Original Scientific Article
Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port:
The Case of the Brijuni Islands
during the Habsburg Empire
Nataša Urošević
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia
natasa.urosevic@unipu.hr
The present paper presents the results of the archival and field research conducted
in the framework of the author’s research project ‘Valorisation of the common Eu-
ropean heritage of Pula as the former main Austrian naval port and Brijuni Islands
as an elite resort’ in Austrian archives, with the focus on the Kupelwieser Collection
kept in the Austrian National Library. The research aimed to offer a new perspective
in the elaboration of the key initial phases of the development of modern tourism on
the Brijuni Islands, by analysing their important function as an aristocratic residence
near the main naval port in a comparative and transnational framework. The main
research question was whether Brijuni followed a European model of development
of an aristocratic resort near a major port. Combining archival and field research,
the author has explored and compared some of the well-known island aristocratic
residences in Europe and theMediterranean,which developed as popular seaside re-
sorts in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Isle of Wight, Mallorca, Corfu, and
Brijuni. An overview of the available recent theoretical literature provided compar-
ative insights into the search for such a model of the successful symbiosis of resorts
and ports. As a case study, the author analysed the development of tourism on the
Brijuni Islands in the most dynamic and dramatic periods before, during, and af-
ter the First World War, bearing in mind their importance as an elite resort in close
proximity to Pula as the former main Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) naval port.
Keywords: aristocratic residences, resorts, ports, Brijuni, Pula, tourism history
https://doi.org/10.26493/2335-4194.12.31-40
Introduction
The European Year of Cultural Heritage and the com-
memoration of the end of World War I were an op-
portunity to reflect on the importance of Pula as the
former main Austro-Hungarian naval port and the
nearby Brijuni Islands as an elite aristocratic resort.
Because of their strategically crucial geopolitical po-
sition, Pula and the Brijuni Islands had a particularly
significant role inmodern European cultural, political,
diplomatic, and tourism history. After they had lost
their key function and strategic role in the broader
Central European and Mediterranean context, Pula
and Brijuni stagnated, wanting for new development
opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to present
the results of the archival and field research conducted
in Austrian archives in the framework of the author’s
research project ‘Valorisation of the common Euro-
pean heritage of Pula as the former main Austrian
naval port and Brijuni Islands as an elite resort,’ with
the focus on the Kupelwieser Collection, kept in the
AustrianNational Library. The research aimed to offer
a new perspective in the elaboration of the key initial
phase of the modern tourist development on the Bri-
juni Islands, by analysing their important function as
Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019 | 31
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
an aristocratic residence near the main naval port in a
comparative and transnational framework. The main
research question was whether Brijuni followed a Eu-
ropean model of development of an aristocratic resort
near a major port. An overview of the available recent
theoretical literature provided comparative insights
into the search for such amodel of the successful sym-
biosis of resorts and ports. As a case study, the author
analysed the development of tourismon the Brijuni Is-
lands in themost dynamic and dramatic period before,
during and after the First WorldWar, bearing in mind
their importance as an elite resort in close proximity to
Pula as the formermain Austrian (Austro-Hungarian)
naval port.
From the valuable archive material and rare collec-
tions kept in the archives in Vienna (Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek [Austrian National Library] and
Staatsarchiv [State Archiv]) and Graz (Landesarchiv
[Provincial Archive] and Landesbiblitohek [Provincial
Library]), it is possible to read an exciting story of an
unknown part of the history of Brijuni.1 In addition
to the 161 folders full of interesting rare photos and
illustrations, letters, business plans and documents,
the Kupelwieser Collection also contains unpublished
parts of the autobiography of the owner of Brijuni,
in which Paul Kupelwieser describes in detail the cir-
cumstances that led to his conflict with the Crown
Prince Franz Ferdinand, who was so enchanted by the
islands after his first visit that he wanted to take them
over from the owner at any price and build a perma-
nent residence there.
Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
In 1850, Pula was selected as the site of the future most
important Austrian military harbour, which gave the
nearby Brijuni Islands a military function as well. Five
fortifications were erected on Veli Brijun and two on
Mali Brijun, and the Fažana Channel served as an an-
1 This paper is result of the archival and field research, con-
ducted in the framework of the author’s research project
‘Valorisation of the common European heritage of Pula as
the former main Austrian naval port and Brijuni Islands as
an elite resort’ during the Richard Plaschka Fellowship of the
Austrian Ministry of Research, Science and Economy.
chorage for the Austrian fleet. In such circumstances,
it was quite unusual that onAugust 15th 1893, theVien-
nese industrialist and steel magnate Paul Kupelwieser
bought these uninhabited malaria-ridden islands at
the entrance to the leadingAustrian naval port of Pula.
Twenty years later, on the eve of the World War I, the
Brijuni Islands had been transformed into an elegant
health resort, a world-renowned élite seaside destina-
tion, an exclusivemeeting place for the European aris-
tocracy, artists, and financial magnates, a symbol of
cultivated relaxation, and a unique blend of nature and
culture. The Brijuni Archipelago came to be known as
a Mediterranean paradise at the foot of the Alps, a
pearl of the Austrian Riviera, and an oasis of peace
(Urošević, 2014).
Thanks to the frequent visits and extended stays
of the Habsburg imperial family, close relations with
the top industrial and military circles, and good mar-
itime and railway connections with European capitals,
shortly before the First World War, Brijuni developed
into a focal point of social life on the Austrian Riviera,
and an unique hub of technological and tourism inno-
vations. As an Austrian counterpart to other promi-
nent Mediterranean rivieras and resorts, Brijuni also
had an extraordinarily important political, military
and diplomatic function as an elite resort and cultural
centre near the main naval port.
The period of intensive modernisation, industri-
alisation and urbanisation in southern Istria, which
started after the opening of theArsenal in Pula in 18562
and which was accompanied at the turn of the cen-
tury by the development of tourism in Pula and on the
Brijuni Islands, was abruptly interrupted by the out-
break of the Great War, during which Brijuni again
acquired strategic importance in defending the mili-
tary harbour in Pula. The numerous forts on the is-
lands were manned by crews, while the hotels served
to accommodate Austrian officers. At the very peak of
their development, after twenty years of intensive in-
2 It is interesting to note that Karl Marx dedicated to Pula, the
importance of its port, and its arsenal two articles published
in the New-York Daily Tribune in January and August 1857.
See http://marxengels.public-archive.net/en/ME0988en
.html.
32 | Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
vestments, their owner could have started returning
huge invested capital, the islands were affected by the
dramatic warfare.
Paul Kupelwieser described his life and entrepre-
neurial adventure in memoirs, published in 1918 (Ku-
pelwieser, 1918). He was 76 when he died in Vienna in
1919, exhausted by severe illness and post-war uncer-
tainty. The documentation and correspondence pre-
served in the collection of the rare manuscripts of the
Austrian National Library testify to the dramatic cir-
cumstances in which his children took over the fam-
ily business after the First World War, within a wholly
transformed geopolitical framework. An unpublished
part of Kupelwieser’s biography, kept in the same col-
lection, contains interesting details about his problem-
atic relationshipwith themost famous guest of the Bri-
juni Islands, Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, who was
so enchanted by the islands after his first visit in July
1909 that he wished to build the permanent residence
there. In the following three years, he spent several
springweeks on the islands where he completely cured
his chronic lung problems. Paul Kupelwieser took ad-
vantage of his stay to launch a marketing campaign
through the islands’ newspapers – Brioni Insel Zeitung,
published from 1910 to 1914. Delighted by the islands’
climate, and natural and cultural heritage, the Crown
Prince wanted to build a permanent residence there,
which was a common habit among the European aris-
tocracy. About his intention, he informed the German
Kaiser, who visited Brijuni during his trip fromVenice
to his residence in Corfu3 in the spring of 1912. Ac-
cording to Kupelwieser, the Kaiser replied: ‘Lucky you!
