Villa by the Archduke Joseph
address: 2 Nikola Host ParkPeriod: Historicism
Kind: Immovable material heritage
Century: 18
Year: 1710
Purpose: business
The Archduke Joseph's villa, also known as the Villa Giuseppe, originated from the beginning of the 18th century, but it became more important after the reconstruction in 1894 and 1895, performed by Pietro Culotti and his son Rafaelo from Rijeka.
After the arrival of the Archduke Joseph, the villa was reconstructed so it transformed from a classicistic single-storey building into an exemplary historicistic realization with influences of neo-Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and neo-Gothicism.
The restored villa had a reception hall, a solarium, salons and offices which were altered by reconstructions after the Second World War. Only the stuccos and decorations in the ground floor rooms, entrance vestibule and staircase were preserved in the original state.
The park of the villa was arranged in the style of the English parks following the configuration of the ground, while the botanical garden full of exotic herbs from all over the world makes it particularly interesting.
Valorization:
Today the villa houses the State Archives in Rijeka. The building is included in the List of Protected Cultural Goods in the Republic of Croatia Register of Cultural Goods.
Bibliography:
Glavočić, Daina, Arhitektura historicizma u Rijeci: 1845. – 1900.: arhitektura i urbanizam, MMSU, Rijeka, 2001.
Lozzi Barković, Julija, Arhitektura historicizma u Hrvatskom primorju i Istri, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb, 2000.
Matejčić, Radmila, Kako čitati grad, Publishing Centre Rijeka, Rijeka, 1990.
