VoltinoA workers' estate beside Končar, named after Alessandro Volta

Voltino at a glance

• To the main square by ZET27 min
• To the centre as the crow flies3.8 km
• Local committee residents (2021)¹³5,893
• Papagajke finished²1977

Where Voltino is

Voltino is a housing estate in Trešnjevka, with the Končar factory at Fallerovo šetalište 22 on its eastern edge.^18,2 Officially it belongs to the city district of Trešnjevka – sjever. There is no local committee (mjesni odbor) called Voltino; the estate lies in the "Dr. Ante Starčević" committee, based at Ulica Dragutina Golika 44.^13,15 "Voltino" is an everyday name with no official boundary, and the committee area is larger: it also takes in the Končar works, Pupinovo naselje and the school complex south of Baštijanova on the west side of Golikova.¹⁵

According to the local-history project Mapiranje Trešnjevke, Voltino is bounded by the railway to the north, the Kustošak stream and Zagrebačka ulica to the west, and Baštijanova to the south.⁵ Under a 2017 decision the committee's boundary follows the Črnomerec stream, the north side of Baštijanova, the west side of Golikova to the Kustošak stream, and the Kustošak back up to the Stenjevec border.¹⁵ South of Baštijanova and east of Golikova lies Ljubljanica, which shares the parish of St Leopold Mandić with Voltino.^15,35,36

For and against: life in Voltino

What life is like in Voltino

Voltino was planned and built as a workers' estate for the Rade Končar factory.^9,2 Its core is a group of low two- and three-storey blocks and a five-storey building for single workers. According to the historian Goran Arčabić, most of the first ten blocks of family flats were apparently occupied between 1950 and 1952, and three larger three-storey blocks to the north, built to Ivo Bartolić's standard design, were finished in 1954.⁹

In the 1950s smaller blocks and family houses went up along Golikova.^2,4 The blocks on Hanamanova, according to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, date from the late 1950s and early 1960s.⁴ In the early 1960s the builder Tempo developed two standard housing systems, Volta (architect Drago Korbar) and Bartolić, which were used to build Voltino and Trnsko.¹⁶ In the mid-1970s the two big Papagajke blocks began to rise in the south-east of the estate; they were finished in 1977.^2,37

Today the housing is mixed. OŠ Voltino's annual plan says family houses fill most of the school's catchment, while Golikova has the large socially built blocks.²⁴ The parish, for its part, contrasts Voltino and its blocks of flats with neighbouring Ljubljanica, which is mostly family houses.³⁶

Zagreb City Libraries noted alongside a 2026 exhibition that many of today's residents once worked at Rade Končar.³¹ The "Dr. Ante Starčević" committee area, which includes Voltino, had 5,893 residents on 89 hectares at the 2021 census, about 13% fewer than the 6,776 counted in 2011.^13,14

The 2025 General Urban Plan lists Voltino among the completed estates to be protected and renewed, keeping their original building types and valuable green spaces.^11,12 North of Pupinovo naselje the same document calls for a detailed urban plan, Zagrebačka – Golikova, with mainly high-rise, mixed-use building along Zagrebačka cesta and low housing along Golikova. These are planning intentions, not projects under way.^11,12

Ulica Voltino

The 1950s core: blocks of family flats numbered Voltino 1 to 28, and the former singles' building at numbers 2 and 4.⁹

Papagajke

Two big blocks by Baštijanova and Golikova, finished in 1977.^2,37

Pupinovo naselje

Six residential buildings from 1947 north of Voltino, now Prilaz Pavla Vuk-Pavlovića, with vegetable gardens between the houses and a single access road. In 2013 Mapiranje Trešnjevke described the feel of "a small quiet town, almost a village".^7,10,4

Where the name Voltino comes from

Voltino is named after the Italian physicist and inventor Alessandro Volta.^1,2,4 The name belongs to a whole cluster of physics and electrical-engineering names around Končar: neighbouring Pupinovo naselje is named after the physicist Mihajlo Pupin, today's Golikova was once named after Nikola Tesla, and Hanamanova after Franjo Hanaman, inventor of the tungsten lamp filament.^1,4,2 In 2015 the magazine Glas Trešnjevke wrote that Trešnjevka is the only neighbourhood with an estate named after a pioneer of electricity research.¹

The 1949 planning papers call the estate something else. The building programme of March that year speaks of a residential town in Baštijanova Street, and the site plan of the Rade Končar housing estate in Kustošija.⁹ The sources we checked do not record when the name Voltino came into use.

Before the estate the land was meadows, fields and orchards, which some older maps label Blažićko.⁵ The musician Toni Starešinić, who moved to the neighbourhood in 2023, jokingly calls this part of Trešnjevka "Travoltino".⁴³

A short history of Voltino

Until the Second World War this area was not part of Zagreb. It lay in the municipality of Vrapče Gornje and then in the municipality of Kustošija, which Mapiranje Trešnjevke dates to 1937.^4,6,9 Elektra, the company that became Končar, was founded on 24 January 1921 and joined the Siemens group the same year, working as Jugoslavensko Siemens d.d. until the end of the war.^20,19,4 It was on the present site before the war.^4,1 Also in 1921, an 800-metre racecourse was built by the Črnomerec stream, where the factory stands today.¹⁷

