Beginning of starcase from Rijeka to Trsat

Petar Kružić stairway, or Petar Kružić staircase, or Trsat stairway () is the stone stairway in

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, Croatia, that leads from

Trsat Trsat (, ) is part of the city of Rijeka, Croatia, with a historic castle or fortress in a strategic location and several historic churches, in one of which the Croatian noble Prince Vuk Krsto Frankopan is buried. Trsat is a steep hill, 138 m ...

The stairway starts from the archway at the Eastern Bank of

Rječina The Rječina (; or ), also known as the Fiumara, is a river in Croatia that flows into the Adriatic Sea at the city of Rijeka (). It is about long, with an average width of . It springs from a cave at an elevation of above sea level, below the ...

river in

, and leads up to

settlement, which placed on a plateau with altitude of 138 meters from sea level. The stairway consists 561 stone steps and was built for the pilgrims as the road to the Church of Our Lady of Trsat. The Arch as gate to starcase from Rijeka to Trsat

The Arch as gate to starcase from Rijeka to Trsat

The construction of the votive stairway was begun in 1531 with the Croatian warlord captain

Petar Kružić Petar Kružić (16 October 1491 – 12 March 1537) was a Croatian knez (title), knez, captain (land), captain, soldier and defender of Klis, and the captain of Senj. In the early 16th century Petar Kružić ''(knez of Klis)'' defended the F ...

, who excelled in the battles with the Turks. He built the lower part of the staircase way leading to the Basilica of Notre-Dame of Trsat, today is Church of Our Lady of Trsat dated 15th century. It is why this staircase was named Petar Kružić stairway. One of the votive chapels along this stairway was created in 15th century and another one in 18th century.

The baroque chapel and legend

The porch at the foot of the stairway leading to Trsat has a statue of "Virgin with Child" dating from 1745. There is a legend about the Trsat stairway. It says that the Franciscans made a deal with the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

: if he makes a stairway, he will have a soul who climbs the stairway first. After some deliberation, the Devil accepted. Once he finished the work, the Devil waited for the victim. However, the Franciscans let a

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

climb the stairway. The Devil was so enraged that he mixed the steps, so that nobody had been able to count them to this day! The legend is based on the fact that the stairway was extended on several occasions. When it was first built in 1531 by Petar Kružić, the captain of the

Uskoks The Uskoks (, , singular: ; notes on naming) were irregular soldiers in Habsburg Croatia that inhabited areas on the eastern Adriatic coast and surrounding territories during the Ottoman wars in Europe. Bands of Uskoks fought a guerrilla wa ...

, there were about a hundred steps. Later the stairway was extended up to 561 steps. The beginning of the steep ascent as votive repositories of dignitaries. A unique experience is to climb the Trsat steps in the procession on the

Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

. Even today, some

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

s practise the ancient votive tradition of climbing the steps on their knees.

References

Službene stranice Grada Rijeke
(24. veljače 2010.) * Jeanne Oliver
''Croatia''
pg. 97-98, Lonely Planet Publications, 4th ed. (2007), {{Rijeka Buildings and structures in Rijeka Pedestrian infrastructure in Croatia

Staircase A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway ...

Stairways Trsat Transport in Rijeka