Rijeka City Tower (Gradski Toranj)

The yellow baroque gateway that punctuates Rijeka's pedestrian Korzo has stood on this spot, in one form or another, since the early Middle Ages — it was originally the main sea-gate into the walled town when ships still moored where the promenade is today. The current appearance dates from 1876, when the Austro-Hungarian authorities added the ornate clock, the copper cupola and the double-headed eagle that still stares down at shoppers. Above the arch, two carved portrait reliefs immortalise the Habsburg emperors Leopold I and Charles VI, who granted Rijeka its trading privileges. Pass through into Koblerov trg and you're in the compact original core of medieval Fiume — flag-stoned, café-lined and quiet even in high season. The tower's clock still keeps time; local tradition insists Rijeka's inhabitants set their watches by it. There's no visitor entry inside, so the pleasure is entirely architectural: come at dusk, when the façade is uplit and the Korzo fills for the passeggiata, and look up at the small barrel-vaulted passage where the original city walls once stood. Combine it in a five-minute walk with the Roman arch (Stara vrata) hidden in a courtyard just around the corner, and the Cathedral of St. Vitus a block uphill.