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Rijeka
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Rijeka (other Croatian dialects: Reka or Rika, , Italian and Hungarian Fiume, or Pflaum) is the principal seaport of Croatia, located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. It has 144,043 inhabitants (270,000 for greater area in 2001) and is Croatia's third largest city. The majority of its citizens, 80.39% (2001 census), are Croats. The city's name means river in Croatian.
Rijeka is the center of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia.
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Encyclopedia
Rijeka (other Croatian dialects: Reka or Rika, , Italian and Hungarian Fiume, or Pflaum) is the principal seaport of Croatia, located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. It has 144,043 inhabitants (270,000 for greater area in 2001) and is Croatia's third largest city. The majority of its citizens, 80.39% (2001 census), are Croats. The city's name means river in Croatian.
Rijeka is the center of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia. The city's economy largely depends on sea transport, shipbuilding (shipyards "3. Maj" and "Viktor Lenac") and tourism.
Rijeka hosts the Croatian National Theatre "Ivan pl. Zajc", first built in 1765, as well as the University of Rijeka, founded in 1973 but with roots dating back to 1632. The local football clubs are NK Rijeka and NK Orijent.
History
Ancient and medieval times
Though traces of Neolithic settlements can be found in the region, the earliest modern settlements on the site were Celtic Tarsatica (modern Trsat, now part of Rijeka) on the hill, and the tribe of mariners, the Liburni, in the natural harbour below. The city long retained its double character.
In the time of Augustus, the Romans rebuilt Tarsatica as a municipium (MacMullen 2000) on the right bank of the small river Rjecina (whose name simply means "river") as Flumen. Pliny mentioned Tarsatica (Natural History iii.140).
From the 5th century onwards, the town was ruled successively by the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Franks, the Croats and the Hungarians before coming under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs in 1466. .
After the 4th century the city was rededicated to St. Vitus, the city's patron saint, as Terra Fluminis sancti Sancti Viti or in German Sankt Veit am Pflaumb. In medieval times Rijeka got its Croatian name, Rika svetoga Vida (= the river of St. Vitus).
Medieval Rijeka was a city surrounded by a wall and was thus a feudal stronghold. The fort was in the center of the city, at its highest point. It was protected by massive walls against external enemies but also against enemies within - the citizens of the Rijeka.
Under Habsburg sovereignty
Created a free port in 1723, Rijeka during the 18th and 19th centuries was passed among the Habsburgs' Austrian, Croatian, and Hungarian possessions until being attached to Hungary for the third and last time in 1870. Although Croatia had constitutional autonomy within Hungary, the City of Rijeka was independent, governed (as a corpus separatum) directly from Budapest by an appointed governor, as Hungary's only international port. There was competition between Austria's Port of Trieste and Hungary's Port of Fiume.
Giovanni de Ciotta (Mayor from 1872 to 1896) proved to be the most authoritative local political leader. Under his lead an impressive phase of expansion of the city started, marked by major port development, fueled by the general expansion of international trade and the city's connection (1873) to the Hungarian and Austrian railway networks. Modern industrial and commercial enterprises such as the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Company "Adria", and the Paper-mill, situated in the Rjecina canyon, producing worldwide known cigarette paper, became trademarks of the city. In 1866, Robert Whitehead, manager of Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano (an Austrian engineering company engaged in providing engines for the Austrian Navy), experimented the first torpedo. The population grew from only 21,000 in 1880 to 50,000 in 1910. A lot of major civic buildings went up at that time, including the Governor's Palace designed by the Hungarian architect Alajos Hauszmann.
The future mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia, lived in the city at the turn of the 20th century, and reportedly even played football for the local sports club. In 1912 the future Hungarian communist politician and party leader János Kádár was born in then Fiume.
The Italo-Yugoslav dispute and the Free State
Habsburg-ruled Austria-Hungary's disintegration in the closing weeks of World War I in the fall of 1918 led to the establishment of rival Croatian and Italian administrations in the city; both Italy and the founders of the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) claimed sovereignty based on their "irredentist" ("unredeemed") ethnic populations.
After a brief Serbian occupation, an international force of Italian, French, British and American troops occupied the city (November 1918) while its future was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference during the course of 1919.
Italy based its claim on the fact that Italians were the largest single nationality within the city. Croats made up most of the remainder and were also a majority in the surrounding area, including the neighbouring town of Sušak. On September 10, 1919, the Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed declaring the Austro-Hungarian monarchy dissolved. Negotiations over the future of the city were interrupted two days later when a force of Italian nationalist irregulars led by the poet Gabriele d'Annunzio seized control of the city; d'Annunzio eventually established a state, the Italian Regency of Carnaro.