You need only 12 hours to arrive at your paradise from
Vienna, and I need 4 days to get to Corfu!’ (Kupel-
wiser, 1917, p. 362). In addition to the climatic benefits,
as well as the richness of natural and cultural heritage,
it was the proximity to the empire’s capital and its cen-
tral position in the region, near the main naval port
3 German Kaiser Wilhelm ii purchased in 1907 the former
residence of the Empress of Austria Elisabeth, Achilleion on
Corfu, after her 1899 assassination by the Italian anarchist
Luigi Lucheni in Geneva. During Kaiser Wilhelm’s visits a
great deal of diplomatic activity took place inAchilleion, and
it became a hub of European diplomacy.
that made the future emperor’s island residence so at-
tractive.
It is evident that there are parallels and similarities
in the habits and practices of the European aristocracy
in creating residences in elite destinations, and that the
Austrian court used the Europeanmodels of best prac-
tice, both during the construction of naval ports and
the development of elite tourist resorts in Central Eu-
rope and the Mediterranean.4
It is also known that Austria’s ruling Habsburg
family had a significant role in inventing and pro-
moting the ‘Austrian Riviera’ (Baskar, 2010). Some of
them were pioneers of tourism in the Mediterranean,
such as the Archduke Ludwig Salvator, who ‘discov-
ered’ and popularised many island destinations like
Mallorca during his Mediterranean cruises (Woerl,
1899). Obviously, Mallorca could be a model for the
development of an exclusive archipelago resort, as one
of the first ‘Mediterranean paradises,’ which success-
fully attracted an elite aristocratic clientele and a cos-
mopolitan colony of artists and intellectuals (Walton,
2005).
Resorts and Ports
An overview of the available recent theoretical litera-
ture provides comparative insights in search of a Eu-
ropean model of development of an aristocratic resi-
dence near the naval port. ThemonographResorts and
Ports (Borsay & Walton, 2011), discusses the relation-
ship between tourist resorts and seaports in the his-
tory of tourism. In the introductory chapter, its editors
also mentioned a kind of symbiosis of functions of the
leading British naval port in Portsmouth and the aris-
tocratic resort on the Isle of Wight, a favourite sum-
mer residence of Queen Victoria (Blom, 2008), em-
phasising that ‘the Royal Navy offered a military spec-
tacle to holidaymakers at Southsea or on the Isle of
Wight’ (Borsay & Walton, 2011, p. 4). Other mono-
graphs, which emphasise the importance of compar-
ative, transnational approaches in research on Euro-
pean resorts and ports (Zuelow, 2011; Borsay&Furnée,
2015) are also very useful.
4 About ‘cultural transfers’ between European spas see Borsay
and Furnée (2015) and Steward (2000).
Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019 | 33
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
The above-mentioned archival research conducted
in the Austrian archives indicated that Pula was rep-
resented in the Austrian newspapers at the end of the
19th and early 20th centuries as the ‘Austrian Ports-
mouth’ and that the Brioni (Brijuni) Islandswere com-
pared and described as ‘even more beautiful than the
Isle of Wight.’ Rare collections in Austrian archives
keep old local newspapers, such as Die Steierische
Alpen-Post from 8 July 1905, in which, in the article
Reisebriefe aus dem oesterreichischen Portsmouth by
von Josef Steiner-Wischenbart Pula is compared with
themain British naval port, as the ‘Austrian Portsmou-
th’ (Steiner-Wischenbart, n.d.). In contrast, in many
articles published in the first tourismmagazines on the
Adriatic, such as the Oesterreichische Riviera Zeitung
andAdria, as well as in Karl Brockhausen’s (n.d.) study
Brioni: Ein Kulturmärchen aus unseren Tagen, the Bri-
juni Islands were compared to the Isle of Wight. It is
well-known that Austria, in the creation of its navy,
used the best European practices, copying port infras-
tructure and fortification architecturemodels from the
most developed European navies and employing top
experts, such as the admiral of the fleet, theDaneHans
Birch vonDahlerup, who chose Pula for themainAus-
trian naval port in 1850 (Scandinavians dominated
the corps of navy engineers throughout the 1850s),
or the Pole Viktor von Domaszewski, the first urban-
ist of modern Pula, who, before the construction of
the port infrastructure, visited all European (British,
French, Dutch, and Russian) naval ports, including
Portsmouth, Plymouth, London, Liverpool, Paris, and
Toulon (Balota, 2005).
