Nautical School in Bakar

Naziv

Klasifikacija prema pojavnosti

Material cultural property • Immovable cultural property

Klasifikacija prema RKD

Profane architectural heritage

Klasifikacija u Bazi pomorske baštine

14 Public administration, companies, services and institutions related to maritime transport

Država

Croatia

Opis

Bakar, a picturesque coastal town, boasts of its maritime heritage, its terraced slopes with vines whose grapes is used to make sparkling wine –Bakarska Vodica, and Bakar baškot – the hard bread of sailors. It is located below the main road leading from Rijeka to Crikvenica and Senj, and the village itself is divided into the upper, medieval town with the Frankopan castle and the church of St. Andrew, the patron saint of fishermen, and the coastal part of town which is located along the main city road along the coast. There is a lot to find in this old town, from Roman remains, to medieval and modern palaces and houses of once rich sailors and merchants, the former salt warehouse of the Counts of Zrinski and port warehouses, all the way to the house with the tide gauge – a device measuring movement of the sea, tides, whose recording was started by the scientist whose birthplace you met in Volosko – Andrija Mohorovičić. The development of Bakar was considerably influenced by the decisions on the free royal port and city from 1778 and 1779 during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa. Bakar experienced its greatest maritime and shipping rise with the founding of the Maritime School in 1849 and the Croatian Shipping Society in 1875. The first head of the Bakar Maritime School was Nikola Vakanović. The school stopped working for a short time during Bach's absolutism, but in the 1870s it continued to operate regularly. After more than half a century of operation, the school was moved into a new building in 1903. This building is located at the western entrance to the city from the sea side. At the beginning of the 20th century, the official language for nautical subjects in the school was Croatian, and in 1917 the school was proclaimed the Maritime Academy. Part of the practical training of school students is carried out on school ships. The first school ship called the "Margita" was acquired by the school in 1894, and from 1908 she was succeeded by the much larger ship "Vila Velebita", a brick-schooner type, built in Germany. The school ship "Vila Velebita" was in operation until 1941. After the Second World War, the maritime school in Bakar continued to operate and briefly used the school ship "Jadran" for its practical classes, and since 1973 the school ship "Vila Velebita 2" has been in use. Take a walk along the Bakar waterfront. You will surely see this school ship somewhere and an interesting part of the harbour is reserved for equipment for practical training of future sailors of the Maritime School Bakar.