Rijeka industrial heritage

[Jana]

Rijeka (Fiume, Sankt Veit am Flaum, Reka, Rika) is largest Croatian port in Kvarner Bay, situated in Western Croatia/North Adriatic region, with rich industrial heritage.
The city was industrial powerhouse starting from late 19th to end of 20th century, and remains from it's industrial past are slowly becoming tourist attractions. Here are some locations with photos in and around the inner city, where once were important industrial buildings and port facillities.

Useful site: http://rijekaheritage.org/en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rijeka

First I'll start with ruins of important water mills in Rječina river canyon (which fed the city's factories in the past), inside the city boundaries:






Than we move to the former Cigarette Paper factory, in the heart of the city, which was one of world's leading producers of cigarette paper until bankrupcy in late 1990's:




The abandoned factory complex has become place for alternative Rock festivals and cultural events in recent years:



Moving to the city core, there are several classical working-class streets reamaining where were mixed housing units togheder with warehouses and smaller factories:





Now some photos of port infrastructure. Rijeka used to be 4th biggest port in the entire Mediterranean on the beginning of 20th century:





TBC...

[Jana]

The original Torpedo launching ramp:



World's first torpedo and torpedo factory was designed and built in Rijeka:





The inventor of Torpedo was Rijeka-born Giovanni Luppis or Ivan Vukić, Austro-Hungarian naval officer of mixed Croatian-Italian ancestry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Luppis

Torpedo factory existed as truck factory until end of late 1990's, when it declared bankrupcy as rest of industry in the city, due to outdated technology and bad menagment of the company. Still, the Torpedo remains symbol of the city
http://www.muzej-rijeka.hr/torpedo/en/chronology.html

[Jana]

The Oil Rafinery
First Oil rafinery in Rijeka was opened in 1882, and started operating in 1883. It's technical director was Croat Milutin Barač, who later ran several other Oil Rafineries in Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Poland:
https://www.rothschildarchive.org/ma...2005rijeka.pdf
Today the rafinery is out of business with smaller plant operating in the city suburbs, while the original Rafinery will be preseved as monument of culture and re-developed in multy-use facility.






Oil Rafinery in Rijeka was one of biggest and most modern in the entire world when it started operating on the end of 19th century with revolutionary new methods of oil processing developed there!

''Fiume was something else indeed. While the other refineries processed crude oil through
manufacture, in small quantities, employing as a rule some ten or twenty workers, unsupervised
by any petroleum industry specialist, Fiume started its processing operations with 300 employees
and a technical director who was a university-trained professional chemist. Fiume was in fact
the first European facility for industrial oil refining.''

[LoLeL]

I thought this was another rant by Ross.

[Jana]

Rijeka's Breakwater

The old pier or breakwater (bigger of the two existing in the city) was bulit between 1872-1888 to protect the port from wawes and winds. It's original name was Molo Maria Teresa, today it's nickname is simply ''Molo Longo'' where city people run, bycicle or simply spend their free time. The pier was heavily damaged during WW2 when retreating German forces blew up most of the port, but it was renovated in the 60s. The pier's projectant was Hungarian architect Antal Hajnal. It is around 2 km in length.



View on the Rijeka port from the pier:

[Kamal900]

Old, but it's worth to visit these sites to learn more about the history of these places.

[Jana]

Old, but it's worth to visit these sites to learn more about the history of these places.

Yes, the city has extremely interesting history. It was divided like Berlin (with barbed wire fence) in-between the world wars between Italy and Yugoslavia, so the double port facilities were created-one for it's east side and other (old one) for western.
Many people do not know that first proto-faschist State in history was born in the city.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italia...ncy_of_Carnaro
Here is the music fastival that takes place in old Hartera factory complex, and I hear there are plans to film horror movies on the location in the future (because it has many undergound pipelines, tunnels and maze of warehouses):

[Jana]

[IncelSlayer]

What European capital of culture?Looks worse than my industrial city, which I consider a shithole.

[Jana]

What European capital of culture?Looks worse than my industrial city, which I consider a shithole.

It does

That's the charm. I've been saying Rijeka is a shithole for years now. Not only that! It has horrible climate too. More rain than London, constant rain from October to March

No wonder we produce best rock bands and alternative music in the country. The magic of the city is that it is so brutally different than polished gems of Dalmatian and Istrian cost, it will enchant you instantly