Catastrophes

The greatest Rijeka catastrophes of the 20th Century
Rijeka tales (Tales from Rijeka and its' environs)
Monograph 'Palach'
People from the end of the Century

THE GREATEST RIJEKA CATASTROPHES OF THE 20TH CENTURY

We will cast an exciting look behind us. This is a story of Rijeka and Susak during the moody 20th century and the misfortunes that chased, separated and united these two cities. The biggest misfortunes happened in the form of earthquakes, fires, traffic accidents and wars, but also in the form of some other phenomena and tragic accidents that caused human victims or material damage on a large scale. Great fires, tragedies of ship-builders, workers' strikes drowned in blood - all of these characterised the beginning of the century. Then came WWI, then D'Anunnzio's Bloody Christmas in 1920 and the complete crash of Rijeka's industry during the world's economic crisis. After WWII, the allies' (and the German) bombing of Rijeka, a great exodus of Rijeka's Italians, all happened between 1945 - 1952. This period also marked the end of the first part of this stormy century. Post-war reparation and fast reconstruction will take their tribute every few years, in the form of workers' suffering, different accidents, which will however be shadowed by the black series of unbelievable tragedies during the 70s. Namely, in 1971 a plane crashed at Rijeka Airport and 78 were killed. Other misfortunes followed: the fire on the ship 'August Cesarec' when 10 people were killed, the accident of the Dutch bus near the city of Bakar in 1974 with 7 dead and 27 seriously wounded, and finally the fire in the maternity hospital in Susak hospital in 1925 that took the lives of 25 babies. Although later on other great misfortunes occurred, most victims were taken by the Homeland War for the Croatian Independence from 1991-1995. The book ends with the latest injustice that occurred on 26th May, 1999 at the Rijeka stadium of Kantrida where Rijeka's football team was unjustly deprived of the title of Croatian Football Champion, awaited for 52 years.