RudešA former Kaptol village, now a neighbourhood of family houses and clubs

Rudeš at a glance

• To the main square by ZET34 min
• To the centre as the crow flies4.7 km
• Local committee residents (2021)^10,79,559
• First written record^3,81221

Where Rudeš is

Rudeš is a neighbourhood in western Trešnjevka, bounded by Zagrebačka cesta to the north-west, the Kustošak stream to the east and Zagrebačka avenija to the south.^1,11 Officially it belongs to the city district of Trešnjevka – sjever and is covered by a single local committee (mjesni odbor), Rudeš, the seventh of the district's ten, based at Rudeška cesta 71.^10,11 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Rudeš through that committee. The committee area is part of the settlement of Zagreb, not a separate settlement.¹¹

The committee's boundary starts at the junction of Zagrebačka avenija and Zagrebačka cesta, where the Stenjevec, Trešnjevka – sjever and Trešnjevka – jug districts meet.¹¹ The Kustošak separates Rudeš first from Voltino and then from Ljubljanica.^6,11 At 110.77 hectares, Rudeš is the largest of the district's ten local committees.^10,13 A cadastral municipality called k.o. Rudeš also exists; it is much larger than the committee and reaches into the Trešnjevka – jug district.⁴⁵

For and against: life in Rudeš

What life is like in Rudeš

According to the local-history project Mapiranje Trešnjevke, Rudeš, unlike most of western Trešnjevka, is mainly a neighbourhood of family houses. They cover a much larger area than the blocks of flats, which are grouped around Jablanska ulica.¹ The same source says Rudeš has no real centre; shops, transport and cafés sit on its edges. The historical centre was where Rudeška cesta meets Anina and Jablanska.¹

The village of Rudeš no longer exists; its name lives on in Rudeška cesta, Rudeški ogranak and Rudeški odvojak.⁷ In 2013 Mapiranje Trešnjevke described the northern part of Rudeška cesta as a suburban road winding between warehouses, workers' barracks and small family houses. The road was rebuilt around 2010.^4,2

The blocks at Jablanska 32–54 were designed in the late 1980s by the Faculty of Architecture professors Mladen Jošić and Teufik Galijašević.^19,20 North of Zagrebačka avenija, by Zagrebačka cesta, Rudeš also takes in the two office towers of Sky Office, completed in 2012.^16,17,1

In 2006 the City adopted the Rudeš urban development plan for about 4.93 hectares along the disused railway siding and Ratarska ulica, with mixed uses, a public park and a playground.⁴³ In the 2024 draft of the general urban plan, the City accepted a request to amend that plan so that it provides for public spaces and a park and caps buildings at five storeys above ground.⁴⁴ In May 2023 the district council asked for the land between Jablanska ulica and Zagrebačka avenija, 5,114 m², to be zoned as a public park, and the general plan adopted in 2025 includes that zoning. It is a designation in the plan, not a finished park.^44,45

Where the name Rudeš comes from

In the oldest records Rudeš appears under the Latin name Rodos; in 1221 it is mentioned as terra Rodos.^8,7 According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, which draws on the 1982 monograph Crvena Trešnjevka, the name goes back to a personal name, Rodos, very probably that of the head of the family who held the land.³

A Kaptol list from 1334 also names Thopolouch next to Rudeš, which the same source says is probably linked to today's Topolnica street.³ Mapiranje Trešnjevke also notes that the northern part of today's Vrbani, south of Zagrebačka avenija, was once called Donji Rudeš (Lower Rudeš), which is why Rudeška cesta runs almost to Lake Jarun.⁴

A short history of Rudeš

The oldest finds are three prehistoric stone axes. The City says they were found in Rudeš; Mapiranje Trešnjevke says they come from Rudeš and Jarun.^9,3 In 1221 King Andrew II handed Rudeš to the Zagreb church.^3,7,8 From the Golden Bull of 1242, the land west of the Črnomerec stream belonged to the Kaptol, the cathedral chapter, and the city's western border stayed on the Črnomerec until 1945.^3,9 A list from 1334 records Rudeš with 24 selišta, holdings each farmed by one serf family, and in 1615 Rudeš and Jarun are named as villages on Kaptol land.³ The village stood where the roads from Zagreb to the Sava villages of Špansko and Prečko crossed the roads from Vrapče to the villages in the south-east, and it belonged to the cadastral municipality and parish of Vrapče.¹

At the request of residents of Rudeš, Prečko, Špansko and Jarun, and on the initiative of Julije Semelić, mayor of the Stenjevec municipality, a school was built from 1894. It opened on 11 February 1895 as the Obća pučka škola u Rudešu, the Rudeš general elementary school, with 46 pupils.^14,1 A second school building opened in 1930. During the Second World War the army took over the school, and lessons alternated in a single classroom.¹⁴

The parish of St Anne was founded on 26 July 1942 from parts of the Knežija, Kustošija and Vrapče parishes. For its first five years Mass was said in a classroom of the local school, until the communist authorities banned this in 1947.^15,7 In 1945 Rudeš became part of the city of Zagreb.^9,3,7 In 1947 a lending department of the new Trešnjevka library opened at the Rudeš location.³²

