The Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb is the oldest and largest institution of higher education in civil engineering in the Republic of Croatia. The Faculty has been integrated into the University of Zagreb which was established in 1669.

The study of civil engineering in Croatia started with the establishment of Technical Polytechnic in Zagreb which enrollied its first students in 1919. The Civil Engineering Department, at the time one of the four departments of the Technical Polytechnic, had its premises on the first floor of the converted school building at 6, Roosevelt Square. The Technical Polytechnic grew into the Technical Faculty within the University of Zagreb in 1926. In 1940 the Technical Faculty moved to a new building at 26, Fra Andrije Kačića Miošića Street where the instruction on civil engineering is still conducted today.

In 1956 the Technical Faculty branched into the following faculties: architecture-civil engineering-geodesy, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering with ship-building and food technology, biotechnology with mining engineering. In 1962 the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy was separated into three faculties and thus the Faculty of Civil Engineering became an independent institution of higher education within the University of Zagreb. In 1977 the Faculty integrated with the Civil Engineering Institute of Croatia and operated as the Faculty of Civil Engineering within the newly
established Civil Engineering Institute. In the same year two civil engineering colleges merged with the Faculty which started offering vocational studies. When the Civil Engineering Institute was dissolved on July 1, 1991, the Faculty of Civil
Engineering of the University of Zagreb once again became an independent institution of higher education. It should be noted that in recent decades, after a series of organisational changes (which have always taken into account the latest
developments in science), the Technical Faculty has evolved into present technical faculties within the University of Zagreb (the faculties of architecture, electrical engineering, chemical engineering and technology, traffic engineering, mechanical engineering and ship-building, geodesy, geotechnical faculty in Varaždin, civil engineering, graphic art, metallurgy, mining, geology and petroleum engineering and textile technology) which make up the Technical Field Council of the University of Zagreb.

After the technical colleges were established upon the separation of the vocational studies from the University in the academic year 1997/98, the Civil Engineering Faculty founded the Building Department of the Technical Polytechnic of Zagreb. The Building Department was entirely separated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering on 8 July 2003.

Since the very start of the civil engineering studies, the study programmes have been innovated and adapted to the needs of the economy, changing their nominal duration from four to five years. Every new development of study programmes has enriched the contents of individual courses, and introduced new courses brought about by the latest scientific achievements and professional knowledge and the practice of the leading European universities.

The first students graduated from the Faculty in 1923, and about 6 700 students to date have graduated from the Faculty. They have all become highly esteemed engineers, appreciated in Croata and abroad, of whom many have attained international reputation either by significant construction work or by contribution to science. They have always been on demand and the profession has never recorded unemployment.

The Faculty started with post-graduate studies in civil engineering in the academic year 1963/64. Until the present day it has produced 495 masters of science and 189 doctors of science. The first doctoral dissertation was presented in 1922.

The Faculty has taken the year of 1919 as its founding year. The Day of The Faculty is celebrated on February 21.