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Zagreb (Croatia): Communities, 1964-1992

Status of the Communities
Dubrava
Susedgrad
Trešnjevka

See also:

Status of the Communities

In the first half of the 1960s a reorganization of local administration was performed in Yugoslavia, including the orgnization of the town of Zagreb. Since about 1963 the Communities were established as the basic units of local government, so that in 1964 the town of Zagreb was actually composed of 14 communities:
- Centar
- Šrnomerec
- Dubrava
- Maksimir
- Medvešcak
- Novi Zagreb
- Pešćenica
- Samobor (today the Town of Samobor in Zagreb County)
- Sesvete
- Susedgrad
- Trešnjevka
- Trnje
- Velika Gorica (today the Town of Velika Gorica in Zagreb County)
- Zaprešić (today the Town of Zaprešić in Zagreb County)

Some of these communities were considered the "inner" communities forming the town core, while others were "outer" - the surrounding towns that became more and more suburbs of the metropolis. I believe that at the end of 1980s the "inner" communities were Centar, Šrnomerec, Dubrava, Maksimir, Medvešcak, Novi Zagreb, Pešćenica, Trešnjevka and Trnje, while the "outer" were Sesvete, Susedgrad, Samobor, Velika Gorica and Zaprešić, the last three today separate towns in the Zagreb County. There was some regulation differences among those.
In the late 1970s and in the 1980s some of these communities adopted emblems (coats of arms, they were regularly called). As far as I was able to find out, only three of the "inner" communities adopted an emblem, and in each of the three cases, the designer was Pero Čimbur, winning the design competition. Many details of their adoption process are described in his book Natjecanje za grb, 1985 [cim85].
Of the "outer communities" I believe that only Samobor used a coat of arms, the one including the name and date in it, and that was recently replaced with the more heraldic version. However, I was not able to find out anything about when this version started to be used - late 1980s or maybe only in the 1990s? To the best of my knowledge, none of the communities, including those who adopted coats of arms, used any flags at all. Some table flags might have been in use, but so far I was unable to document any.

Željko Heimer, 10 September 2007

Dubrava

Emblem of Dubrava - Image by Željko Heimer, 3 November 2008

Dubrava (not the same as the today's municipality of Dubrava in Zagreb County) adopted a coats of arms in June 1985. It shows in a blue outlined white shield a stylized red rose composed as a scheme of a new modern pentagonal settlement, in its core a red pentagonal field containing white inscription "19.X" and at the top a five-pointed red star. The shield is topped with the three white towers, thus symbolically connecting it with the coat of arms of Zagreb.

The 21 rectangles forming the "rose" (the word "rose" is actually not mentioned by the author of the design) represent the 21 local subdivisions that formed the Community of Dubrava while the entire setting represents the new urban settlement. The date shown there, 19 October, refers to the date of the 5th Land Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, held on 19th-23rd October 1940 in Dubrava (considering the party was illegal, it was quite a remarkable event). The letter "V" in the base also refers to the 5th Conference. The coat of arms was adopted in June 1985, when Šimbur's book was already well into the printing process; the story about it was added to the book at the very last minute.

Željko Heimer, 3 November 2008

Susedgrad

Emblem of Susedgrad - Image by Željko Heimer, 11 September 2007

Susedgrad is named after the old town that was standing on the westernmost slopes of the Medvednica mountain, guarding the entrance towards Zagreb from the west above the Sava river. The old town is nowadays just a ruin above the slowly developing suburban and industrial area named Podsused beneath it.
The coat of arms, adopted in 1983, depicts the ruined tower of Susedgrad standing on a mount, behind it a cog wheel and two lightning bolts within it issuing from the old tower and above all a red five-pointed star, depicting industrialization, electrification and the Communist Party - the elements that were crucial to the development at the time. As Susedgrad was not an "inner" community, that is, was not considered "really" a part of the town of Zagreb, but was just a "joined" community, the design does not include any reference to the town of Zagreb itself (like the three towers included in Dubrava and Trešnjevka coats of arms).

Željko Heimer, 13 September 2007

Trešnjevka

Emblem of Trešnjevka - Image by Željko Heimer, 2 November 2008

The coat of arms of Trešnjevka is white with a blue cog wheel with three towers from the coat of arms of Zagreb being incorporated as the three topmost cogs and though it flying a red flag with a golden outlined five-pointed star, in the chief is the name of the community in black or blue.
The cog wheel represents the industry that is (or was) very strong in the community, the three towers are a clear connection with Zagreb. The red revolutionary banner is a reminder that Trešnjevka, as workers' suburb at the time, the core of the revolutionary movement in Zagreb (it was nicknamed "Red Trešnjevka").

Željko Heimer, 20 September 2007