Rijeka City Tower, Baroque clock tower at Korzo street, Croatia.
Rijeka City Tower is a baroque clock tower standing at the end of Korzo, the main pedestrian street in the center of Rijeka, Croatia. A vaulted passage runs through its base, connecting the Korzo side to the older part of the city behind it.
The tower is of medieval origin, when it served as a gate into the walled city of Rijeka. In the 17th century it was raised and fitted with a clock, and it bears an inscription of 1695 above the entrance. After the earthquake of 1750, Maria Theresa funded reconstruction and the tower received its monumental portal, with relief busts of emperors carved by Antonio Michelazzi. Around 1801 Antun Gnamb added the drum and dome, and in 1890 Filibert Bazarig gave it its present historicist dome.
The tower displays the city coat of arms featuring a double-headed eagle, granted by Emperor Leopold I in 1659, placed just below the clock face. Locals call the spot beneath it "Pod uriloj", meaning "under the clock", and use it as a common meeting point.
The tower stands at Trg Ivana Koblera and is easy to spot from Korzo, since it marks the visible end of the street. The passage through its base is open and free to walk through at any time, leading directly toward the old town on the other side.
The double-headed eagle on the dome is a 2017 replica by sculptor Hrvoje Uremović, cast in aluminium at the ALU foundry in Zagreb. It weighs about 270 kg, stands 255 cm tall with a 300 cm wingspan, and sits some 30 m above the street. After World War I Italian soldiers cut off one of its heads; the Yugoslav authorities removed the sculpture entirely after 1945.
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