#24 Rijeka – candidate city for ECoC 2020 Mystery Cache

Upravna zgrada sagrađena je 1827. godine. Sačuvana je do danas, ali u promijenjenom obliku. Govorimo o jednokatnici čiji je osnovni građevni materijal armirani beton, a zidne nadopune rađene su u opeci. Sačuvana je kamena dekoracija na ulazu i natprozornicima. Specifična je krovna lanterna smještena iznad trokutasta zabata. Lanterna završava krovnim tornjićem sa željeznim pokazivačem strana svijeta. 

Priča o Tvornici papira priča je o prvome velikom industrijskom pothvatu u Rijeci. Sve započinje 1. rujna 1821. kada Andrija Ljudevit Adamić kupuje mlin Lučicu nasuprot Zvira. Adamić je kupio mlin ne bi li pomoću njega pokrenuo manufakturu za proizvodnju papira.Uz Adamića, suosnivačTvornice papira bio je Britanac William Moline. Moline će 1824. otkupiti od Adamića i mlin i manufakturu za preradu papira. Platit će za njih 19.000 forinti. U ovoj je manufakturi tada bilo zaposleno osam radnika;  papir se uz pomoć vodene snage proizvodio isključivo od krpa, kurdelje i lana. Nakon tri godine, Moline za 20.000 forinti prodaje tvornicu engleskom poduzetniku Walteru Craftonu Smithu koji će zajedno sa svojim partnerom Charlesom Meynierom započeti industrijsku proizvodnju papira. Tvornica će u listopadu 1828. promijeniti naziv u Smith & Meynier. Iako je sirovina za preradu papira ostala ista, novi su vlasnici tvornicu modernizirali. Još 1827. nabavili su Fourdrinierov stroj za proizvodnju papira koji je tada slovio za izniman stroj, da bi već 1833. u pogon dopremili parni stroj i time uvećali proizvodnju.Tvornica papira je zbog inovacija u tehnološkom procesu i kakvoće samog papira bila nebrojeno puta nagrađivana na domaćim i međunarodnim gospodarskim izložbama u Beču 1835., Pešti 1842., Londonu 1851., Münchenu 1854., Parizu 1878., Barceloni 1888. i poslije. U skladu s napretkom, tvornica se širila i povećavao se broj radnika. Sedamdesetih godina 19. stoljeća ondje je radilo oko tisuću radnika.

Kompleks Tvornice papira građen je većim dijelom dvadesetih godina 19. stoljeća, ali je velike arhitektonske izmjene pretrpio u 20. stoljeću. Tvornica je u vrijeme izgradnje bila moderna i dobro je poslovala, o čemu govori činjenica da je taj kompleks posjedovao prvi parni strojna Balkanu. Osim tehnološkog napretka, tvornica je bila napredna i u socijalnoj politici te je već 1877. osnovala prvi mirovinski fond za radnike. Nakon Hrvatsko-ugarske nagodbe tvornica podupire mađarske interese i nastavlja s dobrom suradnjom u tom smjeru. Gospodarska kriza na prijelazu stoljeća znatno pogađa tvornicu. U to vrijeme u vlasničku strukturu Tvornice papira ulazi i novi subjekt – Ungarische Papier A.G. (Prva ugarskaindustrija papira d.d.). Dolaskom toga dioničkog društva moderniziran je pogon na vodu i paru, a do Prvoga svjetskog rata broj zaposlenih je udvostručen. Nakon Prvoga svjetskog rata vlasnici se izmjenjuju i tvornica biva integrirana u sastav kompanije Jela, industrija papira, a nakon toga je uvlasništvu Prve hrvatske štedionice i Mjesnog odbora ravnateljskog vijeća Smith i Meynier na Sušaku. Razdoblje nakon rata donijelo je nov procvat za tvornicu, izrađivali su se cigaretni papir, svilasti i biblijski papiri, papiri za kopiranje i drugo. Prodaja tvorničkih proizvoda ponovno se raširila po cijelom svijetu: u Sjedinjene Američke Države, Argentinu, Rumunjsku, Egipat, Bliski i Daleki istok. Nakon Drugoga svjetskog rata tvornicu preuzima narodna vlast. Danas je kompleks napušten.

The administration building was erected in 1827. It has been preserved until today, but in modified form.  It is a two-storey building, built to the greatest extent with reinforced concrete, with wall additions made of brick.  The stone decorations on the door and window lintels have been preserved. A very specific detail is the roof lantern, placed above the triangular pediment. The lantern ends with a roof turret that has an iron pointer with the four cardinal directions.The story of the Paper Mill is the story of the first major industrial enterprise in Rijeka. It all started with the 1st of September 1821, when Andrija Ljudevit Adamić bought the Lučica Mill, located opposite of Zvir. Adamić bought the mill in order to use it for starting the planned paper manufacturing plant. Besides Adamić, the co-founder of the Paper Mill was the Briton William Moline. In 1824, Moline bought off the mill and the paper manufacturing plant from Adamić. He paid 19,000 forints for them. This manufacturing plant employed eight workers. By using hydropower, paper was produced exclusively from cloth rags. After three years, Moline sold the factory for a price of 20,000 forints to the English entrepreneur Walter Crafton Smith, who subsequently, together with his partner Charles Meynier, started the industrial production of paper in Rijeka. In October 1828, the factory changed its name to Smith & Meynier. Although raw material for paper processing remained the same, the new owners modernized the factory. In 1827, they acquired a Fourdrinier papermaking machine, which was known as an exceptional machine and, already in 1833, they purchased a steam engine and thus increased production. Due to the innovations in the production process and the quality of the paper, the Paper Mill received numerous awards on national and international trade fairs: in Vienna 1835, Pest 1842, London 1851, Munich 1854, Paris 1878, Barcelona 1888 and so on. In accordance with its progress, the factory expanded and the number of workers increased. In the 1870s, the factory employed approximately a thousand workers.

The Paper Mill complex was built largely in the 1820s, but major architectural changes were made in the 20th century. At the time of its construction, the factory was state-of-the-art and it operated very well. The complex also owned the first steam engine in the Balkans, another proof thatit was keeping up with the times. Apart from technology, the factory also had an advanced social policy: as early as in 1877, it established the first pension fund for workers. After the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement, the factory supported Hungarian interests and continued its good collaboration with that country. At the turn of the century, the factory was strongly hit by economic crisis. At that time, a new entity entered the ownership structure of the Paper Factory – the Ungarische Papier A.G. With the arrival of this joint-stock company, the plant’s steam and hydropower drives were modernized and, by World War I, the number of employees doubled. After World War I, the owners of the factory changed, the factory was incorporated into the paper company Jela, industrija papira, and after that it became property of the First Croatian Savings Bank (Prva hrvatska štedionica) and the local council committee of the directors’ council of Smith and Meynier on Sušak.The period after the war brought a new revival of the factory; it produced cigarette paper along with silk and Bible paper, copy paper etc. Sales of the manufactured products once again spread all over the world: United States, Argentina, Romania, Egypt, the Middle and the Far East. After World War II, the factory was taken over by the national government. Today, the complex is abandoned.