To experience the secret side of Rijeka, the one that tells a story from ancient times, the story of the ancient Romans who moved the Paleolithic and Neolithic Rijeka from the edges of today’s city closer to the sea, means to step from Rijeka’s main promenade – Korza into the passage that leads under the city tower to “old Rijeka” . It is enough to go through a few meters long “tunnel” and we are already in Rijeka’s past so beautifully blended into the present.

We are already at Kobler Square, the place where all the life of old Rijeka used to take place. The future of the city at that time was decided there, but also traded. Vegetables, fruit, oil, wine and love were equally weighed on the commercial scale. All that trade permeated. One had its day and the other its night. And so for years, decades, and even centuries. No matter who thought, but only thought, that he ruled this beautiful city, its old part had its laws and its rulers.

It is enough to sit on the terrace of one of the numerous cafes lined up in picturesque alleys, squares and passageways, and let your eyes and imagination run free. For example, perhaps the wooden door on “that building next to” once represented the entrance to the paradise of vice. In one of the former taverns or “oštari” where you played cards, sang, ate well and drank even better. From which the rough sailors staggered out singing some gentle aria, in which the proverb that says that love is neither bought nor sold was valid.

Those more inclined to the spiritual will see two bell towers. One “locates” the Church of the Assumption of Mary, a former cathedral built in the 15th century, in the interior of which valuable altars and baroque stucco work are hidden, and it is known to the public precisely for its bell tower, separated from the church complex and tilted, so the people call it the Leaning Tower. Under the tower are late antique mosaics from the 5th and 6th centuries, created during the Tarsatic or “Roman Rijeka” era. If they listen to their imaginations, they will hear screams and shouts coming from the underground, from the former Roman baths, because what Rijeka’s archaeological park can do, no other can do.
The title of the city capital of the Church of the Assumption of Mary was taken by the Cathedral of St. Vida, whose foundations were demolished by the small churches of the city’s patron saint – St. Vida was built by the Jesuits in 1638. She also has her own legend, but it is best to hear it from her herself, on the spot, in front of one of her beautiful baroque altars, a kind of monument to the art of Rijeka’s sculptors.

Speaking of artists, it would be remiss not to mention the painter Voja Radojičić from Rijeka, whose boat is “anchored” in Pavlinski trg, one of the most beautiful squares in the Old Town, where anyone can sail wherever they want. And again, you just have to close your eyes and let your imagination touch all the seas and oceans of the world.

Those who prefer to fly, and you inevitably need to enter the shortest city street. Why is it called Ulica Šišmiš? Raise your head and ask the one carved into the wall? They will spread their wings and whisper just one word to you…politics!
What no one will either whisper or shout to you is the answer to the question of where and when the door at Stari vrata disappeared. And the Old Gate, the gate without a gate, is another specialty of Rijeka. They used to represent the only entrance and exit from the city, and today they represent history, i.e. Rijeka’s oldest historical monument.

What else can be seen, heard, smelled and felt in the old town core. You just have to surrender to her without any hesitation.