RetkovecPrefab houses from 1965, streets named after trees and a brick-clad church

Retkovec at a glance

• To the main square by ZET40 min
• To the centre as the crow flies7.4 km
• Residents (2021)^16,1710,267
• Prefab estate^5,61964–1965

Where Retkovec is

Retkovec is in the city district of Donja Dubrava and is covered by two of its local committees (mjesni odbori), Novi Retkovec and Stari Retkovec.^16,17,18,19 Officially both are part of the settlement of Zagreb, and the Croatian Bureau of Statistics lists Retkovec among the City of Zagreb's former settlements.^18,19,44 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Retkovec through those two committees, which had 10,267 residents between them at the 2021 census.^16,17

According to Croatian Wikipedia, Retkovec is bounded by Avenija Dubrava to the north, with Čulinec and Resnički gaj to the south and Sesvetska Sopnica and Novo Brestje to the east.¹ The Novi Retkovec committee area runs south from Avenija Dubrava down to Branimirova, between I. Retkovec and Aleja ruža on the east and Južna ulica and I.–IV. Luka on the west. Stari Retkovec lies east of it, out to the boundary with the Sesvete district, and reaches south across the railway to Vrinice.^19,18

For and against: life in Retkovec

What life is like in Retkovec

Stari Retkovec is the historic core and mostly farmland, while Novi Retkovec is a 20th-century urban settlement.¹ In 2011 Novi Retkovec had 112.47 residents per hectare, making it one of the most densely populated parts of Dubrava, while Stari Retkovec had fewer than 20.^4,40

The estate's streets are named after trees and flowers, among them Aleja javora (maples), Aleja ruža (roses) and Ulica vrba (willows).^7,8 According to Kristian Strukić of the Zagreb City Museum, residents were advised to plant the species their street was named after.⁵

Today original prefab bungalows stand next to brick houses of two or more storeys that owners built or extended after buying their plots.^6,7,8 Once the prefabs had outlived their design life, the land was sold to the tenants, for next to nothing by their own account.^7,8 In 2021 resident Jelica Bijelić described a typical house to Večernji list: a single-storey prefab of about 55 m² with two rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a pantry, all in chipboard.⁸

Zoran Oštrić, an environmental activist who has lived in Retkovec since 1968, told Deutsche Welle in 2014 that the estate had been well planned, with straight roads and fairly large plots with yards.⁷ Residents interviewed in 2014 and 2021 describe quiet streets with little traffic, and according to Večernji list newcomers come for the nearby school, kindergarten and shopping centres.^7,8

Between 2001 and 2011 Stari Retkovec had the biggest population growth in Donja Dubrava, 54%.²¹ About three-fifths of its residential zone is Vrinice – VII. Retkovec, south of the railway: some 38 hectares where a 1968 map shows about sixty houses.⁴⁰ According to the City's planning institute, the area largely took shape in the 1990s, during and after the Homeland War, when many refugees came to Zagreb.^40,7

Novi Retkovec

The local committee area between Avenija Dubrava and Branimirova, with the 1965 prefab estate. It had 7,769 residents on 77.25 hectares in 2021, and 8,688 residents and 3,537 dwellings in 2011.^19,6,16,20

Stari Retkovec

The historic core, mostly farmland, east of Novi Retkovec and across the railway. It had 2,498 residents on 173.22 hectares in 2021.^1,18,17

Vrinice – VII. Retkovec

The part of Stari Retkovec south of the railway. In 1996 the City Assembly changed the general urban plan so that houses built here without a plan could stay, and in 2017 the City's planning institute used Vrinice as a pilot for upgrading such areas.⁴⁰

Where the name Retkovec comes from

The name comes from the Retka, a medieval noble kin group, just as neighbouring Čulinec is named after the Cehna.^3,4 Laura Šakaja and Ivana Crljenko, writing in Etnološka tribina in 2017, note that the numbered streets I.–VII. Retkovec are among the few street names in Donja Dubrava taken from the old villages, and that only the Retkovec and Čulinec names recall the noble kin groups.⁴

Retkovec appears in records from the 13th century. In 1328 Zagreb's cathedral chapter (Kaptol) asked King Charles of Anjou to confirm its estates by charter, and Retkouch, today's Retkovec, is on that list.^2,3

A short history of Retkovec

Retkovec is one of the Donja Dubrava villages whose names appear from the 13th century. Their people were serfs of the Zagreb bishop, the Kaptol and its canons, and also worked on defences against the Sava's floods.^2,3 In 1952 Dubrava became a municipality, with Retkovec among its villages.^3,2

On the night of 24 to 25 October 1964 the Sava burst its banks. Seventeen people died and about 40,000 people in Zagreb lost their homes.^7,10 For them, mostly people from Trešnjevka and Trnje, a prefab estate went up in Retkovec, meant to be temporary until better flats could be found.^5,6 It was designed by the architects Ante Glunčić and Bogdan Budimirov.^5,6 With winter coming, several prefab builders worked at once: according to Strukić, 85 houses went up in 13 different types, mostly of light wooden panels.^5,8 Residents moved in as early as 1965, less than a year after the flood.^6,8

