Palazzo Comunale
Oldest Town Hall in Rijeka

In the immediate vicinity, on a square bearing the name of the historian Giovanni Kobler, a native of Rijeka, lies the Palac Komuna Rečkog, the oldest preserved City Hall. The palace received its Baroque elements by the naturalized Rijeka constructor Antonio Verneda, who added a floor and some representative stone sculptures to the original building. Already in its original form the building dominated over the square, which was the centre of communal life for centuries. It was used as conference hall as long as until 1838, when the city administration moved to a part of the former Augustine monastery.
In 1974, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Rijeka Paper Mill, the oldest in this part of Europe, a fountain with a stone paper press from the factory was placed on the square.
Užarska Street, running eastward, follows the track of the old decumanus maximus, main artery of the antique Rijeka (Tarsatica). At 26 of this street is situated one of the renovated houses of the Old Town, the ex Wassermann House. In its lower parts the late Gothic construction has been well preserved. The House was made up of several buildings in a row, incorporated and built up during the period of important restorations that followed a series of earthquakes that devastated the city at the end of 1750.