Looking for a model of an elite tourist destination
development near the naval port, apart from archival
and field research, it is undoubtedly a very useful com-
parative overview of the development of similar des-
tinations in Europe. Combining the aforementioned
methods, the author has explored and compared some
of the well-known aristocratic island residences in Eu-
rope and theMediterranean, which developed as pop-
ular seaside resorts in the 19th and 20th centuries, such
as the Isle of Wight, Mallorca, Corfu, and Brijuni.
Unlike Queen Victoria’s summer residence in Os-
borne House, built in 1845 on the Isle of Wight, op-
posite the naval port in Portsmouth, in the style of
the Italian Renaissance, Mallorca, Corfu, and Brijuni
were typical Mediterranean aristocratic destinations,
which developed as popular seaside resorts. Mallorca
is the official holiday destination of the Spanish royal
family, and the invention of modern tourism on the
Balearic Islands is linked to visits of aristocratic guests
and artists. After the first famous guests, Chopin and
George Sand, who spent the winter of 1838/1939 in
Valdemossa, in 1867 the Archduke Ludwig Salvator of
Austria arrived. Having initially acquired properties
in medieval Miramar, between 1872 and 1901, he pur-
chased the entire coastal strip between Valdemossa
and Deià, and built an extensive network of paths and
viewpoints, creating a true paradise on Mallorca.
Besides learning the local dialect, Ludwig Salvator
researched the islands’ flora and fauna, history and
culture, which resulted in the nine-volume mono-
graph Die Balearen in Wort und Bild (The Balearic
Islands in Word and Image). For many decades, the
Archduke explored the Mediterranean with his fa-
mous yacht ‘Nixe.’ He preferred small and undiscov-
ered regions and islands, such as Paxos andAntipaxos,
Ithaka, Levkas and Zante in the Ionian sea as well
as the Liparian Islands north of Sicily, the small is-
lands Giglio, Ustica, and Alboran and especially the
Balearic Islands Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and For-
mentera (Woerl, 1899). A special congeniality of spirit
connected the royal vagabond with Empress Elisabeth
(‘Sisi’), who held the educated archduke in high es-
teem. She visited him twice with her yacht ‘Miramar’
on Mallorca (see http://www.ludwigsalvator.com).
The landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana, pro-
tected in 2001 by unesco, holds the famous trail
built by Ludwig Salvator, as well as a literary trail
from Valldemossa to Pollença, which pays homage to
George Sand and Robert Graves and the highly scenic
Sóller to Palma narrow-gauge historic railway.
The Austrian empress, Elisabeth of Bavaria, built
another very famous aristocratic residence on the Is-
land of Corfu, after the tragic loss of her only son,
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, in 1889. The Achillei-
on Palace, inspired by Greek mythology, was Elisa-
beth’s favourite vacation place and summer residence,
dedicated to her admiration for Greece, its language
and its culture until her tragic death in 1899. After
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Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
Elisabeth’s assassination, German Kaiser Wilhelm ii
purchased Achilleion in 1907 and used it as a summer
residence. Until 1914, many diplomatic activities took
place in the palace, and Achilleion became a hub of
European diplomacy. DuringWorldWar I, Achilleion
was used as a military hospital by French and Serbi-
an troops (see https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter
/achilleion-corfu-elisabeths-flight-antiquity). Briefly
reclaiming the status of the centre for European diplo-
macy that it possessed during the Kaiser years, the
Achilleion has been used in recent times for European
summits and as a museum.
Years of Fulfillment
Aristocratic visits marked probably the most excit-
ing period of development and international recog-
nition of Brijuni, from Easter 1910 to the beginning
of the First World War, and can be traced through
the preserved editions of the Brijuni Islands newspa-
pers. In addition to the first tourist magazines in the
Adriatic: the Illustrierte österreichische Riviera Zeitung
(1904–1905) and Adria, Illustrierte Monatsschrift für
Landes- und Volkskunde, Volkswirtschaft und Touris-
tik der adriatischen Küstenländer (1908–1914), the Bri-
juni Islands had their own newspaper: Brioni Insel
Zeitung (1910–1914). The first issue of the islands’
gazette, which was published in March 1910, reported
on the stay of Franz Ferdinand with his family on the
Brijuni Islands, and it is evident that the presence of
the imperial family was used to promote the desti-
nation (which was a frequent practice in other Euro-
pean destinations visited by aristocracy). The newspa-
per regularly reported, among other things, about the
stay of the emperor’s family, as well as other famous
personalities, which can be traced through the list of
guests published in each issue (see http://library.foi.hr/
novine).
