Sveti DuhFrom a chapel on the hill to a hospital and St Anthony's basilica

Sveti Duh at a glance

• To the main square by ZET25 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.1 km
• Committee residents (2021)³6,768
• Committee area³187 ha

Where Sveti Duh is

Officially, Sveti Duh is part of the city district (gradska četvrt) of Črnomerec. It is covered by the local committee (mjesni odbor) „Sveti Duh”, which is not a separate settlement but part of the settlement of Zagreb.^1,3 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Sveti Duh through that committee.

The neighbourhood's spine is the street called Sveti Duh, which leaves Ilica opposite Selska cesta and climbs north towards Šestinski dol.¹⁴ The committee's boundary starts at the north-west corner of Ilica and Sveti Duh. Among other streets it takes in the whole of Sveti Duh street, Topnička, Trsje, Dunjevac, Strma cesta, Krčelićeva and Kajfešov brijeg, but only the odd numbers 1 to 11 of Ulica grada Gualda Tadina.^1,2 According to the boundary descriptions in the same City decision, the committee borders Bartol Kašić, Gornja Kustošija, Medvedgrad and Šestinski dol – Vrhovec, all in Črnomerec.²

For and against: life in Sveti Duh

What life is like in Sveti Duh

Mladen Klemenčić describes the hilly part of Črnomerec as purely residential, the hospital at Sveti Duh being the one exception.⁵ Along Sveti Duh street itself stand St Anthony's basilica (31), the primary school (24), the hospital (64), the St Petka monastery with its gymnasium (122) and a former novitiate of the Sisters of Charity (129).^{8,12,14,16,22} At the 2011 census the committee area had 6,859 residents in 2,479 households and 3,204 dwellings, on 1.87 km², and at the 2021 census 6,768 residents.^4,3

In the 1980s the terraced Kajfešov brijeg estate, designed by Ante Marinović Uzelac, went up on former orchards and vineyards, with nine rows and 75 flats.^5,19 It was designed between 1965 and 1981, and the sources give 1983 (Jutarnji list) and 1987 (Oris) for its completion.^20,18 The Zagreb Society of Architects' guide describes a dense terraced structure cut by narrow passages, with large, partly planted terracesBalcony and terrace (balkon, terasa)A balcony projects from the building's façade; a terrace is a level surface on or next to the building, covered or open. Both count only in part in floor-area figures.Source: Pravilnik o načinu obračuna površine i obujma u projektima zgrada (NN 90/10), čl. 4.–5., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary. Both that guide and the magazine Oris call it controversial.^19,18 A young couple who live there told Jutarnji list, in our paraphrase, that they are a few minutes from Ilica and yet away from the noise and bustle of the city centre.²⁰

In 2009 the architect Vladimir Kasun finished the Habitus estate at Sveti Duh 112–120, built on a steep slope.^18,19 The wooden Villa Filipčić on Sveti Duh, designed in 1936 by Drago Ibler and Drago Galić, was demolished in 2007.^17,18

Where the name Sveti Duh comes from

The neighbourhood and the street are named after the Holy Spirit (Sveti Duh) chapel. According to Klemenčić, Sveti Duh was a village that grew up around the chapel, and ZGportal writes that only a few houses of the town's serfs stood around the church.^5,6 Klemenčić calls Sveti Duh the oldest place name in the part of Črnomerec he covers.⁵

According to the Catholic news agency IKA, the street officially became Sveti Duh in 1913.⁷ From 1950 to 1990 it carried the name of the folk poet Mihovil Pavlek Miškina, and the primary school on it is still named after him.^5,12

Kajfešov brijeg is named after Josip Kajfeš, a doctor at the Zakladna bolnica hospital who died with the Partisans in 1944; after the Second World War the hospital itself carried his name.^5,10,21 Ulica grada Gualda Tadina is named after the small Umbrian town of Gualdo Tadino because Črnomerec's voluntary blood donors worked with the Red Cross there.⁵

A short history of Sveti Duh

According to IKA, a wooden Holy Spirit church on the hill is mentioned in 1492; Klemenčić and ZGportal say only the 15th century.^7,5,6 In 1625, encouraged by the Upper Town Jesuits, a serfs' confraternity of St Isidore, patron of farmers, was founded there.^6,7 According to ZGportal, in the 18th century craftsmen from the Upper Town guilds moved in too, and as guild members they were not counted among the town's serfs.⁶

According to IKA, the army stored gunpowder in the chapel on 14 October 1809. Lightning struck on 30 June 1810, the gunpowder caught fire, and the explosion razed the chapel to its foundations.^7,8,5 The present chapel was built in 1832 by the parish priest Petar Horvatić.^7,5 Just below the church stood a small city toll house, where peasants from the hill villages paid their duties; all the toll houses were abolished after 1945.⁵

The general school at Sveti Duh (Obća škola pri Svetom Duhu) was founded in 1875 and at first used rented rooms. The present school building went up from 1895, and the school moved into it in 1896.^5,11,12 During the First World War the building served as barracks and a military hospital.^5,12

