The State Archives in Rijeka hold the written history of the Kvarner region, Gorski Kotar and part of Istria - a treasure trove for anyone curious about how this corner of the Adriatic came to be. It's not your typical hiking stop, but a fascinating cultural detour set inside a genuinely beautiful historic building.

The archive occupies the former residence of Archduke Joseph, a relative of Emperor Franz Joseph I, an elegant palace built in a refined historicist style and completed in 1895. The building once sat within an English-style park filled with exotic plants, considered one of the finest botanical gardens in this part of Europe. Today visitors can explore a reading room, a small lecture hall and an exhibition space set in the palace's grand salon.

How to get there

• Rijeka city centre — on foot, easy access within the city
• Additional archive buildings are located on Vodovodna Street, numbers 2 and 5

Practical information

• Reading room with 20 seats and an exhibition hall open to visitors
• The oldest document in the collection dates back to 1201
• Over 7,000 linear metres of archival material held in 1,016 collections and fonds

Among the older records are documents written in Glagolitic script, the ancient Croatian alphabet, adding a unique linguistic layer to this remarkable historical collection.