The name of Ika, a small coastal village, is often associated with the name of the Illyrian goddess Ike (although there is no evidence to support this claim). Others associate it with the ancient Greek myth of Icarus. Regardless of the origin of the name, Ika as we know it today gained importance only with the development of maritime trade at the end of the 18th century and later with the development of the town of Rijeka and the beginnings of tourism in Opatija. Until then, the native inhabitants of our region, the Illyrians, as well as the South Slavic settlers, practised fishing. In honour of this tradition, the Ika fish cannery was founded in 1905, first as a salting facility and later as a reprocessing plant.
However, due to its favourable location, Ika became the most important port of northwestern Kvarner in the 18th century and increasingly turned to shipbuilding. Already at that time, smaller ships began to be built for the needs of local sailors and merchants, so that the population, which until then had lived on the slopes above Ika, increasingly moved down from Oprič to the sea. The port and especially the shipyard brought life to Ika.
The history of the shipyard in Ika is described in the photo-monograph 300 let škvera va Ike /300 years of a shipyard in Ika, which can also be found in the library of the Faculty, on the initiative of the Ikarski barkajoli Association.
A major event for Ika was the construction of the tram line from Matulji to Lovran in 1908, which put the town on the tourist map, so that at the beginning of the 20th century in Ika the tourism industry merged with the accompanying industry. After a difficult period between the two wars, when workplaces were closed and people migrated, a new era began and life returned to Iko. Today, Ika not only preserves the tradition of a coastal fishing village, but also keeps up with the times. For example, it is home to the internationally recognised Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, where you are right now.
FUN FACT: Wine and Vruja is a special eno-gastronomic event that offers a unique experience of top Croatian wines stored for a year in the ideal conditions of the natural phenomenon of Icaria, the hot or submerged source of mountain rivers.
Every year at the beginning of August, divers place thousands of wine bottles in specially made cages in a karst spring at a depth of 20 metres. Sommeliers claim that wine aged in the sea has better characteristics than the same varieties stored in the traditional way.
On the second day of the event, there is the opportunity to taste the bottles that were submerged a year earlier, and there is an entertainment and music programme as well as a regatta with traditional boats.
