RavniceThe neighbourhood of the railway colony, Kraš and Maksimir stadium

Ravnice at a glance

• To the main square by ZET31 min
• To the centre as the crow flies4.2 km
• Residents, MO Maksimirska naselja (2021)⁹8,308
• Flats in the colony (1927–1928)⁴145

Where Ravnice is

Ravnice lies on the lowland south of Maksimir Park.^10,11 Officially it belongs to the city district of Maksimir and the local committee (mjesni odbor) of Maksimirska naselja, which covers part of the settlement of Zagreb; the city's divisions have no unit called Ravnice.^8,9 The neighbourhood has no official boundary, and residents use the name Ravnice for the committee's whole area, so that is how this guide reads it.²

According to the surveying firm Geoprojekt, Ravnice is bounded by the Svetice sports complex to the west, Maksimir Park to the north, the Maksimir tennis centre to the east and Branimirova and the railway to the south.³⁷ Antonio Jurčev, author of a monograph on the neighbourhood, divides it into five historic parts. He thinks Maksimirska naselja would be the more exact name, but Ravnice has stuck for the whole area.^1,2 The park and the zoo are covered in the Maksimir guide.

For and against: life in Ravnice

What life is like in Ravnice

Željeznička kolonija is a garden suburb for railway workers, built as 32 standardised buildings holding 145 flats in six irregular blocks, mostly rows of single-storey houses with an attic room, a small front yard and a larger garden behind. Depending on the type, the flats measured 64, 85, 88 or 120 m². Its centre is a set of gently curving streets, Kažotićev trg with the public buildings and a triangular square with a playground.⁴ The colony is a protected historic ensemble, roughly between Branimirova, Krešićeva, Hitrecova, Jakićeva, Hondlova and Albrechtova; the protection does not cover the whole of Ravnice.^18,36

According to Jurčev, part of the colony still looks as it was built, and many houses are original or only slightly altered.^1,2 Private family houses went up in its western part at the same time.⁴ South of the green area by the Hondlova stop, Bauštela says, are mostly blocks of flats from the 1970s and 1980s, some linked by a raised plaza.^35,20 The same site reports that a building permit was issued on 22 September 2026 for a new building on an overgrown meadow on the corner of Šeferova and Hegedušićeva, next to a 14-storey block. The design has a basement and four upper floors with eight flats and one business unit, and 13 parking places, nine of them underground.³⁵ According to Geoprojekt, residential and commercial buildings filled an unfinished block between Albrechtova, IV. Maksimirsko naselje, Nova Branimirova and the extended Bulvanova between 2006 and 2009.³⁷

The streets I. to XI. Ravnice have numbers instead of names.^7,8 Kraš has its headquarters and factory at Ravnice 48, and Jurčev says the whole neighbourhood smells of chocolate in the morning.^16,2 Bauštela calls Ravnice Zagreb's "bluest" neighbourhood, after the colour of Dinamo.³⁵

Željeznička kolonija

The 1920s garden suburb west of Hondlova and Brkljačićeva, centred on Kažotićev trg; a protected historic ensemble.^1,4,18

Maksimirska naselja

The old estates between Željeznička kolonija and Ravnice proper.^1,2

Ravnice proper

The part east of the Bliznec stream, which can no longer be seen.¹

Svetice

The western part. The Svetice pool complex opened on the western edge in 2016.^1,34

Fakultetsko dobro

The northern part. The street of the same name is the address of NK Ravnice's ground (Fakultetsko dobro 2a).^1,25

Where the name Ravnice comes from

The name describes the land. According to Jutarnji list, the colony was begun on the plain south of the park, and the City's district analysis describes an open lowland running from the slopes of Medvednica along the east side of the Maksimir forest to the Ravnice area.^1,10 The property site Bauštela, writing about aerial photographs of Zagreb from 1968, says the neighbourhood took its name from the flat fields.³

The name was in use for a settlement by 1944 at the latest. Ravnice appears next to the colony on that year's aerial photographs, and the school's chronicle names Željeznička kolonija and Ravnice as the settlements badly hit in the bombing of February 1944.^1,6

A short history of Ravnice

After 1876, when the Zagreb bishopric's church estates were bought out, building on the city's eastern outskirts became possible.^1,4 In 1923 the eastern marshalling yard and Zagreb – Borongaj station were built, with a branch line towards the future railway settlement, and that year's regulation plan laid out the colony.^1,4 According to Jurčev, many of the first families were those of railwaymen laid off in Istria, and others came from Rijeka. They lived in old freight wagons on eight sidings, 10 to 15 wagons to each.^1,2,5 The Željeznički dom society was founded in 1925 to help members get homes, and street sewers were laid for the colony the same year.^1,4

Most of the colony was built in 1927 and 1928. The investor was the state railway directorate, the City's architecture department drew up the plots, and the builder was the firm of the engineer Mate Crnić.⁴ The school opened on 1 September 1933 on Jakićeva ulica with 410 pupils, in a building by the architect Ivan Zemljak.^6,4 According to Jurčev, many streets were asphalted in the mid-1930s, and the colony was among the first parts of the city to get electricity.¹

