The government, the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb Archdiocese have reached an agreement on the construction of a new city stadium in the Maksimir district, under which the Church will give up its claim for the restitution of real estate at the said location and get ten other locations in the city in return.

“The Croatian Government and the City of Zagreb undertake to secure in the next two years conditions for the construction or reconstruction of ten churches or other properties of the Catholic Church in Zagreb, at the following locations: Botinec, Sveta Klara/Podbrezje, Jakusevec, Blato, Jelkovec/Sopnica, Sesvetska Sela, Sesvetski Kraljevec, Kajzerica, Spansko Zapad and Trnjanska Savica,” the city administration said.

The agreement is a result of talks between the city authorities, the government and the Zagreb Archdiocese on resolving the necessary property-rights relations to enable the construction of the new city stadium in Maksimir.

The agreement will be implemented through two contracts that should be signed this month, one between the City of Zagreb and the government, and the other between the government and the Zagreb Archdiocese.

“The contracts envisage that the Zagreb Archdiocese will suspend the proceedings it launched to claim back in kind the real estate in question and determine that the City of Zagreb is the sole owner of the real estate where the new Maksimir stadium is planned to be built,” the city authorities said.

The text of the contracts that enable the construction or reconstruction of Catholic Church properties at 10 locations in Zagreb is expected to be adopted by the Zagreb City Assembly on 12 December.

The City of Zagreb has commissioned a preliminary feasibility study that will define the new stadium’s amenities that will enable the feasibility of the investment considering that public money will not be used to build the stadium. After that, it will publish an architectural tender for the new stadium and the space around it.

The latest agreement resolves the property-rights dispute regarding land in Maksimir that goes back to 1997.