ŠalataA hill of bishop's gardens, 1920s villas, pools and an ice rink

Šalata at a glance

• To the main square by ZET15 min
• To the centre as the crow flies1.4 km
• Residents, Šalata committee (2021)³³1,607
• Most houses built⁵1920s

Where Šalata is

Šalata is a hill above Vlaška and Ribnjak. Dvorničićeva climbs the hill from Ribnjak, and Schlosserove stube from Draškovićeva.^1,5,3 Officially it is in the city district of Gornji grad – Medveščak.³³ Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide treats Šalata as the slope shared by four local committees (mjesni odbori).³⁴ Only committee no. 11, Šalata, carries the hill's name. It covers the upper slope, up to the southern edge of Mirogoj and of the Ruđer Bošković Institute grounds: Alagovićeva, Schrottova and parts of Mesićeva, Voćarska and Bijenička cesta.^33,35,34 Šalata street, with the School of Medicine and the hospital, Grškovićeva and Rockefellerova belong to the Medveščak committee, most of Novakova, Vončinina and Schlosserove stube to Ribnjak, and Voćarsko naselje to Voćarska.³⁴

Officially the Šalata committee covers part of the settlement of Zagreb, not a settlement of its own.³⁵ The buildings on Rockefellerova stand on Zeleni brijeg, just north of Šalata proper.^3,43 Zagreb also has a street called Šalata out near Sesvete, in Šimunčevec and Vuger Selo, so check which one an address means.³⁵

For and against: life in Šalata

What life is like in Šalata

Šalata is a quarter of family houses among greenery, most of them built in the 1920s, on winding streets and cul-de-sacs where garden greenery took the place of rows of street trees.⁵ According to Darja Radović Mahečić, writing in the journal Peristil (2022), four parcellations around 1927 turned the steep rural slope into a garden suburb. The building rules for the hills allowed only detached or semi-detached houses, rarely three joined together, low and with a front garden, at most a ground floor plus an attic or one upper storey. The first buyers were senior city officials, engineers and doctors, and the first wave of houses was mostly built by civil engineers and licensed builders rather than architects.⁵

Novakova was laid out on land owned by the Bernstein family and parcelled in 1930. Of 21 planned villas, twenty were built between 1931 and 1941.¹⁶ In her doctoral thesis Sandra Križić Roban called Novakova the "paradigm of modern housing" of interwar Zagreb, and those twenty houses are now protected as an architectural ensemble.^16,17 Also in 1930, the Prebendarovac co-operative parcellation took denser building into the northern parts of Torbarova, Vinkovićeva, Gajdekova and Mesićeva, with 55 planned houses.⁵

Voćarsko naselje has 61 homes in five rows of terraced family houses on 2.36 hectares in all. The houses are staggered over four levels, and the plots are unfenced. Mirko Maretić and Vladimir Ivanović designed the estate with Spomenka Maretić, the firm Udarnik built it from 1962, and residents moved in in 1964.¹⁹

In July 2026 Jutarnji list reported on the restoration of several old villas and on new building around Novakova, Torbarova and Vinkovićeva, including a new building at the start of Novakova.⁴¹

Where the name Šalata comes from

The hill was a bishop's estate called Široki brijeg, and its south-western part was known as Rokovo brdo, after a Calvary and the chapel of St Roch.^1,4,6 The name Šalata comes from the bishop's vegetable gardens and orchards. According to Vladimir Dugački the whole of Široki brijeg later took its name from them, and Artur Schneider wrote in 1929 that the memory of the old, probably mostly vegetable, garden survives in the name Šalata.^1,6 Old maps of northern Zagreb mark several places as "salata episcopalis" (the bishop's vegetable garden) and "salata capitularis" (the Chapter's vegetable garden).¹ Salata is the Croatian for lettuce (Lactuca sativa), a word the Croatian Encyclopaedia traces to an older Italian dialect.⁴⁹

A 2018 article in the journal Olimp gives another version, in which residents of Vlaška once kept lettuce gardens on the hill.⁷ In the 1920s parts of the slope had names of their own as well: Karvenjak, Švabin brijeg between Grškovićeva and Vinkovićeva, and Gospodarski brijeg between Mesićeva and Gajdekova.⁵

A short history of Šalata

The chapel of St Roch on Rokovo brdo is mentioned around 1677, and in 1699 Bishop Emerik Esterházy built a summer residence beside it.^1,6 The dilapidated chapel was pulled down in 1793, and its material went into the hospital that Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac began building in 1794 on Harmica, today's Trg bana Jelačića, the main square.¹

From the 1870s, proposals for the hill included a central cemetery, an infantry barracks and a workers' settlement, until in 1883 it was chosen for a state hospital.¹ Šalata was laid out for it in 1905, with pavilions in a park and approaches along today's Vončinina and today's Schlosserove stube.^3,2 The reception building, now Šalata 11, was designed by Ignjat Fischer and Dionis Sunko and went up in 1908–1910; the public attacked it as needlessly monumental.^4,2 In 1911 the geologist Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, who discovered Krapina man, declared the whole southern side of Šalata a potential landslide. The hospital plan was dropped and the buildings went to schools.^1,3 In the First World War they served as a military hospital, and in 1917–1919 Fischer and Franjo Gabrić adapted them for the newly founded School of Medicine.^2,4,1

