As part of the programme marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Rijeka from Fascism, a lecture entitled Along the Paths of the Battle of Rijeka was held at Rijeka City Hall on 30 April 2025, followed by the opening of an exhibition on the same subject on Korzo. The Battle of Rijeka was fought between the Yugoslav Fourth Army, led by Lieutenant General Petar Drapšin, and the German 97th Army Corps, commanded by General Ludwig Kübler, in the suburbs and wider surroundings of Rijeka. The battle lasted from 17 April to 3 May 1945. It formed part of the final operations for the liberation of the country and was the largest battle fought on the territory of present-day Croatia during the Second World War, as well as one of the bloodiest. Nearly three thousand members of the Yugoslav Fourth Army were killed in the battle. The city suffered enormous human and material losses, and many parts of Rijeka were completely devastated. The victory, however, erased the artificially imposed border that had divided the city and restored its freedom. In addition to presenting information about the Battle of Rijeka, the exhibition includes works on the same theme by pupils from the Trsat, Gelsi and Nikola Tesla primary schools. The exhibition was created by Dražen Kranjec and organised by the City of Rijeka, the City Museum of Rijeka, the Association of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists of the City of Rijeka, and the Croatian Society for Military History.
The exhibition is on view on Korzo from 30 April to 5 May 2025.
