VrbikThe Rakete, Kninski trg and the university avenue, between Vukovarska and Slavonska

Vrbik at a glance

• To the main square by ZET21 min
• To the centre as the crow flies2.0 km
• Residents, three committees (2021)^1,4,56,183
• Density, Vrbik committee (2011)⁶13,967 / km²

Where Vrbik is

Vrbik is in the city district of Trnje, between Vukovarska to the north and Slavonska avenija to the south.^8,15 Officially, Vrbik is a local committee (mjesni odbor) bounded by Vukovarska, Ulica Ivana Lučića, Slavonska avenija and Šetalište Jurija Gagarina; it covers 23.66 ha and had 3,075 residents at the 2021 census.^1,2,3 In everyday speech Vrbik is the whole block from Savska cesta to Ulica Hrvatske bratske zajednice, taking in the neighbouring Cvjetnica committee to the west and Miramare to the east. That is how Croatian Wikipedia describes it, and in 2024 the Trnje district council described those three committees, with 6,183 residents, as one area called Vrbik.^8,7,1,4,5 Neighbourhoods have no official boundaries, so this guide covers all three committees.

The same year a merger of Cvjetnica and Vrbik into one committee was proposed, but in June 2025 both committees set up their own councils.^7,1,4 According to Croatian Wikipedia, the neighbours are Martinovka to the north, Trnje to the east, Cvjetno naselje to the south and Trešnjevka to the west.⁸

For and against: life in Vrbik

What life is like in Vrbik

The northern edge of Cvjetnica and Vrbik, along Vukovarska, is where the first modern post-war housing complexes went up, designed by the leading Croatian architects of the day; some are now protected cultural property.^15,26 One of them is the Poljane estate of 1946–48.^20,18

The rest of Vrbik filled up with blocks of flats over the following decades.¹⁵ According to Melita Čavlović and Antun Sevšek, from 1983 a City team led by the planner Borislav Doklestić worked on a renewal plan: new two- to four-storey buildings in open blocks around a central park, keeping most of the sound houses and the old, irregular plots.¹⁶ The plan was adopted in 1987.^19,17 The same authors write that it was then revised many times under pressure from big construction firms: plots were merged, buildings rose above four storeys, and parks became car parks.¹⁶ Zorana Sokol Gojnik calls the result "wild, unplanned building".¹⁷ The latest mass construction was finished in the 1990s in southern Vrbik, and here and there old small houses survive between the newer buildings.^15,16

Cvjetnica and Vrbik are mainly residential, while the eastern part, Miramare, is different, says a 2024 geography study. It holds the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, the National and University Library and the Pučko otvoreno učilište adult-education centre, and inside the block an area of family houses survives.¹⁵ The faculties along Ulica Ivana Lučića form the so-called university avenue, which residents see as part of Vrbik.^15,59 The German embassy is at Vukovarska 64 and the British embassy at Ulica Ivana Lučića 4.^57,58

In a survey in 2016 and 2017, Vrbik residents stressed the neighbourhood's liveliness, which they tied to the young people around the faculties, the many services, the spaces for children and the cafés, and they saw the irregular, winding streets as part of a relaxed atmosphere.¹⁵

Cvjetnica

The western committee, from Savska cesta to Poljička ulica and Šetalište Jurija Gagarina, with the Rakete. It had 1,933 residents at the 2021 census.^3,4

Vrbik

The middle committee, with Kninski trg and the Poljane estate. It is based at Ulica Lavoslava Ružičke 26.^1,3

Miramare

The eastern committee, up to Ulica Hrvatske bratske zajednice, with the faculties, the national library and the primary school. It had 1,175 residents at the 2021 census.^3,5,15

Where the name Vrbik comes from

The popular explanation is that Vrbik takes its name from the willows (vrbe) that grew here; ZGportal adds that willows like to be near water, here the Sava. Newspapers and city websites say so, but none cites a document that confirms it.^9,10,11

Vrbik was also the name of an old road. The City of Zagreb and Davorin Vujčić, in a paper on Trnje, list Preradovićeva – Krajčina (Vrbik) among the routes between Trnje and the centre that the railways cut.^12,13 A street called Vrbik existed by 1936, when the parish raised a crucifix where Miramarska cesta met ulica Vrbik.³¹ The post-war estate was called Vrbik – Poljane, and the name Poljane was also carried by the local community and by a nursery, forerunner of today's Vrbik nursery.^20,38,42

A short history of Vrbik

According to local histories, in the 17th and 18th centuries Vrbik was woodland and pasture belonging to the village of Trnje.^11,10 Trnje became part of Zagreb in 1850, and the railways, to Sisak in 1862 and to Budapest around 1870, cut the roads linking it to the centre.^14,12,13 Settlement in Vrbik only began in the early 20th century.^9,11 According to the City, in 1930 Vrbik was one of four city wards on the area of today's district, which together had 2,017 legally built houses and about 4,000 built without permits.¹²

Between the wars, the large Miramare motorcycle track lay between Varaždinska cesta, today's Vukovarska, and Vrbik.^13,29 The catchment of a school on Savska cesta, opened in 1935, covered Vrbik and Martinovka.^27,28

After the war the first building to go up along today's Vukovarska was Neven Šegvić's block of flats and shops, in the late 1940s, and the Poljane estate went up in 1946–48.^21,18,20 In 1949 the tram reached Trnje for the first time, along today's Vukovarska.³⁴ In 1954–56 a primary school was built on the old track; it opened on 9 September 1956 with 606 pupils.²⁹

