VrbaniStreets named after the months, between Zagrebačka avenija and Jarun

Vrbani at a glance

• To the main square by ZET41 min
• To the centre as the crow flies5.3 km
• MO Vrbani residents (2021)⁹10,954
• MO population growth 2001–2011¹³56%

Where Vrbani is

Vrbani lies north of Lake Jarun, bounded by Zagrebačka avenija to the north, Ulica Hrvatskog sokola to the east and the lake to the south.^1,17 Officially it belongs to the city district of Trešnjevka – jug, and all three parts, Vrbani I, II and III, fall in one of the district's six local committees (mjesni odbori), MO Vrbani, set up in February 2009.^9,11,10 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide describes Vrbani through that committee. Nor is Vrbani a separate settlement: it is part of the settlement of Zagreb, and the names Vrbani I, II and III are informal.^10,1

In the south the committee's boundary follows Aleja Matije Ljubeka by the lake; in the west it takes in Palinovečka and Kuzminečka and follows Malogorička to Horvaćanska cesta.¹⁰ According to the local-history writing of the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre, the north-east of today's Vrbani was once thought of as part of Rudeš, the west as part of Prečko and the south-east as part of Jarun. The northern part was also called Donji Rudeš.^2,8

For and against: life in Vrbani

What life is like in Vrbani

Vrbani grew in three phases. The first blocks of flats, Vrbani I, went up in the north-east, around Rudeška cesta and Ulica Hrvatskog sokola, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^2,1 In 2018 Glas Trešnjevke, the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre's paper, called Vrbani Trešnjevka's "youngest neighbourhood" and noted that family houses still stood among the blocks in the east.²

West of the Vrapčak stream, towards Prečko, building has gone on since the 1990s. Mapiranje Trešnjevke assumes this is Vrbani II, although the name isn't used.¹ In 2022 the H-Alter portal named the Vrapčak as the line between Vrbani and Vrbani 2 and described the western part as still unfinished, growing with new blocks of flats.³⁴

Vrbani III, south of Horvaćanska cesta towards the lake, was built from 2006 to 2009 to a 2005 urban plan.^1,15,16,17 According to Ivan Mlinar, 1,900 flats for about 5,700 people went up on 21.3 hectares; the urban planner Tihomir Jukić put the population at about 5,000 in 2014.^17,16 Rectangular blocks with four upper floors line a ring road and shorter residential streets, and the plan allowed four to seven storeys above ground.^17,15 A central landscaped walk runs through the estate.¹⁷

At the 2011 census 45.6% of MO Vrbani residents aged 15 and over had higher education, the highest share of the six committees in Trešnjevka – jug.¹² The Trešnjevka Cultural Centre's local-history writing says Vrbani III is seen as upmarket because it is close to the lake, and that it drew many young families.^1,2 Residents interviewed by Otvoreni likovni pogon in May 2025 described a strongly family neighbourhood with many young children and asked for more space to play.⁴⁸ A 2024 paper in IRMO aktualno says Vrbani lacks parks, libraries, a market, a community centre and, above all, green space.⁴⁰

Where the name Vrbani comes from

According to the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre's local-history writing, the name comes from the Vrban family, early settlers, after whom the street Vrbanov put and then the whole area were named.^1,2 Family tradition, as Glas Trešnjevke recorded it, says their first address was Prečko 4. The family house stood near the lake, roughly where the Vrbani III blocks closest to the water are today, and was pulled down around 2005 to make way for the estate.²

The name only spread to the whole neighbourhood with the first estate of flats, Vrbani I, from the late 1970s. The same paper sets Vrbani apart from nearby Vrbje in Prečko and Vrbik in Trnje, which were named after the willows (vrbe) along old Sava channels.² Even so, one resident interviewed by Otvoreni likovni pogon in 2025 linked the name to a willow tree.⁴⁸

A short history of Vrbani

According to the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre's local-history writing, until the mid-20th century this was farmland owned by people from Jarun, Prečko and Rudeš, and maize covered most of today's Vrbani.^1,2 In the late 1950s and early 1960s workers who had come to Zagreb built small family houses on the Prečko side, in streets such as Malogorička and Vrbje. Those houses counted as Prečko, so children went to OŠ Prečko, while the parish was St Anne's in Rudeš.^2,1

The implementation plan "Vrbani" was adopted in 1977 and applied until 1992.¹⁴ According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, before the tram the only link from Vrbani to the city was a bus stop by the then Nama department store on Zagrebačka avenija.⁴ The tram reached the Jarun terminus along Horvaćanska cesta in 1987, ahead of the Universiade.^41,2 Osnovna škola Vrbani was founded on 29 June 1992.²²