Another valuable source is the tourist magazine
Adria, which reports about Franz Ferdinand’s visits to
Brioni in several issues in 1910. After his first working
visit in July 1909, during the Adriatic tour fromVenice
to Corfu on the imperial yacht ‘Miramar’ (Adria, Au-
gust 1909, p. 341), in the issue from February 1910,
Adria reported about the first longer stay (February
and March) of the Archduke’s family on the Adriatic
coast, with a six-page report on the islands’ beauty
(Adria,February 1910, pp. 77–88). The issue fromApril
1910 reported about A Year of Fulfilment (Adria, April
1919, pp. 157–160) with an illustrated reportage and
the photo of the archduke with his wife on Brijuni.
Finally, the issue from June 1910 reported about his
activities during a two-month stay. Apart from treat-
ing lung problems and enjoying the beauty of nature
and peace, the crown prince was very interested in
studying the preservation of cultural monuments and
learning about the cultural and economic develop-
ment of the Austrian Riviera as well as in the nearby
naval port. Almost every day he visited, by car or by
boat, the Istrian coast and the interior, from the sur-
roundings of Pula to Učka, including the opening of
the Provincial Exhibition in Koper. In conclusion, the
editors reported that he was so satisfied with his stay
on Brijuni that he announced his intention to choose
beautiful Istria as a permanent residence for the first
weeks of spring (Adria, June 1910, pp. 237–240). The
issue of March 1911 briefly reports on his arrival to
Brijuni with the whole family for another two-month
stay.
Another very valuable and useful source are mem-
oirs of the Brijuni’s owner Paul Kupelwiser, Aus den
Erinnerungen eines altenÖsterreichers (From theMem-
oirs of an old Austrian), written in 1917 and published
in 1918 (Kupelwieser, 1918). It is fascinating to observe
that Kupelwieser’s memoirs end with the first visit of
the crown prince, his imperial highness Franz Ferdi-
nand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg. How-
ever, the original manuscript (actually a typoscript),
kept in four folders of the Kupelwieser Collection in
the AustrianNational Library (Kupelwieser, 1917), also
include, an unpublished part, with much less well-
known details related to the owner’s efforts to struggle
with nature, the state bureaucracy, and the military
authorities. Particularly interesting and impressive are
pages describing Franz Ferdinand’s attempts to take
over the islands and build a permanent residence on
them. The typoscript in the third and fourth folder
contains a detailed description of the preparations for
the first longer stay of the Crown Prince’s family on
the islands in 1910. At the beginning of February 1910,
the heir to the throne arrived with his family on the
Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019 | 35
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
islands. They enjoyed very much the pleasant island
climate during their eight-week stay, so that Franz Fer-
dinand felt his chronic lung problems no more, which
was not the case after his stays on the French Riviera
and in St. Moritz.
From the letter of the head of the cabinet (Vorstand
der Militär Kanzlei) Alexander von Brosch-Aerenau
to Franz Ferdinand from March 16, 1910 (Brosch-
Aerenau, 1910), it is also possible to read about the
archduke’s intentions to build a residential villa on the
western Istrian cost, more precisely on the Brijuni Is-
lands. He was authorised to negotiate the acquisition
of Peninsula Barbana at the north-western tip of the
island or Cape Peneda in the very south, for which the
Archduke was particularly interested. According to
the negotiator, Kupelwieser was more willing to give
up Cape Peneda than Barbana, because he needed the
field for his livestock and local traffic, but also because
of the planned construction of the bridge from Bar-
bana to BrioniMinor. Kupelwieser did not want to sell
anything but proposed a lifelong or longer lease. He
was ready to renounce any payment, demanding that
after the lease had ended, everything would pass back
into his (or his heirs’) possession. Although Brosch-
Aerenau did not consider Kupelwieser’s offer accept-
able, after detailed calculations, he recommended fur-
ther negotiations.
