1. FROM VIENNA TO GNAMB'S GUBERNATORIAL OFFICE

Adamić acquired the knowledge about drawing and architecture in a school in Vienna’s suburb Josefstadt.

Already in 1780 the first ditches in Rijeka were buried and the town walls were pulled down. A new town was being erected at a fast pace and plans for an enlargement of the port were worked out. At the end of the decade these works expanded more and more. Anton Gnamb, the “main engineer” in the gubernatorial administration had assistants in his office, first Ignaz Hollub and then Andrija Ljudevit Adamić (from 1791 until 1799).

Adamić came back from Vienna to his home town Rijeka in 1786 and he immediately joined his father in his trade business. However, in 1791 he was employed in the gubernatorial office as a so-called “building chancellor”. His task was to work out construction plans for public buildings like the tobacco processing manufactory in Sušak (1791) and the jail (1794) as well as proposals for redesigning the Augustinian monastery.

Adamić also drew town-planning solutions for the “new Rijeka” and the regulation of the shore extending from the town gate to Fortica on Žabica (1793). Soon after that he was sent to explore the course of the river Kupa in order to find out whether there were any possibilities for navigation.

In the following years, Adamić became a town councillor and was often responsible for supervising the design of the streets and the process of “beautifying” the town. However, transport links with the interior remained one of his major interests.