The foundation stone of the boys' seminary, designed by Juraj Neidhardt, was blessed on 25 June 1927, and the whole complex was finished in 1931.^10,11,5 In 1928 the city leased scrub-covered land to the Academic Tennis Club. The central court was built in 1929, where the ice rink is now, and a clubhouse and stand followed in 1930.^9,7 An international competition in 1930–1931 for a Foundation Hospital on Šalata drew 70 entries, and Ernest Weissmann's design was among those awarded. That hospital was never built: in 1934 the new hospital was assigned to Rebro, where it opened in 1942.^1,4

In 1941 the army took over the seminary, and after 1945 it occupied almost the whole complex.^10,15 The 50 × 22 metre Olympic pool, designed by Franjo Bahovec, was built in 1946–1947,^9,8 and in 1961 an artificial ice rink replaced the old central tennis court; KHL Medveščak was founded on it the same year.^9,45 The earthquake of 22 March 2020 badly damaged the School of Medicine's buildings and the Archdiocesan Classical Gymnasium.^36,12 According to the faculty, about €100 million had gone into renewing 32,500 m² of its buildings by March 2026.³⁷

1. 1699Bishop Emerik Esterházy builds a summer residence beside the chapel of St Roch.¹
2. 1793The dilapidated chapel of St Roch is pulled down and its material goes to the new hospital on Harmica.¹
3. 1908–1910The hospital's reception building, now Šalata 11, goes up.^4,2
4. 1911Gorjanović-Kramberger warns of a landslide; the buildings go to schools instead of a hospital.^1,3
5. 1917–1919The buildings are adapted for the new School of Medicine.^4,1
6. 1927The seminary's foundation stone is blessed; around this year the slope starts being parcelled for family houses.^10,5
7. 1931Šalata hosts its first Davis Cup tie, against Japan.⁷
8. 1946–1947The 50 × 22 metre Olympic pool is built.^9,8
9. 1961An ice rink is built where the tennis court was; KHL Medveščak is founded the same year.^9,45
10. 1964Residents move into Voćarsko naselje.¹⁹
11. 2026The renovated Schlosserove stube and the pools reopen.^22,46

What to see in Šalata

• School of Medicine

  Buildings along Šalata street: the dean's office (Šalata 3), Pathology (Šalata 10), and Anatomy, Pharmacology and Forensic Medicine (Šalata 11).³⁶ After the earthquake the dean's office was fully renewed; by March 2026 Šalata 3b, 10 and Rockefellerova 4 were also finished, and Šalata 11 was expected soon.³⁷

• ŠRC Šalata

  An Olympic pool from 1946–1947, an ice rink from 1961 and tennis courts.^9,8 The pools reopened on 25 June 2026 after the filtration system was replaced for nearly €750,000.⁴⁶

• The seminary and Archdiocesan Classical Gymnasium

  Juraj Neidhardt designed the complex at Voćarska 106.^5,14 Its Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has altarpieces by Ljubo Babić and a 22-stop Heferer organ.¹⁴ The observatory dome is visible as you climb Vončinina, Voćarska or Schlosserove stube, and the Archdiocese says this is the only gymnasium in Croatia with an observatory.^13,12

• The Novakova villas

  Twenty houses on Novakova (nos. 5–32) are protected as an architectural ensemble of town villas.¹⁷ The oldest three are no. 15 (Kauzlarić and Gomboš), no. 28 (Bogdan Petrović) and no. 17, Ivan Senko's Villa Šercar.¹⁶

• Schlosserove stube

  Steps from Trg svibanjskih žrtava 1995 up to Ulica Cvjetka Rubetića, inside the protected historic core.^22,3 Built in 1914, they were rebuilt in 1921 as Schlosserove stube.¹ The city restored them for €1.7 million including VAT, keeping their dimensions and look, and reopened them on 23 June 2026.²²

• Fran Kušan botanical garden

  The Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry's garden at Alagovićeva 43. In 1946 the city gave the faculty about 25,000 m² for a garden of medicinal and poisonous plants; work began in 1947, and in 1969 the garden was declared a natural monument.²⁰ It is open to the public.²¹

• Buildings on Zeleni brijeg

  The Hygiene Institute's White Building (Rockefellerova 2, by Vasilij Androsov) and the School of Public Health's Yellow Building (Rockefellerova 4, by Juraj Denzler and Mladen Kauzlarić), paid for by the Rockefeller Foundation and opened on 3 October 1927.⁴³

Did you know?

• 1The first INmusic festival was held on Šalata in July 2006. The organiser gives the dates as 4 to 6 July, with Franz Ferdinand and Morrissey as headliners.²³
• 2KHL Medveščak played outdoor "Šalata Winter Classic" games on the rink. On 3 February 2012 it beat Olimpija Ljubljana 3:1 in the snow, in front of full stands.^44,45
• 3Ivo Karlović, nicknamed "the Giant of Šalata", says he perfected his serve alone on the Šalata courts near his home, often after dark.⁴²
• 4According to its rector, the seminary complex has 453 rooms, 1,183 windows, 818 doors and more than 12 km of heating pipes.¹⁵

Everyday life in Šalata

Renting in Šalata

Nearby neighbourhoods

• MedveščakNeighbourhood guide
• RibnjakNeighbourhood guide
• KaptolNeighbourhood guide
• TuškanacNeighbourhood guide
• Upper TownNeighbourhood guide
• KvatrićNeighbourhood 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 Šalata