In the early 1950s people began playing football on the Celina meadow, where the health station stands today, and NK Rudeš was founded in 1957.^25,1,21,22 From 25 to 27 October 1964 the Sava overtopped the embankment by the city swimming baths and flooded Jarun and Rudeš.³⁰ The basketball club KK Rudeš was founded in 1972.^25,27

An industrial siding ran through the middle of Rudeš from Črnomerec, past the Ferimport warehouse and the Rade Končar works, to the Prečko army barracks. The barracks was not in Rudeš; it stood where the POS housing estate between Oranice and Špansko is now. It carried only freight, and its rails and sleepers were lifted in 1992.² A 2006 urban plan still used the "railway siding that is not in use" as a boundary.⁴³ According to the Nepoznati Zagreb blog in 2009 and Mapiranje Trešnjevke in 2013, pieces of rail could still be seen in the asphalt of Jablanska, Ratarska and Rudeški ogranak II, and a row of poplars stood along the old line near Ratarska. The blog's author warned that the traces were disappearing.^2,1

For a long time Rudeš had no bus line of its own. A Črnomerec – Zagrebačka line came in the late 1990s, ran directly once the Zagrebačka cesta underpass was built in 1998, and a few years after 2000 was extended to Prečko as line 134.^5,42 In the late 2010s NK Rudeš played two seasons in the top division, and it returned for 2023–24.²²

1. 1221King Andrew II hands Rudeš (Rodos) to the Zagreb church.^3,7,8
2. 1334A Kaptol list records Rudeš with 24 serf holdings.³
3. 1895The Rudeš elementary school opens with 46 pupils.¹⁴
4. 1942The parish of St Anne is founded.^15,7
5. 1945Rudeš becomes part of Zagreb.^9,3
6. 1957NK Rudeš is founded.^21,22
7. 1964In October the Sava floods Jarun and Rudeš.³⁰
8. 1967Cardinal Franjo Šeper consecrates St Anne's church on 8 December.¹⁵
9. 1972The basketball club KK Rudeš is founded.^25,27
10. 1988Today's school building at Jablanska 51 opens, according to Mapiranje Trešnjevke.¹
11. 1992The rails of the siding to the Prečko barracks are lifted.²
12. 2012Sky Office gets its first tenants in August.^17,16
13. 2020KK Rudeš is renamed KK Dinamo Zagreb.^26,27
14. 2026NK Rudeš returns to the top division but plays its home games in Velika Gorica.²³

What to see in Rudeš

• St Anne's Church

  Topolnica 6. In 1964 the parish bought a house here and adapted it for worship. The present church was built in 1966–67 and consecrated on 8 December 1967 by the Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Franjo Šeper.^15,7

• Sky Office

  Ulica Roberta Frangeša Mihanovića 4. Two elliptical towers of 22 storeys each, joined from the 2nd to the 15th floor, stand over four shared garage levels. They are about 80 metres tall and hold about 30,000 m² of offices. Ante Anin designed them with Nikica Tabain and Krešimir Radnić; construction began in 2007 and the first tenants moved in during August 2012.^16,17,18,1

• The first school, Anina 99

  According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, the 1895 school building can still be seen at Anina 99, near the junction with Rudeška cesta; at the time it was the only brick house in the village. The same source calls it the oldest school in today's Trešnjevka and the second in western Zagreb, after Vrapče's of 1863.¹

• Jablanska 32–54

  Four housing blocks by Mladen Jošić and Teufik Galijašević from the late 1980s. Two pairs of buildings enclose a semi-private pedestrian area, and the flats open onto two façades.^19,20 The 2017 guide of the Zagreb Society of Architects counts them among the finest examples of late-1980s public housing.²⁰

• The Kustošak stream

  The eastern boundary of Rudeš, towards Voltino and Ljubljanica.^6,11 According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, in 2013 a path ran beside the stream, with a new wooden footbridge where the old railway bridge had stood.²

• NK Rudeš ground

  Rudeška cesta 25. According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, the pitch was rebuilt as a stadium in 2013.¹ One stand is named after Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, and in March 2026 the club unveiled a mural below it honouring Mićo Vujanić, a former player and lifelong supporter.^24,21

Did you know?

• 1For 17 years, from 1947 to Easter 1964, no Mass was said anywhere in the parish of St Anne.¹⁵
• 2The basketball club founded in Rudeš in 1972 is today's KK Dinamo Zagreb; it changed its name in May 2020.^25,26,27
• 3The Rudeš local committee's official day is 15 September.¹²
• 4Football coach Željko Sopić grew up in Rudeš and took his first serious steps as a coach at NK Rudeš. Miro Čabraja, actor and HRT presenter, also grew up in Rudeš and went to its primary school.^46,47

Everyday life in Rudeš

Renting in Rudeš

Nearby neighbourhoods

• VrbaniNeighbourhood guide
• VoltinoNeighbourhood guide
• StaglišćeNeighbourhood guide
• LjubljanicaNeighbourhood guide
• JarunNeighbourhood guide
• RemizaNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Črnomerec
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Stenjevec
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Rudeš