Zagreb has often experienced flooding throughout its history, with streams spilling over from the north and the Sava River flooding the southern part of the city. However, the most memorable, dramatic, and thoroughly documented flood in modern history occurred on the night of 25 to 26 October 1964.
For many Zagreb residents, that was a night of listening, fear, and uncertainty. Throughout the night, the Sava River reached ever higher water levels and despite all efforts, including sandbags being placed as barriers at many locations, the Sava breached its embankment and began to flow through the city’s streets. In the morning hours, one third of Zagreb was flooded; water breached basements, ground floors of buildings, and family houses in Trnje, Trešnjevka, Peščenica, and Novi Zagreb. People withdrew from the emerging water to attic spaces, rooftops, or the upper floors of residential buildings. Material damage was immense, 40,000 citizens had to abandon their homes, 65 people were injured, and 17 lives were lost to flash floods. With the help of radio communication, emergency services reached the most affected areas by boat. From 25 to 29 October this service carried out around 5,000 interventions.
On Tuesday, 27 October, the water began to recede, but many citizens had nowhere to return to. The city then decided to build temporary housing for those affected by the flood, which lead to creation of New Retkovec and Botinec settlements. As a long-term flood protection measure for the city area, construction of the Sava embankment and drainage channels began.
Zagreb City Museum, as a heritage institution and guardian of the city’s memory, collects, investigates, and communicates its collection to its users. Within the Museum’s role of collecting, the photographic collections of the Zagreb City Museum house photographs of the Zagreb flood of 1964. A rarity among these are the colour slides, donated to the museum by Dušan Muzikant, which are published in this story. The second set of photographs pertains to the exhibition Flood in Zagreb in 1964, by Zdenko Kuzmić, which opened on 24 October, 2004. Mr Ljudevit Tropan was a collaborator in the exhibition, and the exhibition’s visual design was created by architect Željko Kovačić. Between 2009 and 2021, through research and direct communication with citizens, Kristian Strukić, author of the project Zagrebački kvartovi, collected many testimonies. Thanks to this project, you can listen to the stories of those who lived through the flood and their memories here: http://zagrebkvartovi.hr/virtualna-izlozba/.
(D. B.)
Sources:
Kuzmić, Zdenko. 2004. Poplava u Zagrebu 1964. godine. Muzej grada Zagreba. Zagreb
Goldstein, Ivo; Hutinec, Goran. 2013. Povijest grada Zagreba, Knjiga 2. Novi Liber. Zagreb
Strukić, Kristian. 2012. Zagrebačka Dubrava od predgrađa do grada. Muzej grada Zagreba. Zagreb.
Trešnjevka – prostor i ljudi. 2017. Eds. Arčabić, Goran; Strukić, Kristian. Muzej grada Zagreba. Zagreb.
Projekt Zagrebački kvartovi, Muzej grada Zagreba, http://zagrebkvartovi.hr/, accessed on 24 February 2022
