The Church of St. James in the center of Opatija is one of the most significant buildings in the city. The history of Opatija is closely linked to this church and its monastery, both of which gave the town its name (Opatija is the Croatian word for abbey). Four centuries after the church was built, Opatija developed into an elite holiday resort.
history of the church
Built most likely around 1420 as a colony of the Benedictines who had fled from the Friulian monastery of San Pietro di Rosazzo, this abbey gave its name to the entire later settlement (Croatian opatija = abbey). Today very little remains of its original appearance: in 1506 Abbot Simeon extended or rebuilt the church, as the inscription above the portal tells us; At the end of the 18th century it was thoroughly renovated and around 1930 it was significantly expanded.
The monastery was, when it still stood alone in the countryside, a place where court hearings were held and markets that attracted guests from the area to dance and trade on St. James' Day, and in the immediate vicinity was the first burial ground of the Opatijaer, and in the 19th century the first school in Opatija was housed here. The building has been in the possession of a number of ecclesiastical orders, from the Benedictines and Augustinians to the Paulines and Jesuits. Today, apart from prayers and masses, chamber concerts can also be heard here.