Rijeka

Najveći lučki grad u Hrvatskoj, sa živahnim Korzom, Trsatskom gradinom visoko iznad grada i snažnom pivskom i kulturnom scenom. Idealna polazna točka za Opatiju, Istru i otoke Kvarnera.

Rijeka is Croatia's third-largest city. In the 19th century it was Hungary's seaport, within the Habsburg Empire. The grand palaces and the theatre date from that time. After the First World War the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio occupied the city. It was then a free state for a few years, and from 1924 it belonged to Italy under the name Fiume. After the Second World War Rijeka became part of Yugoslavia. In 2020 it was a European Capital of Culture.

Rijeka is not a holiday resort but a real city, with lots of students, museums and concerts, also out of season. In January or February there is the carnival, one of the biggest in Europe. Autumn can be very rainy. Allow one or two days for the city itself. With the day trips below, you can easily fill a week.

Ne propustite

01

Korzo and the City Tower

The Korzo is the car-free main street of the centre. It runs where the town wall once stood, when the sea still came right up to the town. Halfway along is the City Tower, one of the old town gates, with a Baroque portal and a clock mechanism from 1873 that still keeps time. The gate under the tower leads into the Old Town.

Vrijeme1 hourSavjetDo as the locals do and have a morning coffee on a terrace along the Korzo. Then walk on to the market.

02

Trsat

Trsat Castle stands high above the gorge of the Rječina river. The noble Frankopan family built it in the Middle Ages. In the 19th century the Austrian field marshal Laval Nugent bought the castle and had a mausoleum built there in the style of a Greek temple. From the walls you look out over the city, the port and the Kvarner Gulf. Close by is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Trsat, one of the largest pilgrimage sites in Croatia. Legend has it that the house of Mary from Nazareth stood here from 1291 to 1294, before it moved to Loreto in Italy.

Vrijeme2–3 hoursSavjetTake city bus 2 up and walk back down the Petar Kružić stairs: more than 500 steps, the first from 1531, to the edge of the centre.

03

Molo longo

The breakwater that shelters the port is more than 1.7 kilometres long. For a long time it was off limits, but since 2009 it has been a pier for everyone to walk. At the end you stand in the middle of the bay, with the city and the mountains behind you and the islands in front of you.

Vrijeme1 hourSavjetGo around sunset. In a bora wind it gets cold and very windy out here, so bring a jacket.

04

City Museum in the Sugar Palace

A richly decorated Baroque palace from the 18th century, built as the office of the sugar refinery. In about 30 rooms the museum tells the story of Rijeka: sugar and tobacco, the port, the emigrants who left from here for America, and the world's first torpedo, tested here in 1866.

Vrijeme1.5–2 hoursSavjetThe palace is in the Benčić art quarter, a former factory site. There you will also find the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Children's House, with activities for children.