In his (unpublished) memoirs, Paul Kupelwieser
describes the visit of the head of the cabinet, Colonel
Brosch, who attempted to negotiate on behalf of Franz
Ferdinand. He informed Kupelwieser that his Impe-
rial Highness was 49 years old and, as the future em-
peror, needed a residence, and it was to be Brijuni.
During Easter 1910, the Brijuni islands were visited
by the court garden director Umlauf, who was asked
to have a closer look at the islands and to estimate
the value of the whole estate. He estimated that be-
cause of the islands’ climatic benefits with the same
isotherms as Lošinj and the wealth of abundant fer-
tile soil as well as relative proximity of Vienna, Brijuni
were worth 25,000,000 crowns and that his Imperial
Highness could pay even 30,000,000 crowns. Accord-
ing to Kupelwieser, these amounts, which were well
over twice what he had invested in Brioni, were proba-
bly the reason that Franz Ferdinand no longer thought
of the purchase, but sought other ways in which the
desired goal could be achieved. Several weeks after
this estimation, an article was published in the Paris
issue of The New-York Herald, announcing that the
political situation in Italy made it urgently necessary
that the state acquire the Brijuni islands. Parts of the
islands that were not used for fortification purposes
could be left to the heir to the throne as a stay there
had proved to be very favourable to his health (Ku-
pelwieser, 1917, p. 357). Kupelwieser denied this false
report in his own newspaper (Brioni Insel Zeitung, 29
march 1910).
From the unpublished part of the Kupelwieser
memoirs, it is evident how much he was concerned
with the intense pressures related to the Archduke’s
wishes to take over the island, which affected his ner-
vous system so much that he had heart problems
several weeks after his departure. Apart from heart
spasms, throughout the whole spring, summer, and
autumn of 1910, Kupelwieser had problems with boils
on various parts of his body and with eczema which
could not be effectively treated. In autumn, he decided
to visit dermatologist Prof. Dr Una in Hamburg, and
since the disease caused by stress became complicated,
he had to lie in bed because of painful boils and eczema
(Kupelwieser, 1917, p. 321). Kupelwieser used his stay in
Hamburg to visit Karl Hagenbeck in his famous zoo
and arrange his visit to Brijuni the following year (in
January 1911).
In the meantime, the harbour admiral, Excellency
von Ripper, also attempted to complicate or block ev-
ery investment in the islands in the next three years.
Although the construction of the new hotel Neptun
iii, designed by the young architect Eduard Kramer,
was repeatedly interrupted, until the next Easter sea-
son in 1912 and re-arrival of prominent guests, the ho-
tel was completed, which also enabled a larger visit of
themost distinguishedViennese circles. It was the year
of fulfilment and the highest ranking visits, according
to local tourist magazines. At the invitation of Franz
Ferdinand, on his trip from Venice to Corfu, the Ger-
man Kaiser visited the islands. Along with the solemn
welcome of the war fleet, the emperor was welcomed
by 400 guests of the Brijuni spa. The presence of such
high-level guests on Brijuni greatly contributed to the
36 | Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
island’s promotion, so much so that all rooms were
sold out several weeks before the Kaiser’s arrival (Ku-
pelwieser, 1917, p. 362).
Finally, Kupelwieser offered the construction of the
residence, the castle with a larger park surrounding the
villa on the Peneda peninsula, which was one fifth of
the island’s surface. Kupelwieser offered Franz Ferdi-
nand a twenty-year lease, so he could use it under the
same conditions as long as he lived (Kupelwieser, 1917,
p. 363). After unsuccessful negotiations, Franz Ferdi-
nand seemed to give up taking over the Island, and
over the next two years he spent the late winter at the
Miramar Castle near Trieste. The intention of Franz
Ferdinand to take over Brijuni is also confirmed by
the book of his secretary in which, in the chapter en-
titled Brioni, he describes in detail the relation of the
crown prince towards Kupelwieser and his attempts to
become the owner of the most attractive parts of the
islands, in the broader context of political and diplo-
matic relations and visits (Nikitsch-Boulles, 1925, pp.
140–150).
