Church of the Assumption and the Leaning Tower
The centre of Sušak
Trsat

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for centuries referred to as Vela Crikva (The Big Church) or Duomo by the plebs, is the sacral centre that can rightly be believed to have been erected on the place of worship in the period of early Christianity, originally established on the site of Roman public (military?) thermae, the remains of which around the church have only partly been researched. The floor of the more representative parts of the thermae were covered in mosaics, preserved under today's pavement of Pul Vele Crikve Square. Above the ruins of the thermae a bell tower was erected in the Middle Ages, its base containing the stone blocks obviously taken from some antique buildings. This free-standing bell tower is predominantly Gothic. Owing to its inclination of some forty centimetres, its has become known as Kosi Toranj (the Leaning Tower). The front of the church is a harmonious mix of Renaissance (rosette), Baroque (portal), Classicist (columns) and historicist (gable) architectural ornaments. The southern wall boasts an additionally incorporated relief representing Christ's head. In the interior, the Baroque marble sculptures are by P. Lazzarini, A. Michelazzi, S. Petruzzi and J. Contier. The altarpieces of the lateral altars are work of the Baroque painters I. F. Gladić and V. Metzinger, while the main altarpiece was painted in the 19th century by I. Simonetti. The sanctuary stuccowork, dating from the first half of the 18th century is attributed to Giulio Quadri. In 1932 the interior was decorated by the decorative painter A. Pagliarini. The Vela Crikva has been for centuries the city's main sacral building; in contrast to St. Vitus' it is a stylistic mixture typical of the building heritage of this region.
If you continue going east along Užarska Street you will eventually leave the Old Town. Cross Jelačićev Square and the street at its end and stop under the line of trees on the bank of the Mrtvi Kanal, the old bed of the Rječina. Turn around to view the Classicist facades of Fiumara Street. Among them, the ex Simeon Adamić House stands out by its elegant proportions and decorations. Alongside the palace built in late 1700s, there used to stand a line of portraits of the so-called Adamić's witnesses, carved in stone, now kept in lapidary part of the Maritime and Historical Museum. As it happens, Adamić accidentally came across a 'treasury', actually archeological finds, while restoring the floor of St. Martin's church on his property at Martinšćica, a cove by the eastern access to Rijeka. Some envious people accused him of concealing the found treasury, but his agile son Andrija Ljudevit adeptly defended him by reaching as far as the emperor Joseph II himself, to whom he explained that it was 'only' an archeological finding. Simeon Adamić exposed the perjured to ridicule by exhibiting their grotesque portraits on the pavement in front of his palace. G. Chieregi designed the floor added to the palace at the end of 1800s, when the need for housing the Croatian Grammar School arose.


The centre of Sušak

If you decide to go on to see Trsat, continue your walk across the bridge. Before starting climbing the Trsat hill, however, you can visit the centre of Sušak lying along the left bank of the Rječina. On the so-called Delta, the area between the old and the new river beds, you will see the Monument of Liberation, work of Matković, erected after World War II. It is here that the frontier between the Kingdoms of Italy and Yugoslavia (then comprising Croatia) lay between the two world wars. Alongside the new riverbed of the Rječina, built in the mid-19th century, stretches the centre of Sušak with its representative palaces of the City Savings Bank (by F. Matijasić), The First Croatian Savings Bank (by A. Freudenreich) and the Continental Hotel (by M. Glavan). Titov Square, in front of the hotel, bridges the river by its full width, thus symbolising the unification of the two towns achieved after World War II. The square also contains a modern reminiscence of the former Baroque chapel of St. John Nepomucene, patron saint of bridges, through the centre of which the state frontier once ran. Leaning against the railing above the river, there stands a statue of Janko Polić Kamov, Croatian avant-garde novelist from the beginning of the 20th century (work of Zvonimir Kamenar). Behind a row of buildings along the Kačićevo Šetalište there lie a number of no less representative historicist buildings of Sušak centre, called the Brajdica (grape arbour), recollecting the once Franciscan vineyards that used to stretch here as long as to the late 1800s.


Trsat

In the northwest corner of Titov Square (by the former First Croatian Savings Bank) stands a Baroque chapel with a relief of Mother of God with the Child on its front. This passable chapel by way of a small triumphal arch marks the beginning of Trsat stairs that lead to the famous centre of pilgrimage, the Franciscan monastery at Trsat. The stairs were built in 1531 by order of Commander Petar Kružić, and were subsequently repeatedly built up (up to today's over 500 steps) and adorned with votive chapels. If you do not feel fit enough to climb the stairs, you can reach Trsat, the most attractive tourist spot, by local bus no. 1, but in any case Trsat will take several hours to visit. The foundation of the Franciscan monastery is linked to the legendary transfer of the Holy House from the Holy Land to Europe. Trsat was thus an intermediate stop between Nazareth, the starting point, and Loreto, the final destination. According to legend, the House was kept at Trsat between 1291 and 1294. This legend has a firm ground on the transitory role of our region during the Crusades. The church and the monastery form a harmonious combination of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Biedermeier building phases. The splendid interior of this peculiar two-nave church comprises two particularly beautiful cloisters and a summer refectory with a large Mannerist canvas by S. Schön and works of the Baroque painter C. Tasca. By far the most splendid is the Gothic polyptych with the central presentation of the Madonna with the Child. The wealth of the monastery treasury is testimony of the popularity of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Trsat, which was abundantly endowed first by the Frankopans, and later by numerous other Croatian and Carniolan noble families, as well as by members of the Habsburg dynasty. The art gallery is constantly enriched by new donations. The Votive Chapel contains numerous picturesque popular illustrations of the miracles of Our Lady of Trsat, but also a fine Gothic sculpture of Our Lady of Slunj.
Across the street from the monastery stands the Croatian Reading Room, built in the late 1880s in historicist style by M. Glavan, a local architect. Interestingly, this patriotic shrine was first established as a joint stock company. Walking west through the picturesque plebeian centre of Trsat you will reach Trsat Castle, formerly a property of the Frankopans. The medieval castle was probably built upon the remains of a previous Roman observation post and late antiquity refuge. In the first half of the 19th century the castle was restored in a romantic Classicist-Biedermeier style by Austrian commander and count Laval Nugent, a native of Ireland, who chose it for his last residence. A marvellous view of the Kvarner Bay, central parts of Rijeka, the Calvary, Kozala, the Rječina canyon and the centre of Sušak offers itself from the castle. Beneath the castle is found the old church of St. George (Sv. Juraj), for centuries the parish church of Trsat. When you get tired, do stop for a ritual cup of espresso, a local custom. Trsat is an oasis for the inhabitants of Rijeka as well, in which they can find all that their city has lost through repeated monumental constructions in the last two centuries.


