What to do and see in Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County: The Best Churches & Cathedrals

St Jeronimo’s Church and the area of the current Dominican monastery, are part of the large Augustinian monastery complex founded in 1315 by the feudal rulers of Rijeka, the Devinski counts, and was terminated throughout the first half of 15th century by their successors, the Walsee barons. The votive chapels of the Holy Trinity and of the Immaculate Conception are the most important gothic monuments in Rijeka. The Holy Trinity chapel was built by Rijeka captain, Raunacher Martin and his wife Maragrit in 1450 and their emblems can be found on the cantilevers at the entrance to the chapel and remains of frescoes on the gothic ribbed vault are evidence of the influence of the gothic cultural circle.

The Our Lady of Trsat Sanctuary, the oldest sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Croatia, which is daily visited by numerous pilgrims both from Croatia and abroad. It is famous for its numerous concessions and for the pilgrimages by numerous believers throughout the year, and especially on the Assumption of Mary holiday. The Sanctuary includes the Church of Our Lady of Trsat, the Franciscan monastery, the thesaurus, the Chapel of oath gifts, Mary’s park and Pope John Paul II’s pastoral centre.

Saint Mary of the Assumption Church is located along the Roman decumanus road, close to the eastern edge of the former city walls and close to the first port on the Rječina River. The church’s interior is decorated with baroque sculptures created by Jacopo Contiero, Giovanni and Leonardo Paccassi, Pasuale Lazzarini, Antonio Michelazzi, Sebastian Petruzzi and with stucco works created by Giulio Quario. The altarpieces are mainly the works of Ljubljana painter, Valentin Metzinger and also Ivan Franjo Gladić. The gravestones exhibited around the church belong to members of the brotherhoods, patrician families and of priests who were buried in the church up until 1901.

The Capuchin church of Our Lady of Lourdes was built from 1904 until 1929 in accordance with plans by engineers Giovanni Maria Curet and Cornelio Budinich. The modestly conceived neo-Gothic building ordered by the nuns of the Jesus Heart Institute was soon replaced by a monumentally conceived church in honour of the magical cure of the guardian of the capuchin monastery, father Bernardin Škrivanić in Lourdes. It was built as a double neo-Gothic basilica with rich polychrome art carried out in the Lombard fashion. In the beginning, in 1907, the church of the Our Lady of Sorrows was built followed by the 70 metre-long church of Our Lady of Lourdes from 1914 until 1929. The sanctuary was decorated with polychrome stained glasses, and the church’s front facades and altar plaster were decorated by the Venetian sculptor Urbano Bottasso and Rijeka carver, Antonio Marietti. Frescoes in the interior were painted by the famous Rijeka painter, Romolo Venucci. Although the 75 metre-high lighthouse was never built on the church, it became an unavoidable sign for all passengers.

St. Sebastian’s Church is a small building, but with very long biography. It is above all important for the history of Rijeka’s health culture as it is dedicated to the protector against the plague. In the middle ages, this disease decimated the whole of Europe, and the Rijeka area was not an exception. As a pledge after the disappearance of the plague, on the area of the current building, a smaller one was built at the end of 13th century. The new, baroque church appeared on its site in the 16th century. This can be seen by the inscription situated above the entrance to the building, with the year marked as 1562. In accordance with its size, the church is not richly furnished. However, it is interesting not only as testimony to the horrible disease which once devastated the Rijeka area. In it valuable objects were stored from numerous small churches in the surrounding areas of Rijeka that appeared during the 18th century.