SavicaTower blocks, platforms and murals on an old bed of the Sava

Savica at a glance

• To the main square by ZET28 min
• To the centre as the crow flies2.9 km
• Residents (2021)¹8,129
• Area¹76.8 ha

Where Savica is

Trnjanska Savica, usually just Savica, is a housing estate on the left (northern) bank of the Sava, in the south-east of the city district of Trnje.^6,7 Officially it is the Trnjanska Savica local committee (mjesni odbor), one of 13 set up in Trnje in February 2009.^1,2 The committee area runs from Slavonska avenija down to the Sava; Ulica Vladimira Ruždjaka and Kruge mark its western edge, and the boundary with the Peščenica – Žitnjak district its eastern one.³ Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries. In everyday speech Savica also takes in the prefabricated Nove Kruge estate and the buildings around Novska ulica, which officially belong to the Staro Trnje committee.^8,3

Folnegovićevo naselje and Borovje lie to the east, Staro Trnje to the west, Sigečica and the "Marin Držić" committee area across Slavonska avenija to the north, and Zapruđe across the Sava to the south.^6,7,3 Savica – Šanci is a separate local committee in the Peščenica – Žitnjak district, and the protected Savica lakes, downstream of Most mladosti, lie within it.^51,52 Both are outside Trnjanska Savica, the subject of this guide.

For and against: life in Savica

What life is like in Savica

Savica is an estate of blocks of flats and tower blocks. According to Wikipedia, it was built on the socialist model of a "functional neighbourhood" meant to give residents everything they needed day to day.^6,7 According to the City, it was built to a 1975 plan.¹⁸ Local historians from the Mapiranje kvarta association counted only two multi-family houses here, both on Trnjanska Savica street; almost everyone else lives in blocks of flats.⁸

Savica is known for its raised pedestrian platforms (platoi).⁶ Planners in the 1980s expected the platforms to work as the neighbourhood's business centres, an assumption that a 2013 geography study judged mistaken.¹⁹ According to the same study, Savica works commercially as a classic neighbourhood centre, with Lastovska as its main collector and link street.¹⁹

The Autoput-jug housing and commercial block at Gruška ulica 2–22 was completed in the early 1970s to a design by Miroslav Stella and Lidija Grečko-Krstevski of the GP "Tempo" company, which also built it.^13,8 The Arhitektura Zagreba site groups it with Mamutica and Super Andrija as typical of Zagreb's massive 1970s housing; its towers have 18 floors above ground and one below.¹³ According to the Registar moderne i postmoderne zagrebačke arhitekture, Boris Štimac's Blok 1 on Ljerke Šram and Zinke Kunc streets went up in the first half of the 1980s, and Blok IV on Lastovska, by Marta Berček Gomboš and Milena Milač, in 1983.^14,15 Grozdan Knežević designed the buildings at Ulica Zvonimira Rogoza 2–20 (1984) and the Savica nursery at Ruždjakova 7 (1982).^12,16

According to Mapiranje kvarta, the 1970s streets were first named after theorists of Marxism and renamed after actors and opera singers in the 1990s: Prisavlje was Šetalište Karla Marxa, Ulica Vladimira Ruždjaka was Ulica Clare Zetkin, and Ulica Zinke Kunc was Ulica Rose Luxemburg.⁸ Lastovska, the same source says, is an island name that "strayed" over from neighbouring Sigečica, whose streets are named after Adriatic islands.⁸

At the 2011 census the committee area had 8,449 residents, the most of Trnje's 13 committees, and at the 2021 census 8,129.^5,1 The primary school's 2019/20 annual plan described the population's social and economic make-up as varied.²¹

Nove Kruge

A prefabricated estate that Jugomont built in 1959–60 with its Ju-59 system, on the western edge of what people call Savica. Officially it belongs to the Staro Trnje committee.^11,8,3

Around Novska ulica

Buildings people count as Savica, though officially they are in the Staro Trnje committee.^8,3 According to Mapiranje kvarta, here and on southern Ruždjakova the Sava embankment stands right by the flats.⁸

