SrednjaciA 1965 estate, four towers and a name from a river island

Srednjaci at a glance

• To the main square by ZET32 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.7 km
• Residents, MO Horvati – Srednjaci (2021)¹³10,735
• Estate built^7,61965

Where Srednjaci is

Srednjaci is in the south of Trešnjevka. According to the local-history project Mapiranje Trešnjevke, it is bounded by the Črnomerec stream to the west, Zagrebačka avenija to the north, Selska cesta to the east and Horvaćanska cesta to the south. The same source notes that the borders aren't entirely clear and that the names Knežija and Srednjaci are sometimes used together.^2,1

Officially Srednjaci belongs to the city district of Trešnjevka – jug and to the local committee (mjesni odbor) Horvati – Srednjaci.^1,13 The committee is bigger than the neighbourhood, as it also takes in the whole of Gredice and the sports grounds and Faculty of Kinesiology south of Horvaćanska.^2,14 Srednjaci has no official boundary and isn't a separate settlement either: it is part of the settlement of Zagreb.¹¹ According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, the northern part around Ulica Vurovčica was counted as part of Vurovčica until the motorway was built.²

For and against: life in Srednjaci

What life is like in Srednjaci

Srednjaci and Knežija are the oldest of the estates built south of the motorway after the flood; both went up in 1965.⁷ Some buildings, the Braće Domany towers among them, went up through the 1970s and early 1980s.²

The neighbourhood's landmark is the four towers at Ulica braće Domany 2–8, set east to west along the Črnomerec stream.^8,1 They are 73 metres tall, and the Croatian technical encyclopedia lists them among Zagreb's tallest residential towers.⁹ Mapiranje Trešnjevke says they are thought to be Trešnjevka's tallest structures after the heating-plant chimney.² According to the Trešnjevka Neighbourhood Museum, they were built where small family houses once stood, and their flats range from studiosStudio flat (garsonijera)A flat where living, sleeping and cooking share one room, with a separate bathroom. Often spelled garsonjera.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), čl. 2., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary to 75 m². The ground floors weren't meant for housing and now hold public and commercial uses.⁸

In the same museum collection the Beroš family recall that in 1978 only a small share of the tower flats could be bought, because most were allocated to military personnel. They bought a 60 m² two-room flatTwo-room flat (dvosoban stan)A flat with two rooms, usually a living room and one bedroom. In Croatian listings the room count isn't the number of bedrooms.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), čl. 2., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary with one bedroomBedroom (spavaća soba)A room for sleeping. Croatian listings count all rooms including the living room, so a two-room flat usually has one bedroom and a three-room flat two.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), čl. 2., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary on credit.⁸

Of old Srednjaci, only the small streets in the north, along Zagrebačka avenija, survive, with their small family houses.^2,8 Mapiranje Trešnjevke records that Ulica Vurovčica, short today, reached all the way to Ozaljska until the 1950s, and that blocks on Kikićeva carry the plaques of two Belgrade building firms, Neimar (Kikićeva 10–14) and Napred (Kikićeva 13).³

The new estate's streets are named after medieval Croatian artists: Majstor Radonja, Majstor Radovan, Blaž Trogiranin and Vincent iz Kastva, who according to Mapiranje Trešnjevke worked between the 12th and the late 15th century.³ Ulica braće Domany is named after the brothers Robert and Rudolf Domany. Robert (1908–1942) fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and later commanded a Partisan detachment. Rudolf, husband of the writer Eva Grlić, was killed by the Ustaše in September 1941.^3,18,19

The local committee is based at Horvaćanska cesta 54.¹³ Srednjaci belongs to the Catholic parish of Mary Help of Christians in Knežija.^1,41

Where the name Srednjaci comes from

According to an article by Ivana Škiljan in Glas Trešnjevke, a map of 1853/1854 shows a Sava river island (ada) on the site of today's Srednjaci labelled Srednjaci, and the neighbourhood took its name from it.⁴ The sources don't say why the island itself was called that.

The same old maps show the area of the former Trešnjevka municipality as the land of separate villages around Zagreb: Horvati, Ljubljanica, Jarun, Rudeš and Prečko. Around today's Savski most the Sava was full of islands.⁴

A short history of Srednjaci

Horvati, the village on whose land the estate was built, was first recorded in 1615, with 26 serf families.⁶ It was joined to the Royal City of Zagreb on 7 September 1850 as a separate municipality.⁶ In 1878 a road was built from Ilica towards Horvati and given the name Selska cesta, the village road.⁶ The painter Josip Račić, after whom the local school is named, was born on 22 March 1885 in the village of Horvati, in the area of today's Knežija and Srednjaci.^20,21,6

The city's regulation plan of 1938 set aside a site for a church, with a small square and a parish house, on a planned Ulica Srednjaci, but the church was never built.¹⁷ According to a review in Vijenac of the City Museum's Trešnjevka exhibition, the motorway that is now Zagrebačka avenija was built in 1956.⁷ The Sava flood of 1964 put the whole Horvati area under up to two metres of water, and many houses had to be demolished. The City then decided to build a modern estate, and that is how today's Srednjaci came about.^6,7

