Opatija

Opatija
—  Town  —
The seaside of Opatija
Coat of arms
Opatija Location of Opatija within Croatia
Coordinates: 45°20′N 14°18′E / 45.333°N 14.3°E / 45.333; 14.3
Country	Croatia
County	Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Government
– Mayor	Ivo Dujmić (2009-)
Elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population (2001)
– Total	12,719
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	51 410
Area code(s)	051
Website	opatija.hr

Opatija (pronounced [ɔpǎtija]; German: Sankt Jakobi; Italian: Abbazia) is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. As of 2001^[update], the town proper had a population of 7,850, with the municipality having a total 12,719 inhabitants.

Geography

Opatija is situated in the Gulf of Kvarner in a sheltered position at the foot of Učka mountain, with Vojak peak at 1401 m. Opatija is located 90 km from Trieste by rail and 82 km from Pula by road. The city is geographically on the Istrian peninsula, though it is not in Istria county, but Primorje-Gorski Kotar county.

It is a popular summer and winter resort, with average temperatures of 10 °C in winter, and 25 °C in summer. Opatija is surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel. The whole sea-coast to the north and south of Opatija is rocky and picturesque, and contains several smaller winter resorts.

History

Opatija is included in the territory of the Liburni, a pre-Roman Illyrian people. In Roman times, the area was home to several patrician villas connected to the nearby town of Castrum Laureana, the modern Lovran.

In the Middle Ages the current town's territory was divided between Veprinac (now a locality of Opatija, perhaps home to a small fishing port) and Kastav, where the fisherman village of Veprinac. The Benedictine Abbey of St. James is mentioned for the first time in 1453, and around it a small hamlet developed with the centuries.

The town's modern history begins in 1844, when Iginio Scarpa, a rich merchant from Rijeka, founded Villa Angiolina. It became a fashionable destination for the Austrian imperial family and Austrian nobility and soon more luxury hotels and villas were built, such as the Hotel Kvarner (1884), the Restaurant Kamelija and the Police station by the Keglević family.^[1] A new railway line, managed by the Austrian Southern Railway, was extended to Rijeka, from where it was possible to go by tram to Opatija. The Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I used to spend several months here during the winter. Many of these late 19th-century luxury hotels and villas have survived to present times.

In 1920 Opatija was assigned to Italy. Two years later, with the advent of Fascism, the Italian government started a program of forced italianization of the population, and most of the public positions were assigned to Italian-speaking citizens. In 1947 Opatija was given to Yugoslavia; most of the Italian-speaking population, whose percentage had substantially increased in the past years, emigrated to Italy.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the town became part of Croatia.

Main sights

The old 14th-century Benedictine abbey, Opatija Sv. Jakova ("Abbey of Saint James"), from which the town derives its name (opatija means "abbey" in Croatian) is located in Park Svetog Jakova or Saint James's Park. Saint James's church, built in 1506 and enlarged in 1937, now stands on the same spot. The neo-Romanesque Church of the Annunciation with its pronounced green cupola, was designed in 1906 by architect Karl Seidl.

Another sight is the Villa Angiolina, built in 1844 by Iginio Scarpa. This villa, transformed into a hotel, gave a boost to tourism to this town.

Opatija is known for the Maiden with the seagull, a statue by Zvonko Car (1956), which is positioned on a promontory by the Juraj Šporer art pavilion. It has turned into one of symbols of Opatija. A gilded variant of the statue Madonna, that once stood here but was demolished by communists after the end of WWII, now stands in front of Saint James's Church.

The town park Angiolina contains many species of plants from all over the world. It has been protected since 1968. Close-by, vis-a-vis Hotel Imperial, stands the statue The Fountain - Helios and Selena, a work of the Austrian sculptor Hans Rathautsky from 1889. There is a 12 km-long promenade along the entire riviera, the Lungomare from Volosko, via Opatija, to Lovran.

People

• Theodor Billroth (1829–1894), died in Opatija
• Kosta Hakman (1899-1961, died in Opatija
• Franz Graf von Meran (1839–1891), died in Opatija
• Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), vacationed several times in Opatija (Abbazia)
• Leo Sternbach (1908–2005), inventor of valium, born in Opatija
• Gyula Szapáry (1832–1905), died in Opatija

Twin towns — Sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Croatia

Opatija is twinned with:^[2]

• Castel San Pietro, Italy
• Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia
• Balatonfured, Hungary
• Carmagnola, Italy
• Bad Ischl, Austria

Photogallery

• 

  Maiden with the Seagull

• 

  St. James's church

• 

  Villa Angiolina

• 

  The seaside of Opatija at night

References

1. ^ The crown of Opatija
2. ^ "Opatija's Twin towns — Sister cities". © 2004–2011 Opatija.net. http://www.opatija.net/zanimljivosti.asp?id=64&l=en. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Abbazia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

Croatia portal

• Official website
• Opatija LIVE WebCams
• Opatija Weather Station - Current Weather Conditions at Opatija

Coordinates: 45°20′N 14°18′E / 45.333°N 14.3°E / 45.333; 14.3