The parish of the Annunciation was founded on 25 April 2000 from parts of the Jarun and Prečko parishes.^19,20,21 A year later the Catholic news agency IKA called it Zagreb's youngest parish. It had about 9,000 parishioners, and services were held in a temporarily converted space in a residential building.²¹ The church on Listopadska was built in 2004 and 2005, and Cardinal Josip Bozanić blessed it on 17 June 2007.^19,20

Tihomir Jukić won the 2004 competition for Vrbani III, and the City Assembly adopted the plan on 24 February 2005.^17,16,15 Demolition of about twenty small family houses with gardens began on 27 October 2006. Jutarnji list reported at the time that the new blocks would come mostly from Zagrebgradnja and Geoprojekt.¹⁸ The first residents moved in in 2006 or 2007, depending on the source.^16,17

1. 1977The implementation plan "Vrbani" is adopted.¹⁴
2. Late 1970sBuilding starts on the first estate of flats, Vrbani I, in the north-east.^2,1
3. 1987Ahead of the Universiade the tram reaches the Jarun terminus along Horvaćanska cesta.^41,2
4. 1992Osnovna škola Vrbani is founded.²²
5. 2000The parish of the Annunciation is founded, and tram 17 is extended to Prečko.^19,41
6. 2004Tihomir Jukić wins the competition for Vrbani III.^17,16
7. 2005The City Assembly adopts the Vrbani III urban plan.¹⁵
8. 2006–2009Family houses are demolished and the Vrbani III blocks go up.^18,16
9. 2013The Point shopping centre, OŠ Alojzija Stepinca's new building and a nursery open, and the Epiphany parish is founded.^28,26,19
10. 2020The Sunčana nursery for 200 children opens in Vrbani II.³²
11. 2025The City launches a design competition for a health centre, library and community centre on Kutnjački put.^43,44

What to see in Vrbani

• Church of the Annunciation

  At Listopadska 4, with the parish office at Listopadska 6. It was built in 2004 and 2005 and blessed on 17 June 2007.^20,19 Since 2013 Vrbani III has had its own parish too, the Epiphany (Sveta Tri Kralja).¹⁹

• OŠ Alojzija Stepinca

  The building at Palinovečka 42 was designed by the architect Davor Mateković. Its dark-blue perforated aluminium façade is printed with open books on the school and footballs on the sports hall. Glazed slits look out to Lake Jarun. The school and the neighbouring nursery, by the same architect, face each other across a square.²⁷

• Sunčana nursery

  The nursery at Ulica Vrbani 29, in Vrbani II, opened in 2020. It is a low-energy, single-storey building in two wings, painted a strong green, designed by Marin Binički, Marko Salopek and Siniša Blaženka.^31,32

• Mother Earth and Father Earth

  Two concrete sculptures by Josip Minks on a lawn in Rujanska ulica, put up in 2005. They are made from concrete left over when a wall in the street was demolished, and their inscriptions read "PLODOVI ZEMLJE" (fruits of the earth) and "VOLIM SVOJU ZEMLJU" (I love my land).³⁰

• Caffe bar Iva

  On the corner of Travanjska and Srpanjska. According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke in 2020, it opened in 1985 and was still run by the same couple, with an old price board in plastic letters; it was then up for sale.⁶

• Ulica Hrvatskog sokola

  Vrbani's eastern edge was called Čankovićeva ulica until Croatian independence. According to Mapiranje Trešnjevke, it follows the concrete "Tempo road" on which lorries carried gravel in the 1960s from the pit that later became Lake Jarun. By the 1980s the street had a cycle path, separated from the road by a strip of trees.⁷

• Vrbani III's central walk

  The landscaped walk through the middle of the estate is raised a metre and a half above the ground around it.¹⁷

Did you know?

• 1The actor Asim Ugljen moved to Vrbani in 1984, aged one. He and his three brothers were known locally as "the Dalton brothers", and he remembers Vrbani then as five streets full of gardens and fruit trees.³³
• 2According to the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre's local-history writing, the site of the Point centre was an open foundation pit for about ten years during a dispute over buying land from the owners of neighbouring houses. Some of those houses still stand right beside the centre, and its entrance was moved further into Rudeška.^5,2

Everyday life in Vrbani

Renting in Vrbani

Nearby neighbourhoods

• StaglišćeNeighbourhood guide
• JarunNeighbourhood guide
• RudešNeighbourhood guide
• PrečkoNeighbourhood guide
• LjubljanicaNeighbourhood guide
• VoltinoNeighbourhood 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 Vrbani