Croatian Conventual Franciscans, expelled from their friaries on Cres and in Piran, came to Zagreb in 1921 and took over the chapel in 1922. Archbishop Antun Bauer blessed their new friary on 4 October 1922.^8,7,5 The same year the Orthopaedic Hospital moved into the first hospital buildings at Sveti Duh.^5,10 Zagreb's hospital of the Brothers of Mercy, opened in 1804 on Harmica, today's Trg bana Jelačića (the main square), had been called the Zakladna bolnica since 1918. On 29 January 1930 the city decided to house it in the Orthopaedic Hospital at Sveti Duh, and the move began in January 1931.^10,5 According to the State Archives in Zagreb, a new Zakladna bolnica opened at Rebro in 1942, but the staff and equipment never moved there from Sveti Duh. In 1992 the hospital at Sveti Duh took the name Opća bolnica „Sveti Duh”.¹⁰

The church of St Anthony of Padua was designed by Juraj Denzler. According to the parish, ZGportal and Klemenčić, building began in 1931, the 700th anniversary of St Anthony's death; the archdiocese gives 1932 to 1934.^8,6,5,9 The parish was founded on 1 January 1932, carved out of the parishes of Sveti Blaž and Vrapče, and Archbishop Bauer blessed the church on 8 December 1934.^9,6,5 In 2022 the church became a minor basilica.⁹

1. 1492According to IKA, the first mention of a wooden Holy Spirit church.⁷
2. 1625A serfs' confraternity of St Isidore is founded.^6,7
3. 1810Lightning ignites gunpowder stored in the chapel and the blast razes it.^7,8,5
4. 1832The parish priest Petar Horvatić builds the present Holy Spirit chapel.^7,5
5. 1875The general school at Sveti Duh is founded.⁵
6. 1896The school moves into its new building, today's OŠ Pavleka Miškine.^11,12,5
7. 1922The Conventual Franciscans take over the chapel, and the Orthopaedic Hospital moves to Sveti Duh.^8,5
8. 1930–1931The city decides to move the Zakladna bolnica from Harmica to Sveti Duh; the move begins in January 1931.^10,5
9. 1934Archbishop Antun Bauer blesses the church of St Anthony of Padua.^9,5,6
10. 1936Metropolitan Dositej founds the Orthodox women's monastery of St Petka.¹⁶
11. 1959Ivan Sabolić's monument „Plamen” goes up in front of the hospital.^21,22
12. 1980sThe terraced Kajfešov brijeg estate is built.^5,19
13. 2009The Habitus estate at Sveti Duh 112–120 is finished.^18,19
14. 2022St Anthony's becomes a minor basilica.^9,8

What to see in Sveti Duh

• Basilica of St Anthony of Padua

  At Sveti Duh 31. A monumental three-aisled church with a rough-stone exterior, designed by Juraj Denzler, beside a friary of Conventual Franciscans.^8,9 The bell tower, already part of Denzler's design, was built in 2008.^9,5 The church has held the title of minor basilica since 8 August 2022, and the formal proclamation followed on 8 December 2022.^9,8

• The new organ and the Pentecost fresco

  According to the parish, the fresco „Pedesetnica” (Pentecost) by the painter Tihomir Lončar was blessed in the basilica on 30 May 2022, followed on 8 June by a new organ by the Slovenian firm Škrabl, with 41 stops, three manuals and a pedalboard. The apostolic nuncio blessed the organ.⁸

• Holy Spirit chapel

  Beside the basilica stands the chapel built in 1832 by the parish priest Petar Horvatić, on the site of the one destroyed in 1810.^7,5 According to IKA, its crypt holds the burial vault of the Conventual Franciscans.⁷

• Sveti Duh hospital and the „Plamen” monument

  Sveti Duh Clinical Hospital is at Sveti Duh 64.¹⁴ In front of its main entrance stands Ivan Sabolić's bronze monument „Plamen” (The Flame), put up in 1959 in honour of the 75 fallen fighters of the Črnomerec municipality. The monument is protected cultural property.^21,22

• St Petka monastery

  An Orthodox women's monastery at Sveti Duh 122. According to the monastery, the merchant Đuro Avirović bought a 7-jutro estate here in 1866 and planted a large vineyard, and his bequest became the basis of the monastery, which Metropolitan Dositej founded in 1936. It was the eparchy's first women's monastery.¹⁶ In 2011 the Serbian Orthodox gymnasium was built on its grounds.^16,31

• Former novitiate of the Sisters of Charity

  The complex of the former novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul at Sveti Duh 129 is protected cultural property.²²

• Kajfešov brijeg

  Ante Marinović Uzelac's terraced estate at Kajfešov brijeg 2–18, with 75 flats in nine rows.^19,5

Did you know?

• 1In his novel "Barun Ivica", August Šenoa blamed the 1810 explosion on soldiers carelessly smoking cigarettes. That is the literary version; the sources say lightning.^7,8
• 2According to the parish, St Anthony's has 36 oak pews, one for each year of the saint's life. They were installed at the end of 1941, and the sculptor Radoje Hudoklin carved their reliefs.⁸
• 3According to the parish history, in 1816 Bartol Felbinger, then Zagreb's leading architect, designed a domed church on an elongated elliptical plan for Sveti Duh. It was never built.⁸

Everyday life in Sveti Duh

Renting in Sveti Duh

Nearby neighbourhoods

• ČrnomerecNeighbourhood guide
• Šestinski dolNeighbourhood guide
• KustošijaNeighbourhood guide
• JelenovacNeighbourhood guide
• PantovčakNeighbourhood guide
• VoltinoNeighbourhood 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 Sveti Duh