The resumption of Italy's premiership by the liberal Giovanni Giolitti in June 1920 signalled a hardening of official attitudes to d'Annunzio's coup. On November 12, Italy and Yugoslavia concluded the Treaty of Rapallo, under which Rijeka was to be an independent state, the Free State of Rijeka/Fiume, under a regime acceptable to both. D'Annunzio's response was characteristically flamboyant and of doubtful judgment: his declaration of war against Italy invited the bombardment by Italian royal forces which led to his surrender of the city at the end of the year, after a five days resistance. Italian troops took over in January 1921. The election of an autonomist-led constituent assembly for the territory did not put an end to strife: a brief Italian nationalist seizure of power was ended by the intervention of an Italian royal commissioner, and a short-lived local Fascist takeover in March 1922 ended in a third Italian military occupation. Seven months later Italy herself fell under Fascist rule.
A period of diplomatic acrimony closed with the Treaty of Rome (January 27, 1924), which assigned Rijeka to Italy and Sušak to Yugoslavia, with joint port administration. Formal Italian annexation (March 16, 1924) inaugurated twenty years of Italian government, followed by twenty months of German military occupation in World War II. The city was heavily damaged during the war by a number of Anglo-American air attacks. The harbour area was destroyed by retreating German troops.
Post World War II
The aftermath of the war saw the city's fate again resolved by a combination of force and diplomacy. This time, Yugoslav troops advanced (early May 1945) as far west as Trieste in their campaign against the German occupiers of both countries. The city of Rijeka thus became Croatian (i.e., Yugoslav), a situation formalized by the Paris peace treaty between Italy and the wartime Allies on February 10, 1947. Once the change in sovereignty was formalized, 58,000 of the 66,000 Italian speakers left in advance of the Yugoslav army, choosing exile (known in Italian as esuli or the exiled ones). The discrimination and persecution many of them experienced at the hands of the Yugoslav populace and officials in the last days of World War II and the first weeks of peace remain painful memories. Summary executions of alleged fascists, Italian public servants and military officials convinced most ethnic Italians to abandon Rijeka.
Climate and geography
Rijeka's position overlooking the Kvarner Bay with its islands (Cres, Krk) on the south, the Ucka mountain on the west, the mountains of Gorski kotar to the north and the Velebit range to the east offers an impressive natural setting.
Rijeka has a Mediterranean climate with warm summers and relatively mild and rainy winters. Snow is rare (usually no more than 1-2 days per year). Temperatures range between -6 şC (in January) and 37 şC (in July). The average temperature in July is 23 şC, while the average for the coldest month, January, is 5.2 şC. The most common winter lows are around 2–3 şC below zero, with occasional strong and cold bora winds. Rijeka is Croatia's rainiest city with 1544 mm (60.8 inches) of rain per year.
Main sights
Tvornica "Torpedo" (the Torpedo factory)
The first European prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo were created by Giovanni Luppis, a retired naval engineer from Rijeka. The remains of this factory still exist, including a well-preserved launch ramp used for testing self-propelled torpedoes on which in 1866 the first torpedo was tested.
Svetište Majke Božje Trsatske (Sanctuary of Madonna Trsatian)
(Zvijezda mora, Kraljica Jadrana, zaštitnica putnika - Star of the sea, Queen of Adriatic, protector of the travelers.)
Built 135 meters above the sea on the Trsat hill 7 centuries ago, it represents the Guardian of Travelers, especially seamen, who bring offerings to her so she will guard them or help them in time of trouble or illness. Among other points of interest are the Gothic sculpture of (Gospa Slunjska) the Madonna of Slunj and works by the Baroque painter C. Tasce.
Stara vrata, Rimski luk (Old gate, Roman arch)
At first it was thought that this was a Roman Triumphal Arch built by the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus but later it was discovered to be just a portal to Pretorij, the army command in late antiquity.
Transport
Rijeka is the largest port in Croatia. According to the Rijeka Port Authority, its total throughput cargo in 2007 was more than 13 million tons and is rapidly increasing.
Rijeka has efficient road connections to other parts of Croatia and neighbouring countries. The A6 highway runs between Rijeka and Zagreb, Croatia; a shorter stretch connecting Rijeka with the Slovenian border, part of the A7 highway, was completed in 2004. Rijeka gains access to the B8/B9 Istrian Y expressway network by means of the Ucka Tunnel, which currently has only one lane of traffic in each direction. An intricate series of high-capacity bypass and connection roads is currently under construction. The eastern half of this project was due to open on July 15, 2006, and the more complex western half is to open 2 years later.
The city is difficult to get to by air; it has its own international airport, but it is located on the nearby island of Krk with a toll bridge in-between. Handling only 130,000 passengers in 2005, and projected to handle only 250,000 by 2008, the facility is more of a charter airport than a serious transport hub, although various scheduled airlines have begun to serve it.
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