Opatija

The city and summer resort on the eastern coast of Istria, on the Kvarner bay, 13 kilometers from Rijeka. Opatija is "the old lady of the Croatian tourism", the beauty of the sea", where tourists came even in the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many wealthy citizens had their country houses and villas there. Today it is the complex of hotels and villas that stretches from the Preluk bay all the way to Mošćenika Draga. The Institute for the sea therapy and rehabilitation of the patients with cardio-vascular problems is located in Opatija. There is also the Faculty of Catering and Tourism in Ika. There are two airports in vicinity (Pula and Rijeka), and railroad stations are in Rijeka and Matulji. Opatija has excellent road connections with the inland. Thanks to its location below Učka, the climate is gentle with enough moister, and that is why Opatija is famous of rich vegetation and its parks. The bathing season lasts from June to the end of September, and winters are gentle. That makes the rest in Opatija pleasant through the whole year. The remains of the architecture prove that it was inhabited already in the Roman times. In historical sources it is mentioned in 1453 as the Benedictine Abbey of St. Jakov after which it got its name (opatija=abbey). Of the old Abbey complex, remained only the church of St. Jakov on the coast, from 1509. Later it was rebuilt a few times and it was extended in 1937. The oldest representative villa in Opatija was Villa Angiolina, built in 1844, near the old abbey with the park of tropical plants. The tourism of Opatija began in the same year, so that Opatija celebrated 150 years of tourism in 1994. When the railroad from Vienna to Trieste was built (in 1857), including the diverging road for Rijeka, the surrounding area of Rijeka that included Opatija, became accessible to its inland. The Southern Railroad Association started to arrange Opatija as the sea bathing resoet and sanatorium. They bought Villa Angiolina and built the large hotel Kvarner. Soon, the other hotels were built, and in 1914, Opatija had almost 4,000 inhabitants. In 1889 it became sanatorium (for diseases of the respiratory organs, bronchial asthma, hypertonia, heart flows and rheumatism) and soon it became the resort of Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Berlin aristocracy. After the World War II, a few more bigger hotels were built in Opatija and Parks and about 12 kilometers long walking path from Volosko all the way to Lovran, were put in order. 

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