The City Tower and City Gate

Walking along Korzo, near the Jadranski trg end, is a fine yellow building topped with a clock tower. This was once a gate – the original entrance to the Roman settlement Tarsatica - where one entered the city from the sea – everything that stands between here and the present-day waterfront is reclaimed land. There has been a tower on this spot since the Middle Ages, when Rijeka was a walled city. A massive earthquake in 1750 destroyed it, along with many other important buildings. Money for a new one was given by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. In 1873, a new-fangled clock which Rijeka’s governors spotted at the World Exhibition proved too tempting by far, the very same which still shows the correct time today.