University of Zagreb is the oldest not only in Croatia, but also in South-East Europe. The date of its official foundation is considered September 23, 1669, when the Roman emperor and the Hungarian-Croatian king Leopold I issued a law recognizing the privileges and status of the university educational institutions of the former Jesuit Academy, which operated on the territory of a free royal city of Zagreb, the former capital of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. This date is the beginning of the history of the University of Zagreb in their struggle for the implementation of the rights received and to obtain a worthy place among the authoritative and representative of universities and academies in Central Europe.

History of the University of Zagreb in its modern form begins with the initiative dzhyakovskogo bishop and prominent patron of the Croatian Josip Juraj Strossmayer, when he in 1861 proposed to organize the university four faculties: medical, theological, philosophical and legal. The proposal was considered for several years, and in 1874 the Croatian Parliament adopted the initiative and issued a decree "On the university." In the same year the university changed its name and became known as the modern university in Zagreb.

Since 1990 the University has received greater autonomy, at the same time began the accession to the Bologna process.