Ambitious Development Plans
In the winter before the outbreak of World War I,
massive investments were completed: the visitors of
Brijuni’s five deluxe hotels with 500 beds could enjoy
the first indoor swimming pool with heated sea wa-
ter in Europe in a wellness centre, which was opened
in October 1913. In the unpublished part of his mem-
oirs, Paul Kupelwieser mentions Dr Neumann’s pro-
posal for the construction of a sanatorium projected
by the architect Kramer a few months earlier in the
framework of his ambitious plans to develop a health
tourism resort. Several weeks after that, Franz Ferdi-
nand was killed in Sarajevo. Because the First World
War began four weeks later, Kupelwieser commented
that he was glad that the construction for which he
had been ready had not begun (Kupelwieser, 1917, pp.
373–374):
I’m thinking about the future enlargement of
our hotel resort through the arrangement of
about 100 rooms in the hotel on the west coast
of Brijuni, perhaps at the same place where a
sanatorium was planned, not as a private joint
stock company, but in the joint venture with
our own hotel company and led by well-paid
medical staff.
The most informative preview of the most pros-
perous period before the First World War, and prob-
ably the most comprehensive guidebook is the Führer
durch Brioni (Gnirs, 1910).
Along with the already published autobiograph-
ical notes of the island’s medical doctor Otto Lenz’s
wife Brijuni – Lost Paradise, (Lenz Guttenberg, 2007),
which include important details related to the events
on the island on the eve of the First World War (such
as the arrival of the British fleet just before the very be-
ginning of the war), in some very informative Brijuni
guide books from the 1920s and ’30s, written by the
islands’ physician Otto Lenz, there are interesting de-
tails about the First World War. In the publication Die
Bedeutung der Insel Brienz als hervorragender Clima-
tischer Kurort der Nordadria, we can read that ‘the war
passed almost unperceived near Brijuni [. . .] only a
few bombswould fall on Brijuni, but without any dam-
age [. . .] That is how our beautiful island could, after
the peace agreement, be awakened again from the un-
wanted four-year-old dream’ (Lenz, 1930, p. 4).We can
also learn that immediately before the outbreak of the
war, large investments were completed: with a unique
indoor heated swimming pool connected to the rooms
with a heated corridor, Brijuni had 300 rooms in five
hotels that could accommodate 450 guests. The heated
swimming pool should be the centre of future devel-
opment of Brijuni as a winter spa, insisted Dr Lenz
in conclusion of his very informative guide. He also
announced intensive equipment of the spa centre,
the building of a new sanatorium, in addition to the
existing hotels, where guests will be offered special
treatments, massages and hydrotherapy, mud ther-
apy, diets, and seawater inhalation, ‘as in Salsomag-
giore spa.’ The future spa and wellness centre would
include a gym room and fitness in the pool, along
with the unavoidable walks over 80 km of decorated
paths. In conclusion, the indications for treatment
were listed.
Particularly impressive is a booklet Spaziergänge
auf Brioni (Lenz, 1926) in which the island’s physi-
Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019 | 37
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
cian, through a proposal of 12 walks through the pic-
turesque Brijuni Islands, also recounts the history of
Brijuni as a tourist destination, presenting a whole
range of important details.
Dr Lenz, among other things, elaborated a signif-
icant project to build a sanatorium in Madona Bay,
which was planned before the start of the First World
War (also mentioned by the publicist Richard Voss
(1914) in his book Die grüne Insel, dedicated to the
owner of Brijuni. Because of the best climatic condi-
tions in the Madona Bay, after a long period of reflec-
tion on arranging the winter sanatorium for conva-
lescence, a joint stock company was organised. The
plans were completed, the construction was approved
by the Austrian command of the naval port (with the
condition that the building be coloured green so as
not to become the target of the enemy), the capital for
construction was also ready; then the war came and
blocked the project.
This information is confirmed by an unpublished
development study from 1919, which is also kept in
the Kupelwieser Collection. After the war and in the
year of Paul Kupelwieser’s death, his heirs founded
the Brioni joint stock company in 1919. The contract,
held in the Department for the Rare Collections of the
AustrianNational Library, is one of the few documents
related to the company’s business (Kupelwieser, 1919).
