Rijeka History Facts and Timeline

(Rijeka, Primorje Gorski Kotar, Kvarner, Croatia)

The history of Rijeka has always been connected to the Adriatic Sea. It is Croatia's third-largest city and its primary seaport.

The invaluable deep-water harbour at Rijeka and ideal location along the Dalmatian Coast has made it a very coveted possession for Mediterranean powers since the days of the Greeks and Romans. Today, maritime trade continues to be the economic engine of this pleasant port city.

A City of Many Rulers

The Celts and maritime Liburni people were the first settled inhabitants of Rijeka, using its natural harbour for fishing, travel and trade. Later, the Romans had their turn at the helm for a while until the 5th century AD, when the history of Rijeka began its course of a whirlwind flux of invaders and rulers.


The city was ruled in a continual line of succession by the Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards, Eurasian Avars, Germanic Franks, Croatians and also Hungarians before the powerful Venetian empire took extended control in the 1100s. Throughout all these centuries, Rijeka remained a valued possession. During its medieval phase, the city was fortified by a towering wall and a fortress was built at its highest point in the centre of the city.

The Archduchy of Austria

In recent centuries, the history of Rijeka was shaped by the Austrian Habsburgs, who took control of the city from the Venetians in the 1460s and remained its rulers for the next 450 years. There was a brief period of French rule from 1805 to 1813, but for those four centuries, the city was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

In the year of 1723, the city was turned into a free port, boosting its allure for foreign merchants and traders around the Mediterranean. The 18th and 19th centuries marked another period of fluctuation in Rijeka, as control of the territory passed between the Austrian Habsburgs, and the rulers of Croatia and Hungary. Finally in 1870, the city stayed with the Hungarian kingdom.

Industrial Growth

Beginning in the second half of the 1800s, Rijeka began a major industrial transformation right up through the start of WWI. This was a prosperous era for the city, with the world's first torpedo factory opening in 1866 and Europe's first industrial-scale oil refinery opening in 1882.

Fuelled by heavy investment from Hungary, who used Rijeka as its primary seaport, the city grew into the fifth-largest port in the Mediterranean. Many of the city's most impressive buildings were erected during this boom period, including both the Baroque Clock Tower and Governor's Palace.

A Fight for Sovereignty

When the Austrian-Hungarian dynasty fell apart at the end of WWI, rival Italian and Croatian factions claimed sovereignty over Rijeka. The Italians based their claim on the fact that almost nine-tenths of the city's population was Italian, while the new Kingdom of the Croats, Serbs and Slovenes claimed regional heritage.

A City Divided

During WWII, the mainly Italian population of Rijeka was literally surrounded by Croat suburbs. When the Axis Powers took Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, a bloody revolt of local Partisan activists sprouted. The result was a nasty guerrilla-style fight against the Axis occupiers that lasted until the end of the war. Because of its large industrial complexes, the Allies heavily bombed the city. When the Germans retreated at the end of WWII, they destroyed the harbour in an act of spite.

Today, Rijeka is still struggling to find its place in the new Adriatic order. Its traditional industries have largely closed down or are stagnating. Tourism offers one bright economic light shining on the current chapter in Rijeka's history, but the future of this city has yet to be clearly glimpsed.