Opatija, Croatia by © SashM

Opatija, Croatia a beautiful town by the sea. Opatija the name is like opa ti i ja what means wow you and me. A bit strange you will think but never the less the history of this town is written bellow.


Opatija (pronounced [ɔpǎtija]; German: Sankt Jakobi; Italian: Abbazia; Hungarian: Abbázia) is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. As of 2011, the town had 11,659 inhabitants in total, of which 6,657 lived in the urban settlement.

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.

Opatija was 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. Jacob was mentioned for the first time in 1453, and around it a small hamlet developed during the centuries.

The town's modern history began in 1844, when Iginio Scarpa, a rich merchant from Rijeka, founded Villa Angiolina. In 1872 Railways came to Matulji and thus opened the path for the development of tourism in Opatija and Lovran.

In 1882 Friedrich Julius Schüler, the Managing Director of Southern Railways started the construction of villas and hotels in Opatija and Lovran, and was responsible for the unique lungomare and parks (the Company engaged Carl Schubert, director of the Viennese Emperial-Royal Society for the construction of parks). In 1882, Cesar-royal Society of the Southern railway from Vienna, led by Julius Schuler, purchased the first land with Villa Angiolina in Opatija. There, in the park Angiolina today stands FJ Schüler's bust, the work of the sculptor Hans Rathausky.

It became a fashionable destination for the Austrian imperial family and Austrian nobility and soon more luxury hotels and villas were built. The first luxury hotel – Hotel "Quarnero" (1884) (today "Grand Hotel Kvarner") was built to the plans by the Viennese architect Franz Wilhelm. The hotel Kronprinzessin Stephanie was opened in 1885, named after crown princess Stephanie, wife of Rudolf of Habsburg, and they both appeared at the opening. Architect Franz Wilhelm offered all luxury to the guests of the hotel, from the central heating to the pool, and, later, the cinema hall, which was connected to the central part of the hotel.

In 1887 - Heinrich von Littrow established the "Union Yacht Club Quarnero" in Opatija (founded in June / July 1886) - the first sailing club on the Adriatic. In 1889 The Austrian government officially declared Abbazia ( Opatija) as the first climatic seaside resort on the Adriatic. After the hotels, the building of villas started, for the needs of more demanding guests. The first villa was the "Amalia", in the immediate vicinity of the hotel "Quarnero" in 1890 as hotel's annex.

Opatija's first guide was published in 1883 in Vienna with the title Abbazia, Idylle von der Adria. The same year saw the publication of Abbazia und seine Umgebung by Noe Heinrich, who in 1884 published Tagebuch aus Abbazia (Diary from Opatija). Joseph Rable printed Curort und Seebad Abbazia (Spa and the bathing beach in Opatija), and Peter von Radics wrote a guidebook simply titled Abbazia. Opatija is best known nowadays as the venue for a chess tournament devoted to the King’s Gambit in 1912.

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. The upper floor of Villa Amalia was built in 1930, and the building was renovated to become the summer residence of the House of Savoy.