VolovčicaA neighbourhood built around its round market, from garden houses to towers

Volovčica at a glance

• To the main square by ZET24 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.5 km
• Residents (2021)³5,275
• Committee area³56.73 ha

Where Volovčica is

Volovčica belongs to the city district of Peščenica – Žitnjak. Officially it is local committee (mjesni odbor) no. 14, Volovčica, based at Kriška ulica 20. The committee covers part of the settlement of Zagreb, so Volovčica is not a separate settlement.^3,4 A kvart (neighbourhood) has no official boundary, so this guide describes Volovčica through that committee.

The committee's boundary runs along the south side of Borongajska cesta from no. 46, the west side of Getaldićeva, Ulica grada Gospića and Ulica grada Vukovara to Ivanićgradska, then north up Ivanićgradska to Planinska and around Ulica Lucijana Vranjanina back to Borongajska.⁴ The Donje Svetice committee lies to the west and north-west, and the Bruno Bušić committee across Borongajska cesta.⁴ Croatian Wikipedia also lists Ferenščica and Borongaj-Lugovi as neighbours.¹ The market, the library and the KNAP culture centre are inside the committee area; OŠ Frana Krste Frankopana and the health centre are across Ivanićgradska, in Donje Svetice.^4,11,33

For and against: life in Volovčica

What life is like in Volovčica

Volovčica's housing comes in three layers.^9,5,10 The oldest are terraced houses from the 1930s and 1940s around Moslavački trg, on Ludinska and Osekovska, on parts of Turopoljska and Ivanićgradska and along all of Kriška ulica.⁹ According to the property site Bauštela, each has a small front yard and a spacious garden behind.⁹ Further south, around Prilaz sv. Josipa Radnika, workers' blocks with two or three upper floors went up from the early 1950s, and three towers with 17 upper floors rose in the southern part in the late 1960s.^10,5,1

The architect Maroje Mrduljaš, speaking to Bauštela, describes streets that radiate from Trg Volovčica and its market, crossed by streets laid out in arcs. In his view the neighbourhood has kept a reasonable scale and plenty of mature greenery, and has been spared major urban damage. The apartment buildings near Borongajska cesta, he says, were designed by Bela Auer and built shortly after the war.⁹

The City of Zagreb calls Volovčica, together with Stara Peščenica, the oldest planned settlement in the district, one that over 80 years became the centre of the district's social life.²

The committee area had 5,275 residents on 56.73 hectares at the 2021 census.³ According to the City's analysis of the district, the population fell by 14% between 2001 and 2011.³⁷

Where the name Volovčica comes from

The sources don't explain where the name comes from. Croatian Wikipedia, citing no source, says only that volovčica was reportedly an old word for a marketplace.¹ All that is certain is that the name was already used for the area in 1932, when the City sold 207 plots on Volovčica.^2,10

A short history of Volovčica

The pre-war part of Volovčica was built to a subdivision plan from 1931.⁵ In the early 1930s the architect Josip Seissel worked with Josip Pičman on the plans for the Volovčica, Svetice and Trnje settlements.⁶ In April 1932 the city government decided to sell 207 plots on what had been meadows and fields, and to build sewers and a road straight away.^2,10 As workers arrived between the wars, the settlement spread out from Moslavački trg, where family houses went up.¹⁰

In February and March 1949 Vladimir Antolić and Vladimir Franz, with the architect Slavko Löwy, drew the first site plan for a workers' estate on Volovčica for the Prvomajska machine-tool factory. Later that year the plan was adapted for a second factory, Tvornica parnih kotlova (TPK), and building began on 124 flats for Prvomajska and 88 for TPK.⁵ According to a 2024 study by the historian Goran Arčabić, the estate was in the end cut to ten blocks of flats, seven with two upper floors and three with three. Four were lived in before their official inspection in June 1953.⁵

The market was built in 1964 around a round standard-design pavilion by the architect Josip Tušek.^7,8 After the Sava flood of November 1964, the first rehousing projects planned 500 new flats at Volovčica; the sources don't say how many were built.¹⁹

According to the parish, the authorities would not allow a church to be built, so a family house at Ludinska 10 was bought on 23 June 1964 and turned into a chapel, run by the Dominicans.^21,22 In 1994 the City gave 3,493 m² of land for a church and monastery, and building to Boris Magaš's design began in December 1998.²⁰ The parish of Blessed Augustin Kažotić was founded in 2001, the Ludinska chapel closed in 2002, and the new church was consecrated on 25 September 2011.^20,22,23

