Dolac still waiting for renovation a year after ceiling collapse
A year after part of the ceiling fell in Zagreb's Dolac market hall, renovation is not expected to begin until the second half of 2027, according to the city.
It has been a year since part of the ceiling collapsed in the covered hall of Dolac, Zagreb's best-known market, and the full renovation is still some way off. According to the city, work should begin in the second half of 2027.
The incident happened early in the morning, at about 4.45am, when a piece of plaster measuring roughly 1.5 by 1.5 metres fell from one section of the ceiling. Zagreb Holding, the city's municipal company, said at the time that nobody was injured.
Its subsidiary Tržnice Zagreb (Zagreb Markets) closed the lower part of the market as a precaution and called in experts to assess the damage. The condition of the upper surface of the market was examined as well.
Where traders went
Stallholders were first moved to Europski trg (Europe Square), where around a hundred stalls took up about 400 metres of selling space. Some traders said their space was halved. One seller told Večernji list a stall that had been eight metres wide was now four, though she expected loyal customers to keep coming.
At the end of November, because of Advent, the traders were relocated again, to Splavnica, Ulica Pod zidom and the first twenty or so metres of Tkalčićeva. Florists who had worked at Dolac moved to Trg bana Jelačića, where they will stay until the renovation of the market is finished, Zagreb Holding said.
About a month and a half after the collapse, emergency repairs were completed and the State Inspectorate gave a positive opinion on them. The indoor hall then reopened.
Why it is taking so long
Dunja Mazzocco Drvar, head of the City Office for Economy, told a Večernji list neighbourhood forum that the project is complex. The damage originated during the earthquake and only showed up later, she said. Dolac also lies in protected zone A, so conservation guidelines had to be drawn up first.
The first phase is design and the second is construction, and the design stage is taking longer than expected, she explained.
Sellers told the paper last year that water from the upper surface had long seeped into the hall, and that Dolac had been deteriorating for years. For now, the market carries on, but the full renovation is still a year or more away.