Church of St. Nicholas Tavelić

Perched on a hillside overlooking the vast sloping city of Rijeka is the ambitiously designed Church of St. Nikola Tavelić (crkve Sv. Nikole Tavelića), which is of the Catholic denomination. The city of Rijeka had a particular hardline stance against the construction of religious buildings during the Yugoslav-era, which explains why until initiatives began towards the creation of the Church of St. Nikola Tavelić during the early 1980s, no religious structure had been built in the city since WWII. When local authorities finally granted permissions to the Catholic leadership of Rijeka in 1985, many proposals were evalated for which to base the design of this new church. The concept that stood out above the rest was a proposal put forward by famous Zagreb architect Boris Magaš, who had created some of the most notable modernist architectural works in Yugoslavia, such as the Poljud stadium in Split and the Haludovo Palace Hotel on the Island of Krk. Work on the new church began in 1986 and quickly finished two years later in May of 1988. Exemplifying his ambitious style, Magaš's Church of St. Nikola Tavelić rises into the sky with dramatic effect, standing as a series of stacked pyramids that almost evokes the dynamic form of a fluttering wing or even an elegantly blooming Bird of Paradise flower. Clad in polished white stone panels, the hyper-modern facade of this church is defiantly original, departing from traditonal religious architecture, yet at the same time reads clearly as a sacral edifice in the way it allows natural "divine" geometry to establish its connection with the heavens. The interior of the church, with smooth white fractal-like ceilings, even moreso conveys the austere atmosphere of natural geometric serenity, most notably as two thin triangle skylights permitting clear white light to penetrate and illuminate the nave are the sole means of the space's exhaltation. The only additional adornments within the church are a series of simple wood carved relief panels by Russian-Croatian artist Aleksandar Antoljević Zvjagin.

Attractive modern church architecture. Complicated acces from highway. Closed - you can see interior only through the door window.

Very nice church, modern on the outside, and extremely warm on the inside because of the olive wood.

Sympathetic church used to come to Sunday Masses, now we are in Viškovo, so it is no longer on hand, now we were at baptism, priests for praise!

Relaxing ...