Stadion Koturaška

Stadion Koturaška, also referred to as Građanski Stadium (Croatian: Igralište Građanskog) was a football stadium in Zagreb, Croatia. It was located at Koturaška Road (Croatian: Koturaška cesta) in today's Trnje and was home to the football club Građanski Zagreb for over 20 years from 1924 to 1945. After World War II and the dissolution of Građanski it was taken over by NK Dinamo Zagreb, who played there until 1948 when the club moved to their present-day home at Stadion Maksimir.

Timeline

• 1894: A 500-meter velodrome is built at the present-day Koturaška Road, to be used by the First Croatian Cycling Society (Croatian: Prvo hrvatsko biciklističko društvo).^[1] (According to some sources the name of the road comes from the original velodrome built there as koturaši was an archaic Croatian colloquial term used for cyclists in the early 20th century, and the name could thus be translated as Cyclists' Road.)
• 1907: PNIŠK football club takes over the velodrome which in the meantime fell into disrepair. They turn it into a multi-use sports ground, with a football pitch in its center. The cycling track around the pitch is converted into a 500-meter athletics track, the first of its kind in Zagreb.^[1]
• 1909: After using the ground for occasional matches between PNIŠK and HAŠK, the first two football clubs in Zagreb, PNIŠK is dissolved in 1909 and the ground is abandoned.
• 1911: Građanski Zagreb football club is founded. In the 1910s they use several training grounds in Tuškanac, Martinovka and Kanal neighborhoods.^[2]
• 1924: Građanski's ground located next to PNIŠK's old ground at Koturaška is finished and officially opened by Stjepan Radić, a prominent Croatian politician.^[2] The pitch measured 100x60 meters and featured a 400 m athletics track. A wooden stand was later added, designed by the architect Gjuro Kastl, with a capacity of 1,618.^[1] From then onwards, the stadium is commonly referred to as Građanski Stadium (Croatian: Igralište Građanskog).
• 1945: Građanski is officially disbanded by a decree issued by the communist authorities on 6 June 1945. Stadion Koturaška is taken over by the newly established NK Dinamo Zagreb, who use it for their first match on 23 June 1945, a friendly game against the Yugoslav Air Force team.^[3] In the following years Dinamo use Koturaška, as well as several other grounds around Zagreb which had been nationalised in 1945 until they finally move to HAŠK's old ground in Maksimir in 1948.^[3] They play their first game at Maksimir on 19 November 1949 against FK Partizan.^[3]
• 1954: The first phase of the new Stadion Maksimir is completed on the site of HAŠK's former ground, designed by architects Vladimir Turina and Franjo Neidhardt.^[1] The venue is expanded further in a series of renovations between 1952 and early 1960s, with the north stand added in 1955 and the east stand constructed in 1961. This brings up the total capacity to around 60,000 by 1961.^[1] The football pitch measures 105x70 meters and the stadium features a 400-meter athletics track.^[1] Meanwhile, the old stadium at Koturaška is abandoned in the early 1950s^[1] and eventually demolished.

International matches

In the 1920s and 1930s the Kingdom of Yugoslavia national team often hosted matches in Zagreb, but the main venues used for these were grounds owned by Concordia and HAŠK football clubs (the present-day Stadion Kranjčevićeva and Stadion Maksimir). However, in May 1932 Koturaška hosted a friendly between Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Poland, which attracted a crowd of 6,000 and ended in Poland's 3–0 win.^[4]

In 1940 the team of Banovina of Croatia (at the time province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) played two unofficial international matches at the stadium, beating Switzerland 4–0 in April (through goals from Florijan Matekalo, August Lešnik and a brace by Zvonko Cimermančić) in front of a crowd of 10,000,^[5] and drawing 1–1 against Hungary in December, with Franjo Wölfl scoring the single goal for the home team, in front of 8,000 spectators.^[6] Interestingly, all the players who scored for Croatia at Koturaška in 1940 were footballers of Građanski.

Following the 1941 Invasion of Yugoslavia the fascist puppet state Independent State of Croatia came into existence and formed a national team recognized by FIFA which hosted a number of international friendlies in Zagreb during World War II. However, the team's preferred stadium was Concordia's ground, so Koturaška never hosted another international game as in 1945 both the Independent State of Croatia and Građanski ceased to exist and the stadium fell into disrepair before it was completely abandoned in 1948.

References