Šestinski dolA foothill valley towards Šestine, with park-forests and Vjenceslav Richter's house

Šestinski dol at a glance

• To the main square by ZET25 min
• To the centre as the crow flies2.9 km
• Residents, MO (2021)³6,838
• Area, MO³209 ha

Where Šestinski dol is

Šestinski dol is officially part of the city district of Črnomerec. It is covered by the local committee (mjesni odbor) Šestinski dol – Vrhovec, one of the district's eight, based at Ilica 181.^2,3 It is not a separate settlement but part of the settlement of Zagreb; in 1951 it was described as a Zagreb suburb.^2,8 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Šestinski dol through that committee area.

The committee's area covers the houses on Kuniščak, Cerovac, Šestinski dol, Šestinski dol odvojak, Kestenovac, Drage, I. Podfuščak, Podfuščak, I. Vidovčica, Vidovčica, Vrtlarska cesta and Podolje, parts of Čičkovina and Prevoj, and Vrhovec street, except no. 154 and the odd numbers 225 to 267, which belong to the Jelenovac committee.² The houses on Sveti Duh street belong to the neighbouring Sveti Duh committee, and north of Šestinski dol 145A the committee's boundary meets the Podsljeme district.²

For and against: life in Šestinski dol

What life is like in Šestinski dol

Šestinski dol belongs to the hilly foothill part of Črnomerec north of Ilica. Mladen Klemenčić describes this part of the district as former suburban villages that the city took in during the 20th century and that, apart from the hospital at Sveti Duh, are purely residential.¹ According to the ZGportal website, Vrhovec is an area of family houses.⁴⁰

Zagreb's building regulations of 1934 set out a low-density street for Šestinski dol: two-storey houses up to no. 26, one-storey houses beyond it, and front gardens 5 metres deep.⁵ At the very start of the street stands a long residential building that Pliva put up for its employees in 1960.¹ On Kuniščak, which runs along the foot of the first foothill slopes, houses stand only on the north side of the street.¹ Šestinski dol also has the Kramar family house, known as Monokromna siva (Monochrome grey), completed in 2002 by the architect Dragomir Vlahović; it is a private home.¹⁶

Klemenčić also quotes Zagrebačka priča, a novel by Blanka Dovjak Matković, in which old Šestinski dol is part of a suburb home to factory and building workers, tram and railway workers, postmen and porters.¹

At the 2011 census the committee area had 7,039 residents in 2,837 households and 3,680 dwellings, on 2.09 km².⁴ At the 2021 census it had 6,838, about 3% fewer, although the 2011 and 2020 boundaries may differ slightly.^3,4

The 2025 city plan places Sveti Duh, Vrhovec – Vinogradska and Šestinski dol in the protected foothill zone, with mostly smaller residential buildings. Along Šestinski dol up to Podfuščak, the same plan allows new buildings of up to four storeys above ground, the fourth an attic or set-back floor.¹⁹

Where the name Šestinski dol comes from

Šestinski dol is a street name taken from the lie of the land. Klemenčić lists it with Podolje, Kuniščak, Antunovac and Vrhovec among names given after the foothill slopes or valleys.¹ Dol means valley. Domobranska street continues north into a foothill valley called Šestinski dol, which leads towards the old foothill villages of Dedići and Šestine.¹

Kuniščak street is named after the stream from Sljeme that flows through Šestinski dol.¹ Mandaličina takes its name from mandalica, an old word for apricot, and from the inn K Mandalici, which city councillor Antun Kocijan opened at Ilica 214 in 1866. Nad lipom ("By the linden") is also named after a notable tree that once stood there.¹

A short history of Šestinski dol

The general school at Sveti Duh, forerunner of today's OŠ Pavleka Miškine, was founded in 1875, at first in a rented building near the brewery; the present school building dates from 1896.¹ The single-storey house on the corner of Kuniščak and Mandaličina was built in 1892, and Kuniščak 1 and 8 date from 1909.¹ The tram line reached the Črnomerec end of Ilica in 1910 or 1911; the sources disagree on the year.^36,1 Between the two world wars the natural bed of the Kuniščak stream through Šestinski dol was vaulted over; it still shows on older city plans.¹

On Vrhovec, the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross began digging the foundations of their house on 18 June 1929, and Archbishop Antun Bauer blessed it on 19 March 1930.¹⁰ In 1932 the society Hrvatski radiša decided to parcel out its Vinovrh estate on Vrhovec, left to it by the Zagreb wholesaler Leo Bauer, and build a settlement of about 400 houses to a single plan.⁶ Zdenko Strižić won the competition, and Kazimir Ostrogović designed four house types from the winning scheme. City minutes were still discussing the road change it needed in 1935; after that, the sources say nothing more about the estate. The narrow, steep access road was never moved for lack of money, and the settlement was never built.⁶

In 1951 a shelter for adults was set up in Šestinski dol, in barracks that had housed children during the Second World War. It began working on its own in 1953, at Šestinski dol 53, and in 1978 it opened a branch at Mirkovec in Hrvatsko zagorje.^8,9 In 1966 the urbanists Ivanović, Marinović and Boltar drew up a planning scheme for Šestinski dol, which Žarko Domljan counted in 1969 among the interesting schemes of the time.⁷ OŠ Nad lipom, a school for children with disabilities, has been in its present building since 1980, and the Kajfešov brijeg library opened on 24 November 1983.^1,32

