History
• 1281 St. Vitus’ Rijeka was mentioned for the first time in the documents written by the Great Council of Venice
• 1315 Hugon II Devinski, the city ruler, founded the Augustinian monastery in Rijeka in the vicinity of which St. Geronimo’s Church was also built
• 1438 Rijeka got a hospital, and two years later its first drugstore
• 1453 Prince Martin Frankopan built a monastery on Trsat with the permission of Pope Nicholas IV
• 1530 Emperor Ferdinand I approved the first Statute of Rijeka
• 1530 -1531 The Glagolitic printing house founded by Šimun Kožićić Benja began operating in Rijeka. Over a period of two years five books were printed both in the Glagolitic alphabet and in the Croatian language
• 1531 Rijeka received its first written Statute
• 1531 Klis captain, Petar Kružić ordered the construction of the first part of the Trsat steps
• 1627 The beginning of University in Rijeka, the Jesuits founded the first high school
• 1629 The Jesuit Theatre began operating in Rijeka, breaking ice for professional theatres
• 1638 The construction of the St. Vitus Church, which is now the Rijeka cathedral, began in keeping with the design of Giacomo Brian
• 1659 On 6 June, Emperor Leopold I assigned Rijeka its coat of arms with a two-headed eagle and the inscription “Inedficienter” – “Never running dry”
• 1690 The first consulate, the consulate of the Republic of Dubrovnik was opened in Rijeka
• 1719 Rijeka was proclaimed a free port with the decision of Emperor Charles VI
• 1726 The Jesuits opened the Faculties of Philosophy, Mathematics and Theology in Rijeka
• 1728 The Carolingian road (Rijeka – Karlovac) was completed and opened
• 1750 A powerful earthquake destroyed Rijeka
• 1754 The sugar refinery which employed 1000 persons began operating in Rijeka
• 1776 Rijeka’s Gubernia was founded, and its first governor was count Josip Mailath de Szekhely
• 1805 A.Lj.Adamić constructed a stone theatre in Rijeka, which, at that period was one of the largest in Europe
• 1821 Rijeka’s paper mill (Hartera) was founded
• 1887 The Croatian Popular Reading Room on Trsat was built
• 1899 The electrical tram passes through Rijeka
• 1937 The construction of the Croatian Cultural Centre on Sušak began with the highest skyscraper in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• 1939 The beginning of construction of Rijeka’s skyscraper at the beginning of Korzo based on Umberto Nordi’s design
• 1955 The Faculty of Medicine Rijeka was founded
• 1962 The Municipality of Rijeka was founded
• 1973 The University of Rijeka was founded
• 2000 According to a decision by Pope John Paul II, Rijeka’s archdiocese and metropolis were founded with headquarters in Rijeka
• 2004 Croatian candidacy for the EU
• 2005 The City of Rijeka took over the former area of the Trsat army barracks, becoming an almost completely demilitarized city. The University Campus was later built on that area.
• 2015 60th anniversary of the Rijeka Faculty of Medicine
• 2016 Foundation of the Medical studies in English program
A HISTORY OF THE RIJEKA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF MEDICINE IN BRIEF
The Rijeka University Faculty of Medicine was opened in 1955. However, the tradition of innovative, high-quality medical praxis of the Rijeka region, is much older and based upon the contribution of Giovanni Battista Cambieri (1754-1838), who was occupied with the «Scherlievo disease»; Saverio Graziano (1702-1780), the author of the scientific work on mercury-based therapy; Antonio Felice Giacich (1813-1898), the author of the textbook of naval medicine; Georg Catti (1849-1923), the inventor of special rhynolaryngological tongs; Antonio Grossich (1849-1926), who introduced a new way of desinfection of operative field with iodine tincture; Lionello Lenaz (1872-1939), the theoretician of neurology and haematology; Viktor Finderle (1902-1964), the inventor of vacuum-extractor; Valter Rukavina (1896-1972), a brucelosis world expert, as well as of many other physicians and the overall high sanitary consciousness.
