Housing has always been one of the basic human needs. That need was also present in Roman society. However, at the time of the increasing number of inhabitants in the Roman state and the increasing price of land and housing, this was not easy to achieve. The solution was in the superficies institute. Despite the strict rules and understandings that hindered the development of superficies, such as superficies solo cedit, the needs of society directed the law to the gradual creation of the superficies institute as a separate property law. That's how they reached the contract which allowed the construction of a building on someone else's land. The contract on which this relationship was based was either a locatio conductio, a lease contract, or an emptio venditio, a purchase contract. According to the owner of the land, the user (superficiarus) acquired only a mandatory protection that could be achieved by lawsuits actio ex condutio or actio ex emptio. However, this changed with the provision of interdict protection to the superficiar (interdictum de superficiebus). In the classical era, the praetor began to provide, on a case-by-case basis, protection through actio in rem, against third parties and against the landowner. So, property law protection of superficiar was achived in Justinian's codification and then superficiar had at his disposal all legal claims in property law, just like the owner. From the Roman superficies, modern superficial law developed, which today exists in the legal systems of the Roman legal tradition, for example, in Italy and France. The legal regulation of right to build in contemporary Croatian legislation is to a certain extent, but by no means predominant or complete, based on the Roman institute of superficies, but there are also certain differences between them. The needs of society and the development of today's law have taken right to build in a different direction.