According to Večernji list, in the Sava flood of late October 1964 Vrbik, a settlement of low houses and shacks, became a lake, with water up to the chimneys and TV aerials. The reporter wrote that "Vrbik really no longer exists".³³ The flood killed 17 people in the city, and the school on Miramarska was badly damaged.^33,29

The 1987 plan for Vrbik ceased to be valid in 1995. According to Čavlović and Sevšek, permits were then issued only under the 1986 General Plan, and almost every free plot was built on.^19,16 The exhibition "Dossier Vrbik" by Radovan Delalle and Fedor Kritovac documented that building in 2000.^62,16

1. 1850Trnje becomes part of Zagreb.^14,12
2. 1930Vrbik is one of the city wards on the area of today's Trnje.¹²
3. 1935A school opens on Savska cesta, its catchment covering Vrbik and Martinovka.²⁷
4. 1936The parish of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus is founded.³¹
5. 1946–1948The Vrbik – Poljane estate goes up, eight blocks along today's Vukovarska.^20,18
6. 1949Trams run along today's Vukovarska for the first time.³⁴
7. 1956A school opens on the former Miramare track, today OŠ Davorina Trstenjaka.²⁹
8. 1964The Sava flood puts Vrbik under water.³³
9. 1966Grupa 220 play their first concert, in the Poljane-Vrbik community hall.³⁸
10. 1968The Rakete on Zeleni trg are completed.^22,49
11. 1987The detailed plan for Vrbik is adopted.^19,17
12. 1995The National and University Library opens; the Vrbik plan ceases to be valid.^56,19
13. 1998The parish gets a pastoral centre with a chapel of St Thérèse.³¹
14. 2025The renovated Vrbik sports hall reopens.^40,41

What to see in Vrbik

• The Rakete

  Three residential towers at Zeleni trg 1–3, officially in the Cvjetnica committee, completed in 1968.^3,22,49 They were designed by the Centar 51 office (Berislav Šerbetić, Ljubo Iveta, Vjenceslav Richter and Olga Korenik); they carry Richter's name, but several sources consider Šerbetić the real author.^50,52,49,18 Renovation of the western tower began in July 2025, and in April 2026, Jutarnji list reported, it drew criticism because the columns' bare concrete had been painted over.^50,51

• The Poljane estate

  Eight long, slim blocks set at right angles to the avenue, from 1946–48, today Alagina, Bošnjakovićeva, Stožirova and Vrančićeva 1–8.^20,18 Sources credit them differently: the Croatian technical encyclopedia to Vladimir Potočnjak with S. Gomboš and V. Hećimović, the journal Prostor to the APZ design office's Stjepan Gomboš, Mladen Kauzlarić and Viktor Dušan Hećimović.^20,18

• Buildings on Vukovarska

  Šegvić's building at Vukovarska 56–60 from the late 1940s, and Rašica's protected Exportdrvo apartment building at Vukovarska 62a–d from 1953–54.^21,24,26 A little further west, in Cvjetnica, stands Stanko Fabris's protected eight-storey Navy apartment building at Vukovarska 52A (1956–60).^25,26

• Kninski trg and Kalimero

  According to a 2024 study, residents named the main square, Kninski trg with its cafés, as the pleasantest place, along with the playground and small park in the middle of it, known as Kalimero, which they fought for years to keep from investors and the city.¹⁵

• The Vrbik hall

  Grupa 220 played their first concert on 15 October 1966 in the hall of the Poljane-Vrbik local community.³⁸ When the renovated Vrbik sports hall reopened in January 2025, Drago Mlinarec of Grupa 220 played; 01portal says he played his first concerts in the Vrbik hall.^39,40

• Eurotower

  An office tower at Ulica Ivana Lučića 2a, 96 metres above ground, home to the Zagreb Stock Exchange.^53,54,8,55 According to the building's operator, it was designed by Marijan Hržić.⁵³

• National and University Library

  At Ulica Hrvatske bratske zajednice 4, in the Miramare committee. It was designed by Marijan Hržić, Zvonimir Krznarić, Davor Mance and Velimir Neidhardt, built from 1988 and opened on 28 May 1995.^56,3

• Savska 77

  The Sisters of Mercy's former Women's Real Gymnasium (1937–39, Zvonimir Vrkljan). Today it houses XI. gimnazija, the Faculty of Teacher Education and a branch of OŠ Davorina Trstenjaka.^18,30

Did you know?

• 1According to the residents' website and Večernji list, all three Rakete were meant to be the same height, but the outer two were built lower because they would have cut across the path of TV and radio transmitter signals.^49,50
• 2The parish of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, founded in 1936 and covering Vrbik, Martinovka and Cvjetno naselje, has never had a church of its own. It first met in the Adorers of the Blood of Christ's convent chapel on Miramarska, built in 1934; from 1938 to 1979 Mass was said in the open air at a crucifix, and since 1998 in the chapel of a pastoral centre.^31,32
• 3According to Čavlović and Sevšek, in the mid-1980s planners saw Vrbik as the site of a Zagreb version of Berlin's IBA urban-renewal exhibition.¹⁶
• 4The path to the Rakete is Šetalište Jurija Gagarina, and in 2022 it was proposed that the meadow by the towers be named after Laika, the first dog launched into space.^49,48

Everyday life in Vrbik

Renting in Vrbik

Nearby neighbourhoods

• Cvjetno naseljeNeighbourhood guide
• MartinovkaNeighbourhood guide
• TrešnjevkaNeighbourhood guide
• TrnjeNeighbourhood guide
• KnežijaNeighbourhood guide
• Lower TownNeighbourhood guide

• Compare districts: Trnje and Lower Town
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – East
• Compare districts: Trnje and New Zagreb – West
• All Zagreb neighbourhood guides

Questions about life in Vrbik