't an original: the restaurant put it there about 15 years earlier. The other mills on the stream are out of use.¹¹

• The Gospodarić mill

  The old mill's machinery survives, but there's no longer a stream to drive it, Tarnovski said in 2022.¹¹ The City Museum holds a photograph of it taken by Marijan Szabo in 1963.¹⁰

• Snježničke stube

  A public stairway opposite the Okrugljak restaurant.^39,4 Bus 102 has a stop named after it.³¹

• Stairways on the slopes

  The committee area's official street list has nine stairways: Alanske, Biokovske, Lovćenske, Malovanske, Mosorske, Snježničke and Troglavske stube, Stube Dubravka Gregorina and Šumske stube.⁴

Did you know?

• 1According to Mladen Skoko's 2007 article in Šumarski list, Leustek put a small turbine on the Kraljevec to make electricity for his house and farm.¹⁴
• 2Albin Leustek was chief forester of Zagreb's city forestry on Medvednica from 1919 to 1941. He grew the city's forests from 463 hectares in 1919 to 1,640 in 1936, and in 1932 got 1,300 hectares of central Medvednica declared a park-forest. The 5.7 km Leustek trail from Gračani to the Sljeme forester's lodge bears his name.¹⁵
• 3Mountain names dominate the committee area's official street list: Biokovske stube, Bitorajska, Durmitorska, Jahorinska, Kalnički put, Lovćenska, Mosorske stube, Snježničke stube, Troglavske stube, Zavižanska and more.⁴
• 4The Mlinovi committee area covers just 1% of Podsljeme, yet in 2011 more than a tenth of the district's residents lived there.^6,5

Everyday life in Mlinovi

Renting in Mlinovi

Nearby neighbourhoods

• ŠestineNeighbourhood guide
• GračaniNeighbourhood guide
• RemeteNeighbourhood guide
• JelenovacNeighbourhood guide
• PantovčakNeighbourhood guide
• Šestinski dolNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Podsljeme and Črnomerec
• Compare districts: Podsljeme and Gornja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Podsljeme and Upper Town – Medveščak
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Mlinovi