Opatija

The town takes its name from the Benedictine abbey of St James (opatija means abbey), around which a small settlement grew; the Church of St James still stands in the park on that site. Modern Opatija began in 1844, when the Rijeka patrician Iginio Scarpa built Villa Angiolina as a summer residence, the first building in the area designed purely for leisure.

The arrival of the railway at nearby Matulji in 1873 brought visitors from Vienna and beyond. The Hotel Kvarner opened in 1884 as the first hotel on the Croatian Adriatic, and on 4 March 1889 Opatija was declared an imperial climatic health resort of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Royalty, artists and writers followed, and Villa Angiolina now houses the Croatian Museum of Tourism. The Maiden with the Seagull, by the sculptor Zvonko Car, was erected in 1956 on the spot where the Madonna del Mare statue once stood, in memory of a count lost at sea in 1891.

Opatija keeps an unhurried, slightly formal air, with residents taking their evening stroll along the promenade and older villas tended with care. The surrounding villages on the slopes of Učka are known for sweet chestnuts, celebrated each autumn at the Marunada festival in Lovran and Opatija. Carnival season brings the zvončari bell-ringers from nearby villages, a tradition recognised by UNESCO.