Governor's Palace

address:
Period: Historicism
Kind: Immovable material heritage
Century: 19
Year: 1897
Purpose: cultural

The Governor’s Palace, one of the most significant Historicistic palaces in Rijeka, was built as a business-residential centre of the Rijeka governor. It was designed by Alajos Hauszmann from 1892 until 1893.

The commissioner and the initiator of the project of the governor’s palace was the count Lajos Bathyány, therefore, it is no wonder that an established Hungarian architect Alajos Hauszmann, who had designed a series of royal and state institutions in Budapest, was selected as the architect. The construction was headed by the architect from the same atelier, Ferenc Jablonszky. The project was made in 1892 – 1893, and the construction was realized very fast, so in 1897 the building was finished. 

As the stylistic orientation for the building, the architect chose a neo-Renaissance style with dominating vertical lines and even decoration. The building has a rectangular layout with prominent entrance porch and a driveway. The interior has an atrium stretching through the height of two floors, covered with a skylight, around which there are many salons. Although it was imagined as a neo-Renaissance palace, it has no internal yard, the central part being the already mentioned atrium. The palace was built in a terrace-like manner, so the main façade, directed towards the south (the sea), has two floors, while the north side has only one floor. The main façade is covered with white stone and relief decorations, while other façades are only painted.

The palace is surrounded with gardens on all sides, while the annexes on either side separate the front, arranged garden from the back, more forested one. 

Since 1948, the palace hosts the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral, whose first display, showing the development of shipping in Rijeka and its region since the early days until present, situated on the second floor of the palace was opened in 1964. The latest display was presented on 28 January 2016, showing the unique artefacts made from the middle of the 8th century to the beginning of the 18th century.

 

Valorization:

The Governor’s Palace is included in the List of Protected Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia. It is protected as an immobile cultural good – an individual monument of profane civil engineering heritage.

Tags: governorspalace, historicism