On the 17th of September 1954 the Rijeka National Board and the Council for Public Health and Social Policy sent to the Zagreb Faculty of Medicine Council a report of the meeting attended by the dean of the Zagreb Faculty of Medicine Prof. Dr. Andrija Štampar and the president of the Rijeka National Board Edo Jardas with assistants and health service deputies. On that occasion, the suggestion of the Zagreb Faculty of Medicine to establish its Rijeka branch was accepted and the commission in charge of implementing this initiative was named. The preparations were made at the end of 1954 and the beginning of 1955. The buildings of the Branchetta Brothers Foundation were predetermined for the pre-clinical institutes and the administration; one floor and a hall for 100 students were to be built, and clinical lectures were to be held in the existing hospital buildings. The heads of the hospital departments were supposed to teach and to obtain professor degrees (habilitate) regularly, and lecturers from Zagreb and other Yugoslav universities were invited to teach non-clinical subjects. In the Parliamentary session from the 12th of July 1955, an act for the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka belonging to the University of Zagreb was passed. The beginning was set for the academic year 1955/56. At the meeting of the Zagreb Faculty of Medicine on the 13th of July 1955, Prof. Dr. Silvije Novak was elected full professor and acting dean of the newly founded Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka.
The Rijeka National Board handed over to the faculty the buildings of the Branchetta Brothers Foundation at 20-22 Olga Ban Street together with 14 million dinar on the 19th of July 1955. The faculty received a further 15 million dinar from the Executive Board of the People’s Republic of Croatia. By mid-August, Dr. Mato Gržeta became the faculty’s first secretary. In late October, the Council of the Zagreb Faculty of Medicine elected the first teachers: S. Novak and Z. Kučić (internal medicine), J. Komljenović (clinical surgery), A. Medanić (general surgery), D. Perović (gynaecology), Z. Sušić (neuropsychiatry), F. Jelašić (neurology), T. Dujmušić and J. Bakotić (otolaryngology), A. Filipović (ophthalmology), B. Cvitanović (hygiene and social medicine). The building of the Branchetta Foundation was examined and the rooms were allocated in the beginning of November 1955. The acting dean Prof. Dr. Silvije Novak held the introductory lecture, “The meaning of the internal medicine today,” in the Town Hall on the 21st of November 1955 for six students in the fifth year and twelve graduands, for many teachers and distinguished individuals from Rijeka and Zagreb. That was the official beginning of the first academic year at the oldest faculty in Rijeka. On the 23rd of April 1957, the Zagreb University Council sent a suggestion to the Parliamentary Council of the Republic for the Rijeka Faculty of Medicine to become independent and to allow the enrolment of 80 students in the first term which was to start in the autumn. Classes for the fourth, fifth and sixth year were supposed to continue while the second and third years would be organised gradually. On the 20th of June 1957, the Executive Council of the Republic proclaimed the independence of the Rijeka Faculty of Medicine and approved the admission quota of 100 students. That is how the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka became the first faculty in Croatia founded outside Zagreb.
Deans of the Faculty of Medicine Rijeka from 1955 until today
Silvije Novak, 1955–1958
Eugen Cerkovnikov, 1958–1959
Karlo Pansini, 1959–1960
Dimitrije Atanacković, 1960–1962
Dušan Jakac, 1962–1964
Davor Perović, 1964–1966
Andrija Longhino, 1966–1968
Zdenko Križan, 1968–1970
Vladimir Bezjak, 1970–1972
Slobodan Ćuk, 1972–1974
Slobodan Marin, 1974–1979
Vinko Frančišković, 1979–1983
Daniel Rukavina, 1983–1987
Slobodan Marin, 1987–1990
Ante Simonić, 1990–1994
Miljenko Kovačević, 1994–1995
Danilo Pavešić, 1995–1999
Stipan Jonjić, 1999–2003
Miljenko Kapović, 2003–2008
Alan Šustić, 2008–2014
Tomislav Rukavina, 2014–2020
Goran Hauser, 2020–