Miljackina ulica

According to Mapiranje kvarta and Mapiranje Trešnjevke, its two buildings are older than the rest of the estate and house artists' studios, and Miljackina is the only street in Savica still named after a river.^8,9

Where the name Savica comes from

The sources give no firm explanation of the name, but Savica named a stretch of water long before it named a neighbourhood. The City of Zagreb's history of Trnje, discussing the Golden Bull of 1242, mentions a bridge over the Savica on the southern edge of medieval Zagreb's land.² The management plan for the protected Savica landscape calls the old Sava side-arm the Stara Savica lake.⁵¹

As the name of a place, Savica is young. According to local historians at Mapiranje kvarta and Mapiranje Trešnjevke, it didn't exist as a place-name or a separate settlement until the 1960s; the area counted as the southern part of Kruge. It came to be seen as an area of its own after the Autoput, today's Slavonska avenija, was built in 1949.^8,9

A short history of Savica

According to Mapiranje kvarta, around 1900 the Sava still flooded the area regularly, and apart from farming the only work here was digging gravel for the city's building sites.⁸ Mapiranje kvarta and Mapiranje Trešnjevke also record Count Kulmer's brickworks on Kruge in 1902 and the old Savski most bridge, moved in 1939 to where Most mladosti now stands and nicknamed the Red Bridge for its colour.^9,8

Mapiranje kvarta records that the first blocks of flats, at Držićeva 64–82, went up in the late 1950s, and that Miljackina ulica was under water in the great flood of 1964.⁸ According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, trams ran along Držićeva as far as the Autoput until 1970, when work on the Petlja interchange began.¹⁰ In the early 1970s, when the Petlja was built, the first residential towers went up by Slavonska avenija, Mapiranje kvarta writes.⁸

The estate's detailed plan was drawn up in 1975 and came into force on 24 July 1976.^17,18 In 2017 the head of the City's planning office said the plan had made no provision for a religious building.¹⁸ According to Večernji list, the foundation stone of Most mladosti was laid on 6 May 1970 and the bridge opened to traffic on 2 November 1973; the Croatian Wikipedia and Mapiranje kvarta give 1974.^44,45,8 The first tram crossed the Sava on it on 25 November 1979.^46,10

Knjižnica Savica, the library, opened in 1993.²² On 10 February 1999 Archbishop Josip Bozanić founded the parish of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, the first in the Archdiocese of Zagreb dedicated to him.²⁵ The parish has no church. From 1999 to 2021 Sunday Mass was said in the lobby of OŠ Jure Kaštelana, and since 2011 the parish has also had a pastoral centre on the ground floor of a residential building.^25,27 A 2003 location permit for a church was overturned in court, and a 2016 permit was annulled by the Ministry of Construction in 2017.²⁵

In 2016 a dispute broke out over building the church in the central park, and residents formed the initiative "Čuvamo naš park" (We're keeping our park).^28,29 In March 2017 Mayor Milan Bandić presented a new 5,500 m² site at the end of Ruždjakova, about 150 metres further south.¹⁸ In April 2017 residents protested against a City plan to redo the park for 11 to 12 million kuna, which they said would cover more than 40% of it with concrete and synthetic surfaces, and kept watch in the park around the clock.^30,56,29 On 26 April 2017 Bandić said he would drop the plan if residents didn't want it.^30,56 In October 2025 deputy mayor Luka Korlaet presented changes to the general urban plan with a zone reserved for a church; building had not yet begun.²⁶

The old school building was demolished in autumn 2021. While the new one went up, teaching was spread over seven sites, and the new school opened on 17 June 2023.^25,33

