FIUME, Italian port on the Gulf of Quarnero, Adriatic sea, in the province of Fiume, 4o m. S.E. of Trieste. Pop. (1931) town, 50,157; commune, 52,928. Af ter being taken by Charlemagne it long remained under the Franks and was then held by the bishop of Pola in feudal tenure from the patriarch of Aquileia. The counts of Duino held it 1139–c. 1400. The counts of Wallace held it next, and in 1471 emperor Frederick III. incorporated it in Austria; it was made a free port in 1723 and was united to Croatia in 1776 and declared a corpus separatum of the Hun garian Crown in 1779. The French held it 1809-13, when the English took it and restored it to Austria in 1814. It was ceded to Hungary in 1822, was Croatia's in 1849-7o, and thereafter under Hungary until it sprang into world-wide notoriety in con nection with the matters discussed below.
The town is built on a ridge of the Karst, while the newer parts are crowded into the amphitheatre between ridge and shore. The old town has a 3rd century Roman triumphal arch. The cathe dral of the Assumption was founded in 1377. The Pilgrimage church hung with offerings from shipwrecked sailors is ap proached by a stairway of 400 steps. The Maria Theresa road was opened in 1809 to connect Fiume with Hungary via Karoly varos or Karlstadt (Croatia). There are two railways, one con necting with Trieste and Ljubljanas, and the other running through Croatia to Zagreb. The soil around Fiume is stony, but the climate favours the vine; the gulf yields abundant fish, especially tunny. When Fiume was included in Hungary, it was a port of emigration, and had a torpedo factory. Many Italian immigrants entered Fiume before 1914, and the pop. (19 r 0) was 22,488 Italians and 13,351 Slays, as well as Hungarians, Germans and others; the suburb, Susak or Sushak, had an estimated population of 1,50o Italians and ii,000 Slays, and others.
The main harbour is formed within a long breakwater. The entrance is deep and there are 27-3o ft. of water at the quays. A floating dock of 1,800 tons lifting capacity is part of the equip ment. Wood, rice, sugar, petrol are exported, and fuels and colonial articles, including rice, are imported. (X.) Fiume became a burning question after the World War. It even threatened to become the cause of a further war between Italy and Yugoslavia, although the secret treaty of London of April 26, 1915, which contained Italy's terms for entering into the War, assigned Fiume to Croatia.
Meanwhile, on Oct. 23, 1918, Croat troops had seized Fiume and in November there was a dual occupation, against which the Yugoslav national council protested, by Italian and Serbian troops, while Italian naval forces entered the harbour. The Serbian troops were, however, withdrawn and replaced by an inter-Allied force, pending the decision of the Fiume question by the Peace Con ference. The Italians' position was similar to that known in English law as "pleading inconsistent defences." They claimed North Dalmatia, overwhelmingly Slav by race, in virtue of the Treaty of London, which President Wilson repudiated, and Fiume in virtue of the Wilson principle of "self-determination." The D'Annunzio Adventure.—They ultimately obtained Fiume, thanks to the raid made by Gabriele D'Annunzio (q.v.), who mustered a body of men at Ronchi near Trieste, and on Sept. 12, 1919, occupied the contested town. There, despite official notes, he remained as "commandant." He drew up a constitution for the "Carnaro," as he called his miniature state. He descended with his "legionaries" upon Zara and meditated an extension of his territories still farther southward. While successive Italian gov ernments gave him no official support, he received considerable sympathy from the nationalist elements in Italy. But when Signor Giolitti in 1920 became for the last time premier and con cluded the Treaty of Rapallo with the Yugoslays, he resolved to turn the poet out of Fiume. The "commandant's" official resi dence was bombarded by the "Andrea Doria," and he narrowly escaped the martyrdom which he had proclaimed for himself and his followers. After the "heroic age" of his rule there came the prosaic interlude of his local rival, Signor Zanella, who repre sented the autonomous, as opposed to the Italian national party, and aimed at bringing about a good understanding with Yugo slavia. A coup d'etat by Fascisti and "legionaries" took place in 1922 ; the government offices were stormed ; Signor Zanella abdi cated in favour of a "government of national defence," and was escorted over the frontier in an armoured car; Signor Prodan, a local engineer, succeeded him, and annexation to Italy was pro claimed. Official Italy, however, acted with caution and per suaded Signor Giurati, a Fascista deputy, to decline the proffered post of "civil commissioner," while D'Annunzio from his retreat on the lake of Garda denounced the dissensions of Fiume, and refused to return and lead the Fiuman movement.
Negotiations Between Italy and Yugoslavia.—Finally, General Giardino became governor, and Signor Mussolini made a serious attempt to come to terms with the Yugoslays. The river had in the course of generations changed its course, forming a "delta," as it was called, and thus rendering doubtful the bound ary of Fiume towards Susak. Both parties claimed the "delta." The smaller harbour, too, called in Hungarian times "Port Baross" after a former governor, but re-christened by the Italians "Porto Nazario Sauro" after one of the heroes of the War, was a matter of dispute, but by a letter written by Count Sforza, then Italian minister of foreign affairs, a few hours after the signature of the treaty of Rapallo in Nov. 1920 it was ceded to Yugoslavia.
Even after the refusal of D'Annunzio the two rival races did their best to give one another economic pin-pricks and thereby nearly ruined the trade of the once flourishing port of Hungary. But at last a series of arrangements was concluded at Rome be tween the Italian and Yugoslav governments on Jan. 27, 1924. Fiume, with the larger harbour, was definitely recognized as Italian; Porto Baross and "the delta" was left to Yugoslavia, and through railway traffic, after several years' intermission, was renewed. But the Fiuman frontier towards the north is fantastic, for a mere corridor, through which the road and railway run, con nects the town with Abbazia, and is commanded by the old Roman fortress of Castua. The opening (in Aug. 1925) of the last link in the Lika railway connecting Spalato with the Yugoslav hinter land is a fresh blow to Fiume, while the old Hungarian-Croatian steamship line now rechristened "Jadranska Plovidba" ("Adriatic Steamship Co.") starts from Port Baross and boycotts Italian Zara. An Italo-Hungarian convention providing for a Free Zone at Fiume for the benefit of Hungary was signed in Rome on July 25, 1927, and negotiations for its formation were initiated in the following October.