Then & Now: Abbazia/Opatija, Croatia

From Our Lady of the Sea to a Grand Hotel in Tito Avenue (and beyond)

Every now and then I’m fascinated by comparisons between how places once looked and how they are today, and the below images are, of course, wonderful examples thereof. If you’re interested in these diachronic (i.e., across time) comparisons, take a look at my trip to Königsberg, Germany/Kaliningrad, Russia “then & now”:

Then and Now: Königsberg/Kaliningrad

Today, however, I’ll invite you to a small place in present-day Croatia by the name of Opatija, once known as Abbazia in Italian and as Sankt Jakob (St Jacob) in German. Why German, you may ask? Well, that’s easy—it used to be ruled by the Habsburg dynasty for almost 500 years from around 1420 until the end of the First World War when the first South-Slavic State—the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes—took over the area.

As such, Opatija and its neighbouring places represent a wonderful admixture of “Austrian”/Central European, “Italian”, and “Yugoslav”/South-Slavic heritages. Oh, lest I forget, apart from the tremendously nice area, sights and marvels (I’ll post more “soon”), Istria is one of Europe’s most spectacular culinary destinations as it combines, seamlessly, the three above-mentioned traditions.

Our Lady of the Sea—Maiden with the Seagull

Abbazia was located on what used to be called “the Austrian riviera”, i.e., the place for summer tourism of the well-off, as well as a renowned spa town, hence the many nice hotels at the waterfront.

The Eastern Adriatic is known for its rather strong autumn/winter storms blowing from the north-east, which is called ‘Scirocco’ (or Siroko). The statue of Our Lady of the Sea—Madonna del Mare—was [source]

erected to keep vigil over the soul of count Arthur Kesselstadt, who vanished, not far off from that promontory swallowed by the pre-Easter waves in 1891. During that excursion the countess Fries also lost her life, but her son Georg was saved.

The statue was eventually replaced in the 1950s with the Statue of a Maiden with Seagull, or Dvojka s galebom:

There are more pictures of the statue and place over at Wikipedia.

Grand Hotels in Tito Avenue

Shown is Marshal Tito Avenue with the Hotel Palace Bellevue (it used to be called Bellaria, i.e., “Beautiful Air” back then) to the left:

Today, it looks like this:

Finally, if you arrive after a long drive and wish to relax a bit, the Strauss Cafe (Kavana) is the place right under the collonades near the roadside. In one of the picture postcards in the Erich Sonntag Collection, your view would be—and it still is—this:

Bonus Postcards: Roadside Views & Old Cars

Same kavana, different decades, it would seem: the 1950s (above) and 1960s (below):

Thank you for travelling with the Erich Sonntag Postcard Collection.

Next stop—you’ll see soon.