Another opportunity to explore Sušak

If you do not wish to cross the bridge at Jelačićev Square and visit Trsat, walk along the banks of Mrtvi Kanal as far as the National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište Ivana pl. Zajca). From this spot (which is marked on our plan) you can view the contours of Sušak – toady a part of Rijeka, but once a town in its own right, whose development accelerated particularly in the late 1800s. Its centre lies along the left bank of the Rječina estuary (see The centre of Sušak). You will notice the skyscraper of the Croatian Cultural Centre (HKD – Hrvatski kulturni dom), an important construction of the Croatian school of modern architecture erected in the period preceding World War II. This prestigious building was to play an important role in the antagonism that reigned between the two towns in the 1930s. The original avant-garde design of the tragically deceased young architect J. Pičman was revised by A. Albini. The building towers over Strossmayerova Street, the main artery of Sušak. The most luxurious houses in this street were built at the turn of the centuries upon order of the industrialist Đuro Ružić, father of modern Sušak. The street ends up at Piramida, a monument to the two roads: the Karolina, built in the first half of the 28th century by the Austrian emperor Charles VI, and the Doroteja, a side-road that connected the town with the newly-constructed lazaretto in Martinšćica cove in the first half of the 19th century. Piramida can be reached by crossing the bridge and continuing up Strossmayerova Street. The winding Bulevard, which begins at the Sušak skyscraper and leads up to Trsat, is another important street of today's Sušak. It is dominated by the impressive building of the Grammar School (Gimnazija) built in late 1800s by specialised German architects Ludwig and Hülssner. The Croatian Grammar School, which was transferred from Rijeka to Sušak toward the end of Austro-Hungarian rule, was a symbol of a deliberate resistance of contemporary independent Croatian educational authorities to Hungarization and Italianization. Further below lies the Sušak City Hall, built in 1920s by J. Denzler, today the seat of the University of Rijeka Senate House. Another prominent building is the recently restored Secession Forestry Office (Šumarija), work of Hungarian architects L. Lechner-Kismarti and G. Fabian. The former Belvedere (Vidikovac) of the Sušak waterworks, built just before World War I, is today unfortunately concealed. To visit Bulevard, you do need a fair amount of time and fitness, as the ascent is quite steep. Alternatively, starting at Piramida at the end of Strossmayerova Street, take the street lining the coast and explore Pećine, the elite centre of Sušak. The pronounced country-style atmosphere is due to thoughtful town planning implemented at the turn of the centuries. Detached villas, former boarding houses and hotels are situated in large parks perched above the cliffs occasionally interrupted by smaller beaches. The best way to see this, however, is a boat. In a small park at the far end of Pećine, the end of Rijeka itself, you will see the Lantern of Friendship, a present of the city of Kawasaki to the citizens of Rijeka.
15. If you do not cross the Rječina, continue exploring the centre of Rijeka. You will now be quite close to the National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište Ivana pl. Zajca). It was built in 1885 as a city theatre according to the design of the specialised Vienna Helmer and Fellner workshop, which designed similar buildings throughout the Austro-Hungary of the time. Matsch, Kauffungen and Fritsch, and the Klimt brothers, permanent associates of the workshop, were charged with equipping the theatre, contributing to the pronounced central European atmosphere of the town. The exterior is adorned by figurative compositions of Music and Drama by Venetian sculptor Benvenutti. The opening of the theatre was marked by a performance of Verdi's Aida. In a town which, at the time, was not supplied with electric current, the autonomous system of electric supply installed in the theatre by the Vienna Kremenczky company was a real sensation. On the square in front of the theatre stand the statue of Croatian composer Ivan pl. Zajc and a fountain with a sculpture by D. Džamonja. The theatre today houses the opera, the ballet and Croatian and Italian drama.
14. Across the square from the theatre begins the complex of the Large Market pavilions. The first two of these were erected in 1880 by I. Vauchnig. His design was only seemingly historicist, because the use of iron construction and large glass panes already heralded the new style in architecture. The interior of these pavilions has been completely changed, however, by various divisions and use of inappropriate materials. The original aspect of the interior, with open roof construction and lateral galleries, can be seen in the last of the three pavilions, the main city fish market today, designed at the beginning of the 20th century by C. Pergoli. Its abundant stone decorations and imaginative figures of fish and molluscs by U. Botasso are worth seeing as well.