Visit Opatija - Croatia

Recorded on March 2, 2009. Opatija (German: Sankt Jakobi; Italian: Abbazia) is a town in western Croatia, just southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic coast. As of 2001, the town proper had a population of 7,850, with the municipality having a total 12,700 inhabitants.
It si resort town, one of the best-known coastal resorts in Istria, republic of Croatia, situated on the Kvarner (gulf) of the Adriatic Sea. The towns name derives from the old Benedictine opatija (abbey) of San Giacomo al Palo, situated in the main park. Besides remains of medieval walls and the town gate, there are striking villas built by Austrian and Hungarian nobility in the 19th century.
Before World War I as part of Austria, Opatija was ceded to Italy in 1919 and returned to Yugoslavia after World War II. The Opatija Riviera developed as a tourist and vacation centre in the latter half of the 19th century, stimulated by the Trieste-Rijeka railway in 1873; the resort still draws great numbers of tourists annually.

Opatija is situated in the Gulf of Kvarner in a sheltered position at the foot of Učka mountain, with Vojak peak at 1401 m. Opatija is located 90 km from Trieste by rail and 82 km from Pula by road. The city is geographically on the Istrian peninsula, though it is not in Istria county, but Primorje-Gorski Kotar county.
It is a popular summer and winter resort, with average temperatures of 10 °C in winter, and 25 °C in summer. Opatija is surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel. The whole sea - coast to the north and south of Opatija is rocky and picturesque, and contains several smaller winter resorts.

The old 14th-century Benedictine abbey, Opatija Sv. Jakova ("Abbey of Saint James"), from which the town derives its name (opatija means "abbey" in Croatian) is located in Park Svetog Jakova or Saint James's Park. Saint James's church, built in 1506 and enlarged in 1937, now stands on the same spot. The neo-Romanesque Church of the Annunciation with its pronounced green cupola, was designed in 1906 by architect Karl Seidl.

Another sight is the Villa Angiolina, built in 1844 by Iginio Scarpa. This villa, transformed into a hotel, gave a boost to tourism to this town.

Opatija is known for the Maiden with the seagull, a statue by Zvonko Car (1956), which is positioned on a promontory by the Juraj Šporer art pavilion. It has turned into one of symbols of Opatija. A gilded variant of the statue Madonna, that once stood here but was demolished by communists after the end of WWII, now stands in front of Saint James's Church.

Courtesy of Darko and Mararlene.

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[DenverSantaBarbara]

ahhhh ja volim opatija

[AdrianaYYZ]

Abbazia - Abbazia

[dohoczki]

Gostei da forma que vc filmou...deu para sentir com se eu estivesse caminhando por Opatija