Fiume
Fiume (Croatian: Rijeka) was a former Venetian city, that has belonged to several states since the collapse of Venice, and is today the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar county, on Kvarner Bay (Bay of Quarnero), an inlet of the Adriatic Sea, and has a population of 128,624 inhabitants (2011).[1] The wider metropolitan area, which includes adjacent towns and municipalities, has a population of more than 240,000. According to the Croatia 2011 census data, the overwhelming majority of its citizens today (82.52%) are Croats.
History
Anciently Fiume was called Tarsatica, and named St.Veit am Flaum in the Middle Ages, it was at one time a fief of the Patriarchs of Aquileia; it next belonged to the Counts of Duino and the Barons of Gorizia. In 1471 it was annexed to the dominions of the House of Habsburg by the Emperor Frederick III and in 1779 it was attached to Hungary. Historically, because of its strategic position and its excellent deep-water port, the city was fiercely contested, especially by post-1861 Italy, who saw itself as the natural successor to the Venetians whose influence in the Adriatic was important. Fiume was the Kingdom of Hungary's largest and most important port, where much civic construction was carried out, particularly in the 19th century. Amongst its factories was the large and famous Whitehead torpedo-works to the west of the town.[2]
The oldest church in Fiume is the cathedral which has a facade in the style of Rome's Pantheon, while the church of St.Veit is an imitation of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. The street entering the old town on the Corso leads to a Roman triumphal arch, said to have been erected in honour of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (268-270).[3]
Fiume has many fine buildings, including the former Austro-Hungarian naval academy founded in 1856. A major shipyard, the Danubius, owned by Ganz & Co., was at Fiume, notable for its excellent ship-building: between July 1907 and January 1909 seven navy destroyers were built, a further six between 1911 and 1914 and another four were completed in 1917. In 1912-1913 two rapid light cruisers, SMS Novara and SMS Helgoland were built which saw much action in The Great War. Other warships were also produced, notably the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship, SMS Szent Istvan, launched on 17 January 1914.[4]
Between the world wars
In 1919 the Italian writer and patriot,Gabriele D'Annunzio, and about 300 supporters, "occupied" Fiume which the victorious Western Plutocratic Allies were proposing to incorporate into the new Jugoslav state. D'Annunzio, an irredentist, believed it should "return" (sic) to Italy, and he ruled Fiume as dictator until December 1920 at which time Italian forces deposed him. Nevertheless, he had established Italy's interest in Fiume, and the port (only) became Italian in 1924.[5]
Yugoslavia takes over
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At the end of World War II Fiume became part of Yugoslavia. The native Italian population (who spoke a Venetian dialect) was mostly expelled during the Expulsion of Italians from Istria and Dalmatia, or partly massacred in the Foibe massacres, an ethnic cleansing carried out by the Yugoslavian (Serbian) communists. They then replaced the population. This mirrors many other examples of post World War II expulsions and murders of populations by communist regimes in central and eastern Europe. The Yugoslavian communists also carried out a smaller ethnic cleansing in the Chakavian coastal regions of Dalmatia.
References
- ↑ Croatian Census 2011.
- ↑ Austria-Hungary including Dalmatia and Bosnia, by Karl Baedeker, Leipzig and London, 1905, p.399.
- ↑ Baedeker 1905, p.399.
- ↑ Noppen, Ryan, Austro-Hungarian Battleships 1914-19, Osprey, UK, 2012, p.21. ISBN 978-1-84908-688-2
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, Micropaedia, vol.3, Chicago, 1990, p.877-8.
