The story of Rijeka Cathedral

Saint Vitus is the patron of Rijeka, and in the Middle Ages the city was even named after him: in Latin, Terra Fluminis sancti Viti, the land of Saint Vitus's river. A small Romanesque church stood here until the Jesuits arrived. They began their new church on 15 June 1638, carving into the foundation stone the name of their builder, Francesco Olivieri, and work went on, with interruptions, for a hundred years.

The result is unusual for this part of Europe: a round church, a rotunda, with a dome added in 1727 by the architect Bernardin Martinuzzi. It has much in common with the church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. Inside, massive pillars hold up the arches of chapels filled with colourful marble altars made between 1696 and 1740 by the Baroque masters Leonardo Pacassi, Pasquale Lazzarini and Antonio Michelazzi; Michelazzi also carved the pulpit in 1731. When Rijeka became the seat of an archdiocese in 1969, the Jesuit church became its cathedral.

It once appeared on the Croatian 100 kuna banknote.