Opatija Things to Do

It was built in phases.

The first, northern phase of the path (Volosko-Slatina) was completed in 1889, when Opatija officially becomes a Health Resort ,the stretch from Dražice to the port was finished around 1888 and the southernmost section (that connected Opatija with the promenade in Lovran) only around 1911.

An exhibition space named after the physician dr. Juraj Matija Sporer .Born in 1859 he suggested the establishment of a society for the constuction of Opatija as a sea resort and a natural health centre.
Just before his death hotel Kvarner was built and so his idea came true.

St. Jacob church, the oldest building in Opatija, is the part of the park landscape together with 160 herbal sorts from all over the world. This is how the japanese camelia became recognizable symbol of Opatija.

In the flourishing vegetation along the sea shore, near Saint Jacob' church, Iginio Scarpa, a merchant and patrician of Rijeka, built a villa in 1844 suraunded by a flower garden and park. He named it Villa Angiolina in honour of his wife. The hospitable marreid couple opened wide the doors of their summer house. The first «real» tourists began coming to St. Jacob's Abbey. This marked the begining of Opatija's tourist development.

As early as 1906 the bishop of Trieste, Franjo Nagl, laid the foundation-stone for the neo-Romanesque edifice with its pronounced green cupola that can be seen from afar, but once again the departure of Austria postponed the completion of the building thet was designed by architect Karl Seidl.
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The boardwalk (Lungomare) is a high light!

The boardwalk is twelve kilometres; it starts in Volosko and ends in Lovran. The stretch from Opatija to Lovran is about eight kilometres.
On you way you pass the small villages of Iĉici and Ika.

You have a wonderful view over the Adriatic Ocean and you pass expensive hotels, luxury villas and little villages. If you need a rest you can visit a little café or sit down on one of the many benches.

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The Art Pavillion, which is located right next to the hotel Kvarner, bears the name of Juraj Matija Sporer, who advocated the program of turning Opatija into a "sea balnearium" and a winter resort.
The most prominent promotors of that idea were: Higinij Scarpa, the director of Southern Railroad Friedrich Julius Shueller, the Viennese physician Leopold Ritter von Schroetter, Viennese surgeon Theodor Billroth and Max Joseph Oertel, the founder of the sanatorium in Opatija.

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The Church of St. James, along with the Benedictine Abbey, represents the very beginning of the town. The church and the monastery with their initial Latin name "Abbatia Sancti Jacobi ad Palum", have historical significance because the settlement was named by translating the first word, ABBATIA = OPATIJA.