In 1946 the factory was nationalised and named after Rade Končar, the communist leader shot by the Italian occupiers in Šibenik on 22 May 1942.^19,4,21 The new factory complex was designed by the architect Mladen Kauzlarić with Stjepan Gomboš and others, and the concept design won a Yugoslav government award in 1949.^18,2 Also in 1946 an industrial school opened to train Končar's workers, today's Strojarska tehnička škola Frana Bošnjakovića, and in 1947 Pupinovo naselje was built for the workforce.^27,2,10,7

In February 1949 the Urban Planning Institute of Croatia, with the architects Vladimir Antolić and Vladimir Franz, finished the first site plan, with 22 residential buildings about 500 metres from the factory.⁹ The March building programme foresaw 17 standard blocks with 360 flats and a canteen for 1,200 people, all ready to move into by the end of 1949. Investment cuts slowed the work, and the estate was finished years later than planned.⁹ The singles' building went up between May 1949 and autumn 1952, with long pauses for lack of money. The road network was finished in 1954.⁹

OŠ Voltino was founded in 1964, and on 20 February 1980 Knjižnica Voltino opened at the foot of the middle Papagajke tower.^23,5,2,30 On 1 January 1991 Rade Končar became a joint-stock company, Končar – Elektroindustrija, and the same year the factory's education centre split into three schools.^4,19,27

1. 1921Elektra, the forerunner of Končar, is founded, and an 800-metre racecourse is built by the Črnomerec stream.^20,17
2. 1946The factory is nationalised and named Rade Končar; an industrial school opens for its workers.^19,27
3. 1947Pupinovo naselje is built for Končar's workers to a design by Kazimir Ostrogović.^10,7
4. 1949The first site plan, with 22 buildings, is finished; in May work starts on the singles' building.⁹
5. 1950–1952According to Arčabić, most of the first blocks of family flats are occupied.⁹
6. 1964OŠ Voltino is founded, in a new building at Vinkovačka 1.^23,5
7. 1977The Papagajke blocks are finished.²
8. 1980Knjižnica Voltino opens on 20 February.^30,2
9. 1991Rade Končar becomes a joint-stock company, Končar – Elektroindustrija.^4,19
10. 2007The City's street-naming committee backs renaming Ulica Drvinje after Dragutin Golik, and on 2 December the new parish church is blessed.^50,51,35
11. 2018The library's neglected back yard becomes a 40 m² green terrace.^34,2
12. 2024The City says it has invested €1.4 million in OŠ Voltino over the past year; the school kitchen cooks hot meals again after 30 years.²⁶

What to see in Voltino

• Papagajke

  Two big free-standing blocks by Baštijanova and Golikova, with meandering plans and arched porches. They were designed by Đuro Mirković, Hrvojka Paljan and Tomislav Petrinjak, and got their nickname, "the parrots", from façades that were originally pink, orange and yellow.^2,37,38,39 According to Večernji list they hold about 700 flats and were built with slip-form technology.³⁸ The colours faded over the years, and in February 2022 the street artist Miro Modul Petković painted a mural on one of the entrances.⁴⁰

• Sahara (Voltino 4)

  Končar's former hotel for single workers, finished in 1952. In its better years it held a chess club, a restaurant, a hairdresser, a shoemaker, a butcher and a shop; today there is a café on the ground floor.^9,41,42 According to Večernji list, locals named it Sahara because it was built on almost empty land. Its owner, the company Hotel Voltino, went bankrupt in 2011, and the building has been decaying since.^41,42

• Pupinovo naselje

  Prilaz Pavla Vuk-Pavlovića 1–15 and 18. Ostrogović's estate for Končar's workers has been on the national heritage register as a protected cultural-historical ensemble since 18 July 2005.^10,12

• Church of St Leopold Bogdan Mandić

  Ulica Dragutina Golika 42, the parish church of Ljubljanica and Voltino. The architect Silva Kornhauser won the 1998 design competition, building officially began on 12 May 2002, and the stained glass is by Marijan Jakubin. Cardinal Josip Bozanić blessed the church on 2 December 2007.^35,36

• The library terrace

  In 2018 the library's neglected back yard became a 40 m² green terrace, designed by the architect Tatjana Liktar Elez.^34,2 In 2024 eight women made the Vrt leptira (Butterfly Garden) mosaic over fifteen workshops, and in October Miro Modul Petković painted an Alice in Wonderland mural on the walls in front of the entrance.²

Did you know?

• 1The library's robotics team is called "10 volti" (10 volts), after the library and Alessandro Volta, and has ten members, the most the competition allows. Only later did they find out that the Lego Mindstorms battery is also 10 volts. At the FIRST LEGO League in Zagreb in 2019/2020 the team won the Technical Interview award.³
• 2Golikova has had five names: Jadranska, Teslina, Kroflinova, Drvinje and finally Ulica Dragutina Golika, after a Croatian war veteran. The City's street-naming committee backed the new name in 2007.^6,9,2,50,51
• 3According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, Končar's growth swallowed several small streets, among them Splitska, Topuska, Karlovačka and Kninska.⁴
• 4Ante Marković, later the last prime minister of Yugoslavia, was general director of Rade Končar from 1961.^22,4

Everyday life in Voltino

Renting in Voltino

Nearby neighbourhoods

• LjubljanicaNeighbourhood guide
• RudešNeighbourhood guide
• KustošijaNeighbourhood guide
• RemizaNeighbourhood guide
• ČrnomerecNeighbourhood guide
• StaglišćeNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Črnomerec
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Trešnjevka – North and Stenjevec
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Voltino