TuškanacSummer houses, villas and a park-forest north of Ilica

Tuškanac at a glance

• To the main square by ZET15 min
• To the centre as the crow flies1.1 km
• Residents, MO (2021)³⁹2,154
• Area, MO³⁹129.44 ha

Where Tuškanac is

Tuškanac is the name of a park-forest, of the residential quarter on the hill north of Ilica and of a local committee area.^45,3,39 The neighbourhood belongs to the city district of Gornji grad – Medveščak and is covered by one local committee (mjesni odbor), Tuškanac, based at Jabukovac 28.^38,39 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Tuškanac through that committee. Tuškanac is not a separate settlement: under the 2009 decision the committee covers part of the settlement of Zagreb.³⁸

The committee takes in the even side of Ilica from number 40 to 82, and its boundary runs north from Ilica to Zelengaj and Kraljevec and climbs to the Podsljeme district. It covers Gornje Prekrižje, Tuškanac, Slavujevac, Paunovac, Jabukovac and Krležin gvozd down to Dubravkin put.^38,40 The Dubravkin put walk itself, the summer stage, Cmrok and Dežmanova belong to the neighbouring Gornji grad committee, and Britanski trg to the „Ivan Kukuljević – Sakcinski” committee.^40,19

For and against: life in Tuškanac

What life is like in Tuškanac

Tuškanac is a quarter of villas and family houses. A study by the Institute of Art History (IPU) says that from the early 20th century Josipovac and Tuškanac were among Zagreb's most exclusive addresses.⁷ Housebuilding began with summer houses (ljetnikovci) in the late 19th century and went on with villas from 1909 into the 1930s. Of the 44 summer houses built in Zagreb between 1888 and 1900, most went up on Josipovac, Tuškanac and Gornje Prekrižje.⁷

Four of the surviving summer houses are protected as individual monuments, three on Ulica Ivana Gorana Kovačića (numbers 17, 33 and 37) and one at Nazorova 55.⁷ From 1909 to 1931 the architects Aladar Baranyai and Slavko Benedik built a run of exclusive residences in Tuškanac, their own family houses among them.^7,1 Rokov perivoj filled with villas of Zagreb's artistic elite between 1910 and 1934, among them those of Ljubo Babić, Jozo Kljaković and Nasta Rojc.⁷ Villa Botteri at Tuškanac 54A, by Frane Cota and Zvonimir Požgaj, dates from 1932.⁴⁶

The City Museum writes that Miroslav and Bela Krleža lived on Gvozd far from the bustle of the city, looking out at the Upper Town and St Mark's church.¹⁰

Josipovac

Today's Ulica Vladimira Nazora and Ulica Ivana Gorana Kovačića, both originally called Josipovac. The first summer-house quarter went up here between 1887 and 1896.⁷

Rokov perivoj

A hill once called Penezna gorica and Gradec's former cemetery, with St Roch's chapel.^15,16

Gornje Prekrižje

A street of late 19th-century summer houses that climbs to the border of the Podsljeme district.^7,38

Krležin gvozd

The part of Tuškanac that has carried the name of the historic mountain Gvozd since 1928. Number 23 is Villa Rein, where Miroslav and Bela Krleža lived.¹⁰

Where the name Tuškanac comes from

No etymology has been proven, but the name is usually linked to Tuscany; the Croatian language portal cross-refers Tuškanac to the entry for Toskana.² One story says the name came from a town judge who was an Italian from Tuscany, a "Toskanac". The Zagreb lexicon, as cited by Wikipedia, calls this folk etymology; an older form of the name was Tuškanec.¹ ZGportal gives a second version, after settlers from Tuscany in the 14th century, but adds "allegedly".³

Josipovac, the old name of today's Ulica Vladimira Nazora and Ulica Ivana Gorana Kovačića, comes from the chapel of St Joseph in the convent of the Magdalene sisters.⁷

A short history of Tuškanac

Zvezdišće, the execution ground where women convicted of witchcraft were beheaded and burned from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, stood by today's cinema. Marija Jurić Zagorka set a burning there in her novel Grička vještica.^4,1,6 In 1808 the Civic Shooting Society built a wooden shooting house on the old execution ground, and on 1 September 1838 it opened its clubhouse, today's cinema.^4,7,5,6 According to Gjuro Szabo, as cited by Vijenac, the clubhouse was the Illyrian movement's favourite meeting place until the Narodni dom opened in 1847.⁵

Sofijin put, today's Dubravkin put, opened in 1883.^7,1 Milan Lenuci's regulatory plan of 1887 drew a "green horseshoe" of forest walks and the first summer-house quarter at Josipovac, and banned building on lower Tuškanac to keep it as woodland.^7,1 The land of the Magdalene convent, bought by the land government in 1886, was cut into 20 plots sold for summer houses only. The houses went up from 1887 to 1896, on the model of Vienna's Währing and Döbling suburbs.⁷