This document, which presents a feasibility study and
a strategic framework for further development of the
islands at the same time, apart from financial struc-
ture, which includes both future British and us in-
vestors, mentions detailed ambitious development
plans, including, for example, connecting the Veli Bri-
jun toMali Brijun (BrioniMinor) by a bridge, and fur-
ther spreading of the health resort offer through a new
sanatorium in Madona May, as well as new spa com-
plexes on both islands. Another document related to
this substantial investment, which was unfortunately
interrupted byWorldWar I, is an architectural project
for a never-built health resort in the Madonna Bay,
a work of the well-known architect, Eduard Kramer
(who designed almost all the hotels in Brijuni) dating
back to 1915.
Along with another unrealised project, a large 1905
seafront hotel, there is also a project for a largeKurhaus
building that was to be built in Dobrika Bay. The spa
building was supposed to be five stories high in the
central part and only one floor in the wings. About 120
accommodation units were planned in this impressive
health resort.
After the war, when, after great political changes,
Istria and Brijuni fell under the authorities of Italy,
only huge debts remained. Paul Kupelweieser died
shortly after the collapse of the monarchy in 1919. His
son Karl continued his venture with less success, and
new investments in golf and polo fields only increased
the enormous debts. After additional family problems,
he took his own life in 1930, and in 1936 Brijuni was
sold to the Italian state.
Very interesting is also the preserved documen-
tation from the family legacy (diaries, letters and re-
ports) after World War ii, which testifies about the
first visit of Kupelwieser’s family members to the Is-
lands after the forced departure in 1935. The letter from
October 1960, written by family members (Mautner
Markhof, 1960) who were pleasantly surprised by the
reception by the new authorities, documents their rea-
sons for leaving the islands in 1935, as well as the cur-
rent situation in Brijuni, which in the meantime had
become a presidential residence.
Conclusion
At the end of the SecondWorldWar, on 5th May 1945,
the Brioni Islandswere liberatedwith the rest of south-
ern Istria, and were under the control of the Yugoslav
Government, in contrast to Pula, which was then un-
der Allied control. Josip Broz Tito, the president of
the Federative Peoples’ Republic of Yugoslavia, came
to Brioni on 20th June 1947 and declared them a res-
idential area (Begović & Schrunk, 2007, pp. 155–166).
Since that time, extensive work had begun on their re-
covery from the damage inflicted by bombing. From
1952 to 1981, numerous foreign dignitaries visited Bri-
juni, including members of European royal families
and high-ranking diplomats. The summer presiden-
tial residence was built on the Island of Vanga. The
Brijuni Islands were an important venue of historical
meetings of the 20th century. In October 1983, the Bri-
juni Islands were declared a National Park.
In their turbulent history, from the Roman era to
38 | Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019
Nataša Uroševi Inventing Tourism in the Naval Port
the modern times, the Brijuni Islands had a signif-
icant economic function, related to elite leisure, but
also a prominent political and diplomatic role, as a res-
idence. The conducted research has indicated similar-
ities, common practices and models of the elite Euro-
pean spas and seaside resorts, including the relation
between resorts and ports, which could also be useful
in the analysis of tourism development on the Brijuni
Islands.
Valuable rare archival documents kept in Austrian
archives, related to the development of tourism on the
Brijuni Islands in the most dynamic and dramatic pe-
riod before, during and after the World War I, can
illuminate previously unknown sections of the past
of the Brijuni Islands and should, therefore, be fur-
ther analysed and presented. Since the archival ma-
terial related to the history of Brijuni is dispersed in
different institutions and partially lost, it is essential
to continue research, which could reconstruct some
critical events. Besides the afore-mentioned Austrian
archives and collections, there are fascinating sources
in archives in Trieste, Pazin, and Belgrade, which
should be analysed in greater detail. The European
Year of Cultural Heritage, besides commemorating
the end of the First World War and celebrating the
common European values and heritage, was an op-
portunity to valorise former aristocratic residences
as common Euro-Mediterranean heritage through
transnational projects and networks as well as in-
ternational labels (European heritage label, unesco
heritage, etc.).
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40 | Academica Turistica, Year 12, No. 1, June 2019