In the first air raid on Zagreb, on 22 February 1944, Željeznička kolonija and Ravnice were badly hit. The school's south wing collapsed, and part of the settlement around Kažotićev trg and the monastery's south wing were destroyed.^6,4 Jurčev counts about 40 houses damaged or destroyed in the two worst raids and says rebuilding took almost two decades.¹

Fotokemika, a maker of film and photographic paper, was founded on 20 November 1947 with its seat on Hondlova, east of the stadium.^41,5 In 1963 the tram was extended from Harambašićeva to Borongaj.²⁸ The same year work began on the stadium's east stand right beside the old school on Jakićeva, and on 8 March 1969 the school moved to a new building at Aleja Antuna Augustinčića 12.⁶ After a major flood destroyed its old plants, Kraš moved its biscuit and wafer production to Ravnice. Kraš dates the move to 1964, and the Croatian technical encyclopedia says the new plant started in 1965.^13,12,5 By 1999 all its plants and services had moved to Ravnice.¹²

1. 1923The eastern marshalling yard and Zagreb – Borongaj station are built; the regulation plan lays out the colony.^1,4
2. 1925The Željeznički dom society is founded; sewers are laid for the colony.^1,4
3. 1927–1928Most of Željeznička kolonija is built: 32 buildings with 145 flats.⁴
4. 1927The Dominican monastery on Kažotićev trg opens in May.^4,17
5. 1933The school on Jakićeva opens on 1 September with 410 pupils.⁶
6. 1944The bombing of 22 February badly hits Željeznička kolonija and Ravnice.^6,4
7. 1947Fotokemika is founded, with its seat on Hondlova.⁴¹
8. 1963The tram is extended from Harambašićeva to Borongaj.²⁸
9. 1964–1965Kraš moves its biscuit and wafer production to a new plant in Ravnice.^13,12
10. 1969The school moves to its new building on Aleja Antuna Augustinčića.⁶
11. 1971The church of Our Lady of the Rosary (Kraljica svete krunice) is consecrated.¹⁷
12. 1999All of Kraš's plants and services are now in Ravnice.¹²
13. 2020After the earthquake, DHMZ moves its headquarters to Ravnice 48.¹⁹
14. 2026Kraš signs an agreement to buy a production complex in the Zaprešić area; a design for a new stadium wins the City's competition.^15,32

What to see in Ravnice

• Željeznička kolonija

  A protected historic ensemble, listed as Z-1530.¹⁸ The colony's first houses went up on Lenucijeva ulica.¹

• Kažotićev trg and Jakićeva

  Kažotićev trg was the centre of the colony, Jurčev calls Jakićeva the neighbourhood's "promenade", and young people met on Zoričićev trg.¹

• Church and monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary

  At Kontakova 1, seat of the Dominican parish of Zagreb – Borongaj, founded in 1965. The monastery opened in 1927, and its north wing was added in 1930.^17,4 Today's church, built from 1966 to 1971, was consecrated on 8 August 1971 by August Frotz, auxiliary bishop of Cologne, and last renovated in 2005.¹⁷

• Kraš

  The confectionery maker's headquarters and factory at Ravnice 48.¹⁶

• DHMZ

  The national weather service has had its headquarters at Ravnice 48 since the 2020 earthquake damaged its building at Grič 3. Its Zagreb – Maksimir meteorological observatory is at Maksimirska 134.¹⁹

• Zvonimir Magdić mural

  A mural of the sports journalist Zvonimir Magdić, known as Amigo, at Bulvanova 18, on the building opposite the flat where he lived, unveiled on 7 April 2019.⁴⁰

Did you know?

• 1According to Jurčev, in 1953 Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Mates family at their house on Jakićeva ulica. Leo Mates was then Yugoslavia's representative at the UN and ambassador to the United States.¹
• 2Jurčev calls Ravnice Croatia's most traditional sport and recreation neighbourhood: a Davis Cup tie was played here in 1927, and the first golf course was laid out in 1931. He also says the region's first water-polo match was played on the park's first lake.^1,2
• 3According to Jurčev, steam locomotives passed the settlement every day until the 1960s, and the local train that took railwaymen to work was nicknamed Zec (the hare). He also says Kino Stella, opened on 21 May 1938, was Zagreb's first Catholic sound cinema.¹
• 4The writer Mladen Kušec grew up in a railway family in the colony and described its atmosphere in his book Krijesnice predgrađa.¹ The footballer Filip Benković grew up in Ravnice, a few minutes' walk from the stadium.³⁸ The composer Rajko Dujmić lived in Ravnice, and from 2014 met his biographer in a café there almost every weekday.³⁹

Everyday life in Ravnice

Renting in Ravnice

Nearby neighbourhoods

• BorongajNeighbourhood guide
• VolovčicaNeighbourhood guide
• MaksimirNeighbourhood guide
• PeščenicaNeighbourhood guide
• FerenščicaNeighbourhood guide
• DubravaNeighbourhood 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 Ravnice