In an abstract for the 2022 congress of Croatian art historians, Martina Bobinac writes that Zagreb's 1965 general urban plan included a wholly new settlement, Retkovec, planned in the light of Skopje's rebuilding after its 1963 earthquake.⁹ As Jelica Bijelić remembers it, houses were allocated through employers: one row went to staff of the Vjesnik newspaper, the row opposite to workers from Končar.⁸ Tenancy was granted for five years at a time and extended.^6,7 Renovating the houses was later judged not worth it, and a plan to clear the estate for blocks with 3,500 flats never happened. Instead the residents were offered the houses and land to buy.^7,5

The parish of St Paul was founded in the same year, 1965, and the primary school opened in 1967; until then, a resident recalls, children walked to the nearest school in Dubrava.^12,13,10,8 Many refugee families came to Retkovec during the Homeland War.⁷ The Dubrava – Dubec tram line opened on 11 October 2000, and the Novi Retkovec and Stari Retkovec local committees were set up in February 2009.^15,2,20 Mayor Milan Bandić ceremonially started work on the Sesvetska Sopnica rail halt back in 2006; it opened on 11 December 2022.^27,28

1. 1328On the list of estates the Kaptol asks the king to confirm, Retkovec is written as Retkouch.³
2. 1952Dubrava becomes a municipality, with Retkovec among its villages.^3,2
3. 1964On the night of 24 to 25 October the Sava floods; about 40,000 people in Zagreb lose their homes.^7,10
4. 1965Residents move into the Novi Retkovec prefab estate, and the parish of St Paul is founded on 2 June.^6,8,12,13
5. 1967Osnovna škola Retkovec, the primary school, opens.¹⁰
6. 1990Work starts on St Paul's church; its cornerstone is blessed on 22 April, the day of Croatia's first free multi-party elections.^12,14
7. 1992The unfinished church is handed over for worship.¹²
8. 1996The City Assembly changes the general urban plan so that the houses in Vrinice can stay.⁴⁰
9. 2000The Dubrava – Dubec tram line opens.¹⁵
10. 2005Cardinal Josip Bozanić consecrates St Paul's church.^13,12
11. 2009The Novi Retkovec and Stari Retkovec local committees are set up.^2,20
12. 2022The Sesvetska Sopnica rail halt opens.^28,29
13. 2024OŠ Retkovec's energy retrofit is finished.^35,36

What to see in Retkovec

• Church of St Paul the Apostle

  The church at Prilaz sv. Pavla apostola 1 was designed by the architect Tomislav Premerl. Work began in 1990; it has been in use since 1992, was clad in brick in 1998 and was consecrated in 2005.^13,14,12 It has a central plan with rounded corners, walls faced in light-ochre brick and glued-laminated timber arches spanning 18 metres, and its free-standing bell tower is a curved plane.¹⁴ In 2001 Zlatko Jurić wrote about it in Vijenac under the title "Savršenstvo zidanja opekom" (perfection in brickwork).¹⁴

• Art inside the church

  The bronze St Paul is by the sculptor Marija Ujević (1992), and according to the parish most of the money for it was raised by parishioners from Janjevo.^14,12 According to Vijenac, the stained-glass window "The Conversion of Saul" is by the painter Josip Bifel, the cross with a bronze Christ by Ivan Ivoš, and the fourteen Stations of the Cross, in shallow silver relief, by Hrvoje Ljubić.¹⁴

• The baptistery Madonna

  Vijenac attributes this Baroque wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception to southern Germany around 1700.¹⁴ According to the parish, the parish priest found it thrown away among potatoes in the international Caritas warehouse at Rakitje. It was restored and placed in the baptistery in 1996.^12,14

• Our Lady of Fatima shrine

  A wayside shrine in old Retkovec, blessed in 2004 by auxiliary bishop Josip Mrzljak. Every year since 13 May 2005 a procession has carried the Fatima statue to it from the parish church.¹²

• Sesvetska Sopnica rail halt

  HŽ Infrastruktura places it "in the settlement of Retkovec". It has a 160-metre island platform and an underpass under all four tracks with three lifts, and the project cost 24.3 million kuna.^27,28

Did you know?

• 1Cardinal Franjo Kuharić blessed the cornerstone of St Paul's on 22 April 1990, the day of Croatia's first free multi-party elections. Franjo Tuđman was among the guests.¹²
• 2From its founding in 1965 until it got its new church in 1992, the parish met in a bought and converted family house, a covered yard and a barrack. The authorities ordered parish buildings demolished in 1965 and again in 1975, but the orders were never carried out.^12,13
• 3At the first house blessing, at Christmas 1965, the parish priest was welcomed into 900 homes, where about 3,000 people lived.¹²
• 4The rapper El Bahattee (Stivo Kahlina) told Nacional in 2002: "I lived in Retkovec until I was 18."⁴³

Everyday life in Retkovec

Renting in Retkovec

Nearby neighbourhoods

• DubecNeighbourhood guide
• DubravaNeighbourhood guide
• KlakaNeighbourhood guide
• SesveteNeighbourhood guide
• JelkovecNeighbourhood guide
• RavniceNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Donja Dubrava and Gornja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Donja Dubrava and Peščenica – Žitnjak
• Compare districts: Donja Dubrava and Sesvete
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Retkovec