Around 1880 Abbazia was a little-known fishing village. Twenty years later it had become a perfectly designed health resort and – alongside its neighbors on the “Austrian Riviera” – one of the most successful/popular tourist destinations of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The exhibition uses renowned resorts like Abbazia, Portorose (Portorož), Grado and the Island of Brioni (Brijuni) as examples to demonstrate the touristic “colonization” of the Adriatic coast that had originated in Vienna.

The exhibition not only shows the development of the seaports of Trieste and Fiume, the construction of elegant hotels, mansions and parks, and the treatments offered at the newly created health resorts on the Adriatic coast, but also reveals the discovery of the ocean as an artistic motif. Tourism and art are documented using photos, paintings, diagrams, original documents and objects of daily use. The ethnographic exploration of the region and the discovery of archeological sites in Salona or Split by Viennese researchers are part of the exhibition.

Numerous objects from the collection of the Wien Museum, from museums and collections abroad as well as private collections reveal how the region between Trieste and Cattaro (Kotor) developed around 1900 and how multifaceted social life was before WW1.

Team
Astrid Göttche, Nadia Rapp-Wimberger, Christian Rapp
Client
Wien Museum
Exhibition venue
Wien Museum Karlsplatz
Partner at the museum
Alexandra Hönigmann-Tempelmayr
Architects
polar architekturbüro
Exhibition design
Larissa Cerny
Graphic design catalogue
Haller & Haller
Media
Cat-X
Duration of the exhibition
14th November 2013 to 30th March 2014

An exhibition worth visiting.
Die Presse

…a multifaceted exhibition…
Der Falter

The most detailed account of pre-World War I Adriatic tourism ever assembled, the exhibition has already proved hugely popular with the Viennese public.
Jonathan Bousfield, Jutarnij list, Zagreb