New creative spaces are soon to crop up along the Rječina river as part of Rijeka’s ‘Sweet & Salt’ restoration programme, and the city centre is about to get greener with the help of ‘Green Wave’ redevelopments. The shipbuilding port has long solidified its reputation as a testing ground for pioneering artists, punks and ravers. With its coastal views, seafood cuisine and bohemian flair, Rijeka shares many affinities with Galway. The two cities will make a point of highlighting common ground, with Galway welcoming a delegation from Rijeka on 27 June. The visit occurs at the tail end of Statehood Day celebrations – commemorating Croatia’s 1991 historic declaration of independence from the former socialist state of Yugoslavia.

Following an inaugural event at EPIC (Irish Emigration Museum) in Dublin, the group have made their way to the west coast, where a schedule of music and activities are underway. Among the delegates are Croatia’s Ambassador to Ireland H.E. Ivan Mašina, Mayor of Rijeka Vojko Obersnel, University of Rijeka Rector Snježana Prijić Samaržij and Tourist Board Director Petar Škarpa. Rijeka 2020’s Partnership & Communications Director Irena Kregar Šegota and Partnerships & Protocol Coordinator Dorian Celcer are also among the delegation, bringing with them a trio of traditional Croatian musicians. The group are set to perform over the course of the visit – Zoran Majstorović on lute and Zlatko Volarić and Zlatka Jurković on sopila (a traditional wind instrument). Together with Galway performers Aindrias de Staic and Moisés Mas García, they will explore musical connections across both cultures. Diversity is in fact the theme of Rijeka 2020, and the impetus behind ‘27 Neighbourhoods’ – a collaborative network which pairs 27 neighbourhoods in Rijeka (and its environs) with 27 communities in other EU member states. 27 Neighbourhoods participants from the seaside village of Lovran will meet with local organisers from Galway’s corresponding community-based Small Towns Big Ideas programme to brainstorm ideas for the future.

The histories of Ireland and Croatia have traversed in unexpected ways. Irish involvement in Croatian history dates back to the Napoleonic Wars, when Westmeath-born Laval Nugent drove Napoleon’s forces out of the disputed territories now known as Croatia. Nugent was a careerist soldier with ambivalent allegiances, but Croatia occupied a special place in his heart. He would later show wholehearted support for Ban Josip Jelačić’s attempts to claim autonomy from Austria and Hungary. In his private life, Nugent amassed a vast collection of artworks and a total of six castles. Nugent converted his Trsat Castle into a museum, opening its magnificent grounds to Rijeka residents in the early 1800s. An exhibition on the life of the “warrior and collector” will launch at 4pm, 27 June in the Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway.

At a time of political uncertainty in Europe, this meeting of two cities marks a deepening of understanding between two EU states. Seeds of collaboration will be sown; let’s see what grows.