The beaches of Rijeka were the inspiration for the story Duhovi mesta (Spirits of a Place) by: Vladimir Arsenijević
Beaches of Rijeka
Rijeka is a port city of a rich and tumultuous history, but many forget that Rijeka also has twenty official city beaches. The Mediterranean climate enables the bathing season to start as early as spring and finish in the fall.
The outermost parts of the city, to the west and east, lie two historical beaches of Rijeka: Kantrida to the west and Grčevo at Pećine to the east.
To the east, i.e. Pećine, the Grčevo beach is located at a unique site connecting the city, beach and the shipbuilding industry, whereas the west offers the Kantrida beach towered by a football stadium and a swimming pool complex. The activities on these beaches are uncommon to Croatian tourism and cannot be reduced to pure profit, but rather, they create oases of relaxed enjoyment, which made them favourite summer outing spots for many of Rijeka’s inhabitants and other guests.
Vladimir Arsenijević
Vladimir Arsenijević is a Serbian author, born in Pula in 1965. He published his first novel in 1994, titled “U potpalublju” (“Below Deck”), which is also the first part of a planned tetralogy “Cloaca Maxima”. This book gained him the NIN award for novel of the year. The novel “U potpalublju” was translated into over twenty languages, whereas the eponymous play staged using the cult novel’s themes gained the Sterija award in 1997. His next novel, “Anđela”, the second part of the “Cloaca Maxima” cycle, was published in 1997. After spending some time in Mexico in 2000, he published the book “Meksiko – ratni dnevnik” (“Mexico – War Journal”). The illustrated novel “Išmail” (“Ishmael”), created in cooperation with Aleksandar Zograf, was published in 2004, and his fifth book, the novel “Predator”, published in 2008, won the award for best book in the network of public libraries of Serbia. In 2009, he published a collection of essays titled “Jugolaboratorija” (“Yugoslav Laboratory”). He published his seventh book in 2011, the illustrated novella “Minut – put oko sveta za 60 sekundi” (“A Minute – Trip Around the World in 60 Seconds”), created in cooperation with Valentina Broštean. The novel “Let” (“Flight”) of 2013 was published in several editions. In 2014, he published a collection of stories titled “Ovo nije veselo mesto” (“This Is Not a Cheerful Place”). In 2016, after the re-edition of his first book “U potpalublju”, he also published the novel “Ti i ja, Anđela” (“You And Me, Anđela”), a remake of his novel “Anđela”.
In 2000, he founded the Rende publishing house where he worked as editor until 2007. He is the founder of the association Krokodil, best known for the regional and international literary festival “Krokodil” and the audio book publishing house “Reflektor”, and he regularly publishes opinion pieces and essays in print and electronic media in the country and region. He lives in Belgrade.
More on the author and his work
Photo: Tanja Kanazir
