Exploring some lesser known cities
Looking down to the old part of the city and the port.
This year I wanted to explore some other towns and cities in Croatia, ones that were unfamiliar to me. They also needed to be easily accessible from Trieste, where I base myself. Easily accessible means no more than a 3 hour bus trip away! Rijeka was interesting to me because of its past history during the time of the Italian unification. Let's just say I wrote quite a few European history essays around this topic! Up until the end of World War I Rijeka (Fiume) had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and with the break up of Austria, the city of Rijeka was eventually handed over to Italy. (The whole story behind the this decision filled a major part of my essays!) Under Italy the city was called 'Fiume', both Fiume and Rijeka mean river in the respective languages of Italian and Croatian. After World War II Rijeka was given to the Yugoslavs and then with the break up of Yugoslavia it became part of Croatia.
It's a port city and under Austria, it had been a major port for the Hungarian part of the empire. Ship building contracts were divided between Rijeka (for the Hungarian part of the empire) and Trieste (for the Austrian part). The first impression I got of Rijeka as the bus pulled into the station was that it looked like Trieste! Lots of Art Nouveau architecture from the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Directly across from the bus station is the Capuchin Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was built from 1904 to 1929. According to a helpful sign (in English!) the nuns of the Jesus Heart Institute had planned a rather modest church, but it was replaced by this rather grand one to honour the miraculous healing of the guardian of the Capuchin Monastery, Father Bernadin Skrvanic in Lourdes.
Thanks to its role as a major city under Austria, there are a number of substantial Art Nouveau buildings, some are restored, some undergoing restoration and some still needing restoration.This is the Jadrolinja building, Jadrolinja is the major ferry company that runs ferries down the Croatian coast, across to the islands, and across the Adriatic to Italy.
This building is now a primary school but had been built to be a prestigious boys High School with Italian as its language of instruction.
The old commercial part of the city has been pedestrianised, it's quite a pleasant area to explore.
Palace Modello, originally built as a bank, now houses public library on ground floor.
National Theatre
Market building, still operating today.
Unrestored building
On the mountain behind the city you have what is now the suburb of Trsat, it had been a separate town. Trsat has the castle as well as the pilgrimage church of Our Lady of Trsat.
There is a staircase for pilgrims to make their way up to the church, I caught the bus up to Trsat and then planned to take the stairs down the mountain, there's over 500 of them! I went and took what I thought would be a short cut to the stairs but it went wrong! Initially I couldn't find the right stairs, but found some shorter ones going down to different streets and then stumbled on an Austrian era park, I was happy with my little find. There was even a pond with turtles!
Eventually, thanks to the app 'maps.me' found the pilgrimage staircase and made it down the mountain.
Houses and streets back onto the staircase so it's well used!
Almost down!
Street exit of the staircase, the statue up the top is of the icon Our Lady of Trsat.
Rijeka is a good base to explore more of the Croatian coastline, ferries depart from the port to towns and cities further down. The city is connected to the island of Krk with a bridge, Krk is where the Rijeka airport is located.
In 2020, Rijeka is sharing the European City of Culture role with Galway in Ireland, having visited Derry during their City of Culture year I can attest that it would be a great time to visit with the city coming alive.
This year I wanted to explore some other towns and cities in Croatia, ones that were unfamiliar to me. They also needed to be easily accessible from Trieste, where I base myself. Easily accessible means no more than a 3 hour bus trip away! Rijeka was interesting to me because of its past history during the time of the Italian unification. Let's just say I wrote quite a few European history essays around this topic! Up until the end of World War I Rijeka (Fiume) had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and with the break up of Austria, the city of Rijeka was eventually handed over to Italy. (The whole story behind the this decision filled a major part of my essays!) Under Italy the city was called 'Fiume', both Fiume and Rijeka mean river in the respective languages of Italian and Croatian. After World War II Rijeka was given to the Yugoslavs and then with the break up of Yugoslavia it became part of Croatia.
It's a port city and under Austria, it had been a major port for the Hungarian part of the empire. Ship building contracts were divided between Rijeka (for the Hungarian part of the empire) and Trieste (for the Austrian part). The first impression I got of Rijeka as the bus pulled into the station was that it looked like Trieste! Lots of Art Nouveau architecture from the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Directly across from the bus station is the Capuchin Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was built from 1904 to 1929. According to a helpful sign (in English!) the nuns of the Jesus Heart Institute had planned a rather modest church, but it was replaced by this rather grand one to honour the miraculous healing of the guardian of the Capuchin Monastery, Father Bernadin Skrvanic in Lourdes.
Thanks to its role as a major city under Austria, there are a number of substantial Art Nouveau buildings, some are restored, some undergoing restoration and some still needing restoration.This is the Jadrolinja building, Jadrolinja is the major ferry company that runs ferries down the Croatian coast, across to the islands, and across the Adriatic to Italy.
The old commercial part of the city has been pedestrianised, it's quite a pleasant area to explore.
On the mountain behind the city you have what is now the suburb of Trsat, it had been a separate town. Trsat has the castle as well as the pilgrimage church of Our Lady of Trsat.
There is a staircase for pilgrims to make their way up to the church, I caught the bus up to Trsat and then planned to take the stairs down the mountain, there's over 500 of them! I went and took what I thought would be a short cut to the stairs but it went wrong! Initially I couldn't find the right stairs, but found some shorter ones going down to different streets and then stumbled on an Austrian era park, I was happy with my little find. There was even a pond with turtles!
Eventually, thanks to the app 'maps.me' found the pilgrimage staircase and made it down the mountain.
Houses and streets back onto the staircase so it's well used!
Rijeka is a good base to explore more of the Croatian coastline, ferries depart from the port to towns and cities further down. The city is connected to the island of Krk with a bridge, Krk is where the Rijeka airport is located.
In 2020, Rijeka is sharing the European City of Culture role with Galway in Ireland, having visited Derry during their City of Culture year I can attest that it would be a great time to visit with the city coming alive.
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