1. 1242A bridge over the Savica is mentioned in connection with the Golden Bull, on the southern edge of Zagreb's land.²
2. 1959–1960Jugomont builds the prefabricated Nove Kruge estate.^11,8
3. 1967A semi-prefabricated building goes up for the school now called OŠ Jure Kaštelana.^35,34
4. 1970The foundation stone of Most mladosti is laid.⁴⁴
5. 1975–1976The detailed plan for the Savica estate is drawn up in 1975 and comes into force in 1976.^17,18
6. 1979A tram crosses the Sava for the first time, from Držićeva over Most mladosti to Sopot.^46,10
7. 1982The Savica nursery at Ruždjakova 7 opens, designed by Grozdan Knežević.¹²
8. 1993Knjižnica Savica, the library, opens.²²
9. 1999The parish of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac is founded; its first Mass is said in the school lobby.²⁵
10. 2017After residents' protests the mayor says he will drop the plan to redo the park.^30,56
11. 2020The central park is named Park Marije Ružičke Strozzi.³¹
12. 2023The new OŠ Jure Kaštelana building opens.³³
13. 2025The documentary "Crveni tobogan", about the fight for the park, premieres at ZagrebDox.^54,55

What to see in Savica

• Park Marije Ružičke Strozzi

  The central green space of Trnjanska Savica. In 2020 the City Assembly named it after the actress whose likeness appears on Vlaho Bukovac's "Hrvatski preporod" curtain at the Croatian National Theatre.^31,32 According to Mapiranje kvarta, an old pine on the park's north side was planted before the estate, by the old embankment.⁸

• The platforms

  The raised pedestrian decks Savica is known for.^6,19 On the so-called second platform, at Ulica Zvonimira Rogoza 1, is the pastoral centre of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac parish.²⁷

• Murals

  The City-backed Kvartovi kulture programme calls Savica an important place in the growth of Zagreb's street-art, mural and graffiti scene over the last two decades.⁴² According to Mapiranje kvarta, organised mural painting began in 2013.⁸ The 2024 cycle "Imena naših ulica" (The names of our streets) painted portraits of the people the streets are named after, among them Zinka Kunc, Ljerka Šram and Jure Kaštelan.^24,8

• Most mladosti

  The 685-metre bridge, viaducts included, designed by Vojislav Draganić, links Savica with Zapruđe.^44,45 According to Večernji list, its steel span was joined on 2 October 1971.⁴⁴

• The Petlja

  The interchange of Slavonska avenija and Držićeva. According to Mapiranje kvarta, it was built in the early 1970s and has three levels.⁸ The Držićeva-petlja tram stop is named after it.⁴⁸

• Gradski vrt Savica

  A city allotment garden on Prisavlje, next to the tennis courts.^20,53 Trnje's 2026 works plan provides for an outdoor fitness area and sports courts between the gardens and the courts.⁵³

• The Savica lakes (next door)

  An old Sava side-arm and 13 linked lakes left by abandoned gravel pits, downstream of Most mladosti in the Peščenica – Žitnjak district. They were protected in 1991 as a significant landscape, and 146 bird species have been recorded there.⁵¹

Did you know?

• 1The semi-prefabricated school building of 1967 was meant to last 25 years at most; it was used for 54.^33,34,35
• 2Knjižnica Savica offered its users internet access as early as 1999, and the Zelena knjižnica (Green Library) programme started here with the local transition group TranS.²²
• 3The fight for the children's park became the subject of Nebojša Slijepčević's 27-minute documentary "Crveni tobogan" (The Red Slide), shot from 2006 to 2023 and premiered at ZagrebDox in 2025.^54,55
• 4The singer Maja Šuput lived in Savica as a teenager and went out to a local disco called Dallas.⁴³
• 5According to Mapiranje kvarta, the 16th meridian east crosses Savica at the corner of a house on Trnjanska Savica street.⁸

Everyday life in Savica

Renting in Savica

Nearby neighbourhoods

• Folnegovićevo naseljeNeighbourhood guide
• SigečicaNeighbourhood guide
• ZapruđeNeighbourhood guide
• TrnjeNeighbourhood guide
• KanalNeighbourhood guide
• SredišćeNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trnje and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – East
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – West
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Savica