FIUME, fe-oo'me, Austria-Hungary, royal free town•and seaport, geographically a part of Croatia, but forming, together with its adjoining territory, since 1870, a political division of the kingdom. It is picturesquely situated at the head of the Bay of Quarnero, an inlet of the Adriatic, and is about 40 miles southeast of Trieste. The views of the bay and town are beautiful, and the environs are attractive. Fiume consists of the old town built on a hill, with crooked narrow streets and the new town stretching along the shore, with fine broad streets, handsome squares and numerous ele gant public buildings. The public garden is par ticularly worthy of mention. Among the edi fices, the most interesting are the cathedral (founded 1377), with a modern facade in the style of the Pantheon at Rome; the church of Saint Vitus; the Pilgrimage Church, ap proached by a stairway of 400 steps; the town hall, the government buildings, the Naval Acad emy and the municipal theatre. There is a Roman triumphal arch, supposed to have been erected to Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. Fiume has several harbors, the largest, begun in 1872, being capable of accommodating 150 large vessels. It is protected by a breakwater 3,250 feet in length, flanked by a quay nearly two miles long. The entire port is lighted by electricity. The city, owing to the active inter est shown by Hungary in this, its only important seaport, has an extensive and steadily increas ing commerce. The chief articles of import are wine, rice, tobacco and raw jute; of export, flour, sugar and lumber. The manufactures of
Fiume are flourishing. The chief industrial es tablishments are the government tobacco fac tory, the large Whitehead torpedo works, an enormous petroleum refinery, a rice-shelling factory, an extensive paper mill, flour mills, saw mills, tanneries and rope factories. The fisheries are important, those of tunny being especially rich.
Fiume is fully equipped with banks, com mercial unions and industrial associations. 'It is administered by a governor, who is a member of the Upper House of the Hungarian Parlia ment. The town sends one representative to the Lower House. The chief educational in stitutions are the Naval Academy, a royal gym nasium and two high schools. There is a Uni ted States consul. Fiume with its territory has an area of 21 square kilometers (8.1 square miles). Pop. (1910) 49,886, chiefly Italians, Illyrians and Croatians. Of the total in 1910 over 45,000 were Roman Catholics and over 36,000 could read and write. Fiume was a town of the Byzantine empire. In the 9th century it was ruled by its own dukes. In 1471 it came into the possession of Austria and in 1779 was attached to the Crown of Hungary. From 1849 to 1870 it formed part of Croatia. During the European War 1914-18, Fiume was a centre of great military and naval activity and was frequently attacked by Italian naval and aerial forces. See WAR, EUROPEAN.