In the early 1980s Vjenceslav Richter and Nada Kareš Richter gave their house on Vrhovec and their artworks to the City of Zagreb. The collection opened to the public in spring 2000 and was entered in the Croatian register of cultural goods in 2011.^11,13,14 On 19 September 2009 the City reopened the rebuilt Šestinski dol street: 2,000 metres of road with new storm drainage, pavements and pedestrian crossings, worth about 5 million kuna.²¹ In February 2013 a landslide brought two trees down onto the road and tore power cables, and nearby houses lost power for a few hours.²² OŠ Pavleka Miškine reopened in October 2014 after works worth about 45.5 million kuna that added two wings and a sports hall.²³ The earthquake of 22 March 2020 damaged the western part of the health-centre building at Vrtlarska 1a.³⁴

1. 1875The general school at Sveti Duh, forerunner of OŠ Pavleka Miškine, is founded.¹
2. 1892The single-storey house on the corner of Kuniščak and Mandaličina is built.¹
3. 1910–1911The tram line reaches the Črnomerec end of Ilica.^36,1
4. 1930Archbishop Antun Bauer blesses the Sisters of Mercy's house on Vrhovec.¹⁰
5. 1932Hrvatski radiša decides to build the Vinovrh estate of about 400 houses on Vrhovec.⁶
6. 1934Building regulations for Šestinski dol set out a low-density street with front gardens.⁵
7. 1951A shelter for adults is set up in barracks in Šestinski dol.⁸
8. 1960Pliva builds a long block of flats for its employees at the start of Šestinski dol.¹
9. 1983The Kajfešov brijeg library opens.^32,1
10. 2000The Richter Collection on Vrhovec opens to the public.^11,12,14
11. 2009The City reopens the rebuilt Šestinski dol street.²¹
12. 2014OŠ Pavleka Miškine gains two new wings and a sports hall.²³
13. 2020The earthquake damages the health-centre building at Vrtlarska 1a.³⁴

What to see in Šestinski dol

• Richter Collection

  At Vrhovec 38, the former home and studio of the architect and artist Vjenceslav Richter (1917–2002) and the actress Nada Kareš Richter, with a sculpture park. It is run by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) and holds 188 works made between 1963 and 2002.^11,12,14 According to Bauštela.hr, a glass cylinder on the terrace that looks like a table is also the skylight of the winter garden on the floor below.¹⁵ MSU plans to conserve Richter's sculpture Sunčani sat (Sundial) in the park in 2026, and the City has put the repair of the house out to tender.¹⁴

• House of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross

  At Vrhovec 43, blessed in 1930 together with its Sacred Heart chapel. The 1929 foundation stone calls it "the first retreat house in Croatia for laywomen". The house had 20 double rooms.¹⁰

• Vrhovec park-forest

  According to Croatian Wikipedia, most of it lies in this committee area. It borders the Šestinski dol park-forest to the south, Zamorski breg to the north and Jelenovac to the east. Sessile oak, beech, hornbeam and black locust dominate.¹⁸

• Šestinski dol park-forest and the Kuniščak valley

  The 2025 city plan lists Šestinski dol among Zagreb's city park-forests, and the valley of the Kuniščak stream among the city's valuable landscapes.¹⁹

• Šestinski dol forest trail

  An educational forest trail. Pupils of OŠ Pavleka Miškine wrote the texts and notices on its panels.¹⁷

Did you know?

• 1By Kazimir Ostrogović's own account, Vinovrh, at about 400 houses, would have been the largest housing estate in the country. The plan put a hotel with a restaurant and a swimming pool with changing cabins on the hilltop.⁶
• 2Richter's house began as a wooden prefab, the Spačva model built to a system by the architect Vladimir Zarahović, which Richter turned into a home, studio and gallery.^13,14 By Richter's own account, as MSU summarises it, he paid for the first part from his fees for the pavilion at the 1958 Brussels world exhibition.¹⁴
• 3According to Net.hr, a zebra crossing on Šestinski dol street led straight into the fence of a private house. In October 2024 the City proposed moving it from no. 100 to no. 99A, subject to police approval.²⁴
• 4Ulica grada Gualda Tadina, home of the Kajfešov brijeg library, is named after an Umbrian town because Črnomerec's voluntary blood donors worked with that town's Red Cross.^1,31
• 5The western end of Kuniščak was a separate street, Pavlekovićeva ulica, until the early 1990s, and was joined back to Kuniščak in the late 1990s.¹

Everyday life in Šestinski dol

Renting in Šestinski dol

Nearby neighbourhoods

• JelenovacNeighbourhood guide
• Sveti DuhNeighbourhood guide
• PantovčakNeighbourhood guide
• ČrnomerecNeighbourhood guide
• TuškanacNeighbourhood guide
• KustošijaNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Črnomerec and Upper Town – Medveščak
• Compare districts: Črnomerec and Podsljeme
• Compare districts: Črnomerec and Podsused – Vrapče
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Šestinski dol