Opatija

Pre-Roman Liburnians held this stretch of coast, and in Roman times patrician villas stood near the town of Castrum Laureana, today's Lovran. Croats settled the area from about 700. In the Middle Ages the land was divided between Veprinac and Kastav, and the hamlet of Opatija grew up around a Benedictine abbey of St Jacob, first mentioned in 1453; its name means "abbey". While Venice took western Istria, this corner fell to the Habsburgs and later formed part of the Austrian Littoral.

The modern town began in 1844, when Iginio Scarpa, a merchant from Rijeka, built the Villa Angiolina in a large park. The Southern Railway reached nearby Matulji in 1873, the railway company bought the villa in 1882, and its director Friedrich Julius Schüler built the first grand hotels, the parks and the seafront promenade. In 1889 the Austrian government declared Opatija a climatic seaside resort. Villas followed, a tram ran along the coast from 1908, and Emperor Franz Joseph spent several winter months here; in 1894 he met the German emperor Wilhelm II in the town, and Empress Elisabeth and the kings of Romania and Greece were among the royal guests.

Opatija was assigned to Italy in 1920 and to Yugoslavia under the 1947 peace treaty, after which most Italian speakers left. The Yugoslav era added new hotels, a casino and, in 1981, a marina, and the town became part of Croatia when Yugoslavia broke up from 1991.

Opatija's identity is its resort history. The Habsburg villas, hotels and parks that survive from the late 19th century, and the Croatian Museum of Tourism in the Villa Angiolina, make it a living record of how the Adriatic coast first became a holiday destination. The sailing club founded in 1886 was the first on the Adriatic coast, and the town hosted a famous chess tournament in 1912 devoted to the King's Gambit. From 1931 to 1977 its streets formed a motor-racing circuit, once called the Monaco of motorcycle Grand Prix racing.

Culture today runs to festivals, concerts and exhibitions through the year, with the Liburnia Jazz association among about ten cultural groups active in the town. The statue of the Maiden with the Seagull, made in 1956, is one of the sights the town is known for. The area keeps older customs too: in the villages around Rijeka the zvončari, men in sheepskins, some in masks, march with clanging bells at carnival time, a tradition on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.

Local life follows the rhythm of the sea and the season — regattas with long traditions, football at NK Opatija, founded in 1911, and on summer evenings the promenade busy with walkers.

Opatija is small: in 2021 its urban settlement had about 5,700 residents, with more in the surrounding settlements of the municipality, such as Volosko, Ičići, Ika and the hill village of Veprinac. In summer the number of people in town is many times higher. It sits at the foot of Učka, whose forested slopes rise to about 1,400 metres directly behind the houses, and the coast to the north and south is rocky.

Tourism is the economy, as it has been since the 1880s. Hotels, rented apartments, restaurants, cafés and the marina employ much of the town, and a faculty of tourism and hospitality management is based here. Unlike many Kvarner resorts, Opatija stays open in winter, so its working year is longer and steadier.

The day is unhurried: coffee on the seafront, a swim from the paved bathing terraces or rocky coves in summer, and a walk along the Lungomare. Houses climb steeply up the hillside, so much of daily life involves stairs and short, steep streets. Volosko, at the northern end, keeps more of a village feel around its harbour.

Opatija eats from the Kvarner Gulf. Seafood leads on this coast, including scampi na buzaru, a dish of neighbouring Istria, and fish and shellfish fill the menus along the seafront and in Volosko, Ika and Lovran. From the Istrian side come home-made pasta such as fuži and maneštra, a vegetable stew made with spring corn, along with Istrian truffles. The cooking of Istria, next door, is often compared with that of Italy, a reminder of the long ties across the northern Adriatic.

The slopes of Učka are known for their sweet chestnut forests around Lovran, and the chestnuts called maruni are celebrated each October at Lovran's Marunada. Laurel woods surround the town, and the name of Lovran itself comes from the laurel.

The wines are those of the northern Adriatic: Istrian Malvazija, a white, and the red Teran, with Žlahtina, the white wine of Vrbnik on the nearby island of Krk. Rakija fruit brandy is served as an aperitif or after a meal, and strong coffee is constant.