In February 2009 sixteen local committees were set up in the district, Volovčica among them.^2,4

1. 1931A subdivision plan is drawn up; the pre-war part of Volovčica is built to it.⁵
2. 1932The City decides to sell 207 plots on Volovčica; all already have buyers.^2,10
3. 1949Building starts on a workers' estate for the Prvomajska and TPK factories.⁵
4. 1953Four workers' blocks are already lived in before their official inspection in June.⁵
5. 1954The library that is now the S. S. Kranjčević library opens in a 20 m² room.¹⁶
6. 1955The Dom kulture, today's KNAP culture centre, opens.^14,15
7. 1964The market is built; a family house at Ludinska 10 is bought for a chapel.^7,8,21
8. 1968OŠ Petra Preradovića opens its new building, with 787 pupils in 26 classes.¹²
9. 1978The library moves to Zapoljska 1, where it still is.¹⁶
10. 1998Building starts on the Dominican church and monastery.²⁰
11. 2011The church of Blessed Augustin Kažotić is consecrated.²³
12. 2025The park south of Borongajska cesta is named Park Vesne Krmpotić.^38,39

What to see in Volovčica

• Tržnica Volovčica

  The market at Trg Volovčica 1, built around Josip Tušek's round standard-design pavilion of 1964.^7,18 According to the local-history site Nepoznati Zagreb, it stands where Volovčica, Borongaj and Peščenica meet; locals call it the plac, and a low wall by the bus stop, the "famous little wall" (čuveni zidić), is where people sit.⁸

• Church and monastery of Blessed Augustin Kažotić

  At the junction of Ivanićgradska and Ulica grada Vukovara. Boris Magaš (1930–2013), the architect of Split's Poljud stadium, designed them in free forms.^20,23,24 According to the parish, the 25-metre bell tower has a steel frame, the façade is travertine, the floor slopes down to the altar like an amphitheatre, and the square has a granite-and-glass fountain.²⁰

• Park Vesne Krmpotić

  South of Borongajska cesta, along Šetalište Ranka Marinkovića. It was named in October 2025 after the writer and translator Vesna Krmpotić (Dubrovnik 1932 – Belgrade 2018).^38,39 In late June 2026 it hosted part of a free three-day Zagrebački kvartovi kulture programme.⁴³

• S. S. Kranjčević library and Galerija Prozori

  The library has been at Zapoljska 1 since 1978; after that move the Galerija Prozori gallery opened in its front windows.¹⁶ According to its 2025 report, the library has 54,323 books and 6,335 members.¹⁷

• KNAP culture centre

  At Ivanićgradska 41a. It opened on 8 May 1955 as a Dom kulture (culture house) and today runs art, dance, music and drama courses for all ages, the Kazalište Knap theatre and the Galerija Događanja gallery.^14,15

• Murals at OŠ Petra Preradovića

  Through KNAP's Volim Pešču programme, Boris Bare, Lunar and Ndec, ZID and Zvonimir Haramija Hans painted the school's walls between 2019 and 2023, and Hana Tintor the new façade in autumn 2024.⁴⁰

Did you know?

• 1According to Arčabić's study, the 1949 plan had a large roundabout roughly where Ulica grada Vukovara turns into Ulica grada Gospića, with a "representative boulevard" leading to it. The roundabout was never built; Ulica grada Vukovara was then called Moskovska ulica (Moscow Street).⁵
• 2According to the school, the bust outside OŠ Petra Preradovića is one of four identical busts unveiled on 23 June 1978 for the poet's 150th birthday: in his birthplace Grabrovnica, here, and at schools in Pitomača and Zadar.¹²
• 3According to Zagreb City Libraries, the S. S. Kranjčević library began in 1954 in 20 m², has moved six times, and its first employee was Zlatko Crnković, later a writer and translator.¹⁶
• 4According to the parish, a priest looked for a house for the first chapel in newspaper ads, especially in Večernji list.^21,22

Everyday life in Volovčica

Renting in Volovčica

Nearby neighbourhoods

• BorongajNeighbourhood guide
• FerenščicaNeighbourhood guide
• PeščenicaNeighbourhood guide
• RavniceNeighbourhood guide
• SigečicaNeighbourhood guide
• KanalNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Donja Dubrava
• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Peščenica – Žitnjak and Maksimir
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Volovčica