10 Things to do in Rijeka That You Shouldn't Miss

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Rising above towns teeming with activity, Kastav has managed to preserve its rich history, its valuable architectural monuments, its culture, tradition, and its untouched nature over many centuries. At the same time, keeping up with the times, it developed an up to date entrepreneurial spirit reflected in both attractive and unique tourist offers as well as in traditional industries. Kastav can offer an exquisite blend of delights and business opportunities to every visitor. Kastav has it all - from high quality music and stage performances to folk festivals and carnival parties, from recreation in nature to visits to museums and landmarks, always accompanied with first class gastronomic and oenological delights.

Trsat Castle represents a strategically embossed gazebo on a hill 138 meters above sea level that dominates Rijeka. As a parochial centre it was mentioned for the first time in 1288. Trsat Castle is one of the oldest fortifications on the Croatian Coast, where the characteristics of the early medieval town construction have been preserved. Today Trsat Castle, beside the Bazilisk souvenir shop and the Gradina coffee bar, is enriched with new facilities – gallery space where art exhibitions are held as well as open-air summer concerts and theatre performances as well as fashion shows and Literary evenings. Within Trsat Castle, at the Petra Zrinskog b.b. Address, is the Trsat Castle Info Point where any information about this building and the town of Rijeka can be found.

Rijeka’s St. Vitus Cathedral is the only Baroque rotunda of monumental dimensions built on Croatian land. The construction of this church began in 1638 based on the design of the Jesuit architect G. Brian. The eminent Venetian church, Santa Maria della Salute, served as s model. An elevated spot was chosen for the construction of St. Vitus church at the heart of the then medieval urban tissue. Initially there was a small church of the same name located on the same site, dedicated to the city’s patron saint. The Jesuit order, as creator of the project, immediately decided to use the cult of the wooden Magic crucifix from the original church, which popular legend says began to bleed when a certain Petar Lončarić, threw a stone on it in fear after losing at gambling.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Korzo started to assume its modern-day outlines. The main promenade and meeting-point for Rijeka citizens as well as the construction area used in building the symbolic palaces demonstrate various styles including Classical, Historical, Secessional, and Modernist. Urban regulations appeared in the latter half of the 19th century, but these meant only an intensification of the rate of raising the seabed (with sand), and grand public constructions which appear to have very developed the seabed. Even then, at the turn of the century, the picture is of a littoral town straitened by its walls. Today, is hard to believe that until the sea-trench was filled-in and the town walls pulled down, this was only a gravel sea coast with a few wooden embankments and storehouses, a shipyard and a city log house which traded in cereals, fish and salt.

The Our Lady of Trsat Sanctuary, the oldest sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Croatia, which is daily visited by numerous pilgrims both from Croatia and abroad. It is famous for its numerous concessions and for the pilgrimages by numerous believers throughout the year, and especially on the Assumption of Mary holiday. The Sanctuary includes the Church of Our Lady of Trsat, the Franciscan monastery, the thesaurus, the Chapel of oath gifts, Mary’s park and Pope John Paul II’s pastoral centre.

Gradski Toranj (City Tower), a symbol of Rijeka, is a good example of a typical round tower access-point, which lead into the fortified town. Today it dominates the central part of Korzo, although it was, during its time, overtopped by more recently constructed buildings. It was built in the Middle Ages, probably on the foundations of the Late Ancient, littoral town doors. Some baroque phases of its construction can be seen on the lower part of the front of the Tower, which are characterised by a richly decorated portal, an imperial coat of arms carved out of stone and a relief of the Austrian emperors Leopold and Charles VI. Rijeka paid them special respect due to the maritime orientation they introduced into the state policies of the Austrian court.

The Capuchin church of Our Lady of Lourdes was built from 1904 until 1929 in accordance with plans by engineers Giovanni Maria Curet and Cornelio Budinich. The modestly conceived neo-Gothic building ordered by the nuns of the Jesus Heart Institute was soon replaced by a monumentally conceived church in honour of the magical cure of the guardian of the capuchin monastery, father Bernardin Škrivanić in Lourdes. It was built as a double neo-Gothic basilica with rich polychrome art carried out in the Lombard fashion. In the beginning, in 1907, the church of the Our Lady of Sorrows was built followed by the 70 metre-long church of Our Lady of Lourdes from 1914 until 1929. The sanctuary was decorated with polychrome stained glasses, and the church’s front facades and altar plaster were decorated by the Venetian sculptor Urbano Bottasso and Rijeka carver, Antonio Marietti. Frescoes in the interior were painted by the famous Rijeka painter, Romolo Venucci. Although the 75 metre-high lighthouse was never built on the church, it became an unavoidable sign for all passengers.