Borongaj

45°48'42"N 016°02'05"E

Runway: 02/20 - 800x..m - grass (all dimentions estimated)

Airfield Borongaj (Croatian: Aerodrom Borongaj) was opened in 1926 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, next to the marshalling yard of the same name. A year later it was visited by Charles Lindberg, who had just completed his cross-Atlantic flight. The first regular civilian lines were established in 1928 between Zagreb and Belgrade. Soon lines opened also to Vienna, Budapest, Milan, Prague, Graz, Ljubjana, Sarajevo, Split, Trieste, Dubrovnik and Klagenfurt. That first year, the airfield handled 1,322 passengers and 10 tons of cargo. The airfield also served a military purpose, for both the regular army as well as the Home Guard.


The west side of Borongaj, mid-1930s. All buildings visible in the photo (left the operations building for civil aircraft and the western and northern hangars) are preserved and are now protected monument of Croatia (aeroklub-zagreb.hr)


The Zagreb-Borongaj station building in the 1930s (Zdenko's corner)


A line up of Royal Yugoslav Air Force biplanes at Borongaj. The nearest, coded 11, is a Potez 25, the third one out, coded 10, is a Brequet XIX

During WW-II the airfield was used by the Germans, following a spirited, but futile two week resistance. Yugoslavia fell to German and Hungarian forces in April 1941, and re-emerged as an airfield for the Ustaška Eskadrila of the Independent State of Croatia (a puppet state of the Nazis). They based Fiat G.50s at the airfield. In 1944 it and the nearby marshallling yard were repeatedly bombed by 15th AF bombers of the USAAF. In December 1944 it was attacked by Yugoslav Spitfires from Vis.


German soldiers in front of the airport building during World War II (Zdenko's corner).


Famous picture of a Fiat G.50bis of the Ustaška Eskadrila in front of a hangar at Borongaj, which is still standing today at the northern end(achtungskyhawk).


Taxitracks and parkings are just visible in the right hand bottom of this photo, showing the amount of bombs Allied bomber crews had dropped onto the marshalling yard and airfield at Borongaj (Shot by a Spitfire Mark XI of 683 Sqn Royal Air Force).

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Borongaj lost its importance as an airbase. The more modern, better equipped and larger Lučko and Pleso airfields were sufficient for both military and civil needs, leaving Borongaj air field redundant. Not too long after the war ended, the air base was closed, the runway left to overgrow and what was left of the facilities was converted to an army base and barracks. Despite the barracks growing into one of the largest in the area –where many young Yugoslav men served their military service– and expanding into a large and elaborate compound, the area around the former runway, as well as the taxiways and aprons, remained mostly untouched.


Sailplanes at Borongaj in 1953 (aeroklub-zagreb.hr)

Around 2005, the military decided to leave the Borongaj complex for a better and more suitable location. Given the rate of Zagreb’s expansion they now were in the middle of a residential district. Rather than level and rezone the massively expensive and vast complex, it was given to the city of Zagreb to turn into a large campus, able to accomodate all of Zagreb’s scattered universities and dormitories. Several buildings were being renovated even as the military was moving out, so it wasn’t uncommon to drive to classes past tanks, anti-aircraft artillery and howitzers.


The old Zagreb-Borongaj station building in 2011 (Zdenko's corner)

A good set of relatively recent (2009) photos of the base can be viewed at Boran Pivčić's website


Borongaj in 2011 (Google Earth)