From 26 December 1923 to 10 February 1929 the former shooting hall was the second stage of the Croatian National Theatre, with 67 premieres, and from the late 1920s it was a cinema.^5,6,1 The earthquakes and a 2023 storm damaged the cinema's load-bearing structure, and on 15 April 2026 the City put its renovation out to tender, estimated at €7 million excluding VAT, equipment included.²⁴

1. Middle Ages – 18th c.The Zvezdišće execution ground stands by today's cinema.^4,1
2. 1808The shooting society builds a wooden shooting house.^4,7
3. 1838The shooting society's clubhouse, today's cinema, opens.^5,6
4. 1887–1896Summer houses go up on Josipovac.⁷
5. 1923–1929The former shooting hall is the Croatian National Theatre's second stage.^5,6
6. 1952Miroslav and Bela Krleža move to Gvozd 23.¹⁰
7. 1954Kazimir Ostrogović's summer stage opens.^19,20
8. 1965OŠ Jabukovac gets a new building, and the Hunting Museum moves to Nazorova.^30,17
9. 2008The public Tuškanac garage opens.^26,28
10. 2012The restored summer stage reopens.^19,20,21
11. 2023From October the damaged cinema's programme is shown at other venues.^24,23
12. 2026The City puts the cinema's renovation out to tender; in October the deputy mayor says a contractor has been found.^24,25

What to see in Tuškanac

• Kino Tuškanac

  The cinema is at Tuškanac 1, in the shooting society's clubhouse of 1838, whose great hall was added by 1885.^5,6,4 According to Vijenac, its designer is unknown: Gjuro Szabo credited Bartol Felbinger, but Lelja Dobronić disputed this because the plans are lost.⁵

• Dubravkin put and the summer stage

  A pedestrian-only walk through the woods from Cmrok down to Ilica, almost two kilometres long according to ZGportal.^3,22 Kazimir Ostrogović's summer stage opened in 1954, stopped running around 1970 and was restored to his original design in 2012. It has about 200 benches for up to roughly 500 people.^19,20,21

• The wooden pavilion and the Nazor monument

  The octagonal oak music pavilion was made for the 1891 farming and forestry exhibition and moved to Josipovac at Herman Ehrlich's request. It has been a protected monument since 1962.^12,7 In front of it, since 1972, stands Stjepan Gračan's 3.5-metre bronze monument to Vladimir Nazor.¹³

• Villa Ehrlich-Marić

  At Ivana Gorana Kovačića 37, on the highest and largest plot of old Josipovac.^7,8 Herman Ehrlich built a summer house with the Josipovac restaurant here in 1890–1891, and in 1928 Aladar Baranyai remodelled it for the industrialist Artur Marić. After 1945 the writer Vladimir Nazor lived and died in the villa.^7,8 It now houses the Croatian Museum of Architecture HAZU, founded in 1995.^9,8

• The Krleža memorial home

  The first-floor flat of Villa Rein (Krležin gvozd 23), where Miroslav and Bela Krleža lived from 1952 to the end of their lives. According to the City Museum, it holds about 4,300 books and the original furniture.¹⁰ Below Gvozd, on Dubravkin put, stands Marija Ujević-Galetović's statue of Krleža.¹⁴

• St Roch's chapel

  Gradec's citizens built this votive chapel against the plague in the mid-17th century, and Bishop Martin Borković consecrated it in 1682.^15,16 Rokov perivoj was Gradec's cemetery, where the composer Vatroslav Lisinski was buried; burials stopped in 1877.^15,7

• Hunting Museum

  The Croatian Hunting Association's museum at Ulica Vladimira Nazora 63, in the former Villa Wohlmuth of 1926. It opened here on 26 February 1965 and fills about 1,000 m².^17,18

Did you know?

• 1According to Vijenac, the cinema building is 57 years older than the Croatian National Theatre's building and was finished two years before the 1840 performance seen as the theatre's beginning.⁵
• 2According to Večernji list, Tuškanac had the first court of KK Lokomotiva, the club that became Cibona. A 2019 exhibition in the garage, "Vukovi s Tuškanca" (the Wolves of Tuškanac), recalled that court and legends such as Dražen Petrović and Krešimir Ćosić.^29,28
• 3According to Tržnice Zagreb, the 1925 rules for the Britanski trg market banned selling new potatoes smaller than a hen's egg.³²
• 4The Tuškanac stream used to run through today's Dežmanov prolaz and Frankopanska, and was only vaulted over in the 1890s.¹¹

Everyday life in Tuškanac

Renting in Tuškanac

Nearby neighbourhoods

• Upper TownNeighbourhood guide
• PantovčakNeighbourhood guide
• MedveščakNeighbourhood guide
• KaptolNeighbourhood guide
• ŠalataNeighbourhood guide
• RibnjakNeighbourhood 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 Tuškanac