The estate was built in 1965, and in 1975 the school celebrated the estate's tenth anniversary.^7,6 That school, now OŠ Josipa Račića, was paid for by a residents' self-levy (samodoprinos) and finished at the end of August 1971. The Zagreb firm DOM built it to a standard design by Aleksandar Dragomanović, Radovan Nikšić and Edo Šmidihen.^6,16 By 1973 it had 927 pupils in three shifts.⁶

From April 1973 to April 1974 Ognjen Čaldarović and Melita Richter studied Knežija, Kalinovica and Srednjaci, an area of 29,300 people, for the City's urban planning institute. Their study pointed to overcrowding, monotonous buildings, too few facilities and poor transport links.³⁰ The towers at Ulica braće Domany 4, 6 and 8 were built in 1975–76.⁸ In 1987 the tram line was extended from Savski most to Jarun along Horvaćanska cesta, past Srednjaci.³⁶

In 2006 the studioStudio flat (garsonijera)A flat where living, sleeping and cooking share one room, with a separate bathroom. Often spelled garsonjera.Source: Pravilnik minimalnih tehničkih uvjeta za projektiranje i gradnju stanova iz POS-a (NN 106/04, 25/06, 121/11), čl. 2., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary 3LHD won a competition with Tower 123, a 123-metre office tower for the corner of Ljubljanska avenija (now Zagrebačka avenija) and Selska cesta. It was meant to be the tallest building in Croatia, but it was never built.^35,3

In October 2025 the City named the park east of Ulica Srednjaci after the architect and painter Stanka Kovačić in der Mühlen.¹¹ In December 2025 the City proposed abolishing the name of Mogorićka ulica, a short branch off Selska that exists only on paper.^33,34 According to Jutarnji list, the street lost its road access when Selska was widened for the 1987 Universiade. By July 2026 only one house was left there.³⁴

1. 1615The village of Horvati is first recorded, with 26 serf families.⁶
2. 1850On 7 September Horvati is joined to Zagreb as a separate municipality.⁶
3. 1853/1854A map labels a Sava island on the site of today's neighbourhood Srednjaci.⁴
4. 1878Selska cesta is built from Ilica towards Horvati.⁶
5. 1885The painter Josip Račić is born in Horvati.^20,21
6. 1956The motorway that is now Zagrebačka avenija is built.⁷
7. 1964The Sava flood puts Horvati under up to two metres of water.^6,7
8. 1965The Srednjaci estate is built.^7,6
9. 1971The school now called OŠ Josipa Račića is finished at the end of August.^6,16
10. 1975–1976The towers at Ulica braće Domany 4, 6 and 8 go up.^8,9
11. 1987Trams start running along Horvaćanska cesta to Jarun.³⁶
12. 2006A 123-metre tower for the corner of the avenue and Selska wins a competition; it is never built.^35,3
13. 2025The park east of Ulica Srednjaci is named after Stanka Kovačić in der Mühlen.¹¹

What to see in Srednjaci

• The Braće Domany towers

  Four 73-metre towers along the Črnomerec stream. Three of them, at nos. 4, 6 and 8, were built in 1975–76 to a concept by the architect Stanka Kovačić in der Mühlen (1933–2016), who spent most of her career at the building company Gortan.^8,9

• OŠ Josipa Račića

  A pavilion complex with a forecourt and separate entrances for older pupils to the north and younger ones to the south. According to Alen Žunić's study, this standard design was the first in a Croatian school programme to plan central cloakrooms.¹⁶ Ratko Petrić's monument to Josip Račić has stood in the schoolyard since 1980.^6,10,2

• Park Stanke Kovačić in der Mühlen

  The park east of Ulica Srednjaci, named in October 2025.¹¹ On 5 September 2026 it hosted a gathering for the local committee's day, with a children's show, CeKaTe's mini ballerinas, the Zrele trešnje folk choir and workshops for older residents.¹²

• Small finds in the old streets

  Mapiranje Trešnjevke's neighbourhood game in September 2026 led players to a mulberry tree that has grown across the whole width of II. Drniška ulica, old house-number plates on Vrlička, Siverićka and Zemunička, and a no-parking sign on Kikićeva that still names the shoe shop Pitarelo.³

Did you know?

• 1Srednjaci had its own slang. A local recalling the 1970s says that the Zagreb phrase "kužiš, stari moj" ("get it, mate") became "jožiškunj joristanj jojmonj" here, with syllables swapped and jo- and -nj added. The linguist Ivan Marković analysed it in 2016.²³
• 2According to its co-author Ivica Krajač, the rock opera Gubec-beg was written in Karlo Metikoš's flat in Srednjaci.²⁴
• 3The footballer Joško Gvardiol was born in Srednjaci in 2002 and grew up in the third of the Braće Domany towers.^26,25
• 4The boxer Željko Mavrović, "Šaka sa Srednjaka" (the Fist from Srednjaci), grew up and went to school here. In 1998 he fought Lennox Lewis for the WBC world heavyweight title and lost on points.^28,29 The singer Tajči, his teenage friend, has told how one evening on a bench he said he would be a champion and she said she would be a star.²⁷

Everyday life in Srednjaci

Renting in Srednjaci

Nearby neighbourhoods

• HorvatiNeighbourhood guide
• RemizaNeighbourhood guide
• GrediceNeighbourhood guide
• KnežijaNeighbourhood guide
• LjubljanicaNeighbourhood guide
• StaglišćeNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – South and New Zagreb – West
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – South and Stenjevec
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – South and Trešnjevka – North
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Srednjaci