The Trnje district is one of the central districts of Zagreb and this article analyses its sociologically important elements and characteristics. Since its foundation, Trnje has developed as a village near Zagreb and then as a peripheral settlement on the southern outskirts of the city. Significant changes in Trnje came only with the first Croatian modernization – at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when more and more people immigrated to Zagreb to work in the newly opened industrial plants. Some of the most important factories in Zagreb were right in the Trnje area, next to the railway line on the outskirts of Donji grad – so it made the most sense to locate the workers in close proximity to the factory. Trnje thus became a working-class settlement where living conditions were quite poor due to the wet soil, frequent flooding of the unregulated Sava and generally poor infrastructure. Over time, Zagreb continued to grow, and in the mid-20th century, Trnje experienced a turning point. There are initiatives to expand the city beyond the Sava River, so that Trnje becomes the central urban settlement and along Grada Vukovara Street the construction of residential buildings and buildings of city and state institutions begins, which are still important today. In this article, today’s cityscape of Trnje is considered and it is analyzed whether Trnje, after such a turbulent urban-sociological past, fulfills the elements of high-quality urban housing.