While doing reconstruction works in a church in Silba, workers found a time capsule from 1922, along with a mysterious message...

The discover was found at the church of Our Lady of the Rocks in Silba, more precisely in the window of the northern side of the chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua. The bottle which contained the message is of the 'Diana' brand, and it was sealed with a cork and a vax. The whole story was made public by the Association for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Island of Silba on their Facebook page. 

The bottle contained three objects - a hand-written note, so-called Spomenica, a paper note from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, printed in 1921 (worth 25 para), and one cigarette. Eugen Motušić, the archaeologist and art historian, found the bottle, and Sven Moro opened the bottle on the spot, without damaging it or its contents. 

The most exciting item in the bottle is the note, written by Frano Gašpić. It explains the circumstances of the previous reconstruction of the church, including who paid for it (an Argentinian diaspora member, called Juraj Barbić), who performed the work (Viktor Spinelli was the manager, while Ante Gašparov and Marijan Vukasović were the masons).

The note also states that Italy still occupied Silba at that time, but that they expected to be added to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenes soon. The note is signed by Špiro Lazarin, Zamarija Marinić, and Frano Gaspić, who were at the time the board members of the Savings Cooperative in Silba, the only civil association on the island at the time. Špiro Lazanin went on to become a local administrator. 

One of the most exciting parts of the note is the post-scriptum, in which the writer, F. Gaspić asks that whoever finds the letter, to let them know, either by "radiograph" or by an airplane. Their descendants now know that the message has been found. Nobody smoked the cigarette found, and it's not clear how much money that would be in today's money, but it was the smallest note then. 

The new time capsule is planned to be put in the same spot after the works on the chapel are finished, which should happen in 2022! 

December 19, 2018 — A time capsule buried deep in a staircase in the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka will finally see daylight after decades spent gathering dust. The capsule's contents will be part of an exhibition called “Unknown Klimt,” open during Rijeka’s reign as the European Capital of Culture in 2020, according to Novi List.

Famous Rijeka mayor Giovanni Ciotta buried the time capsule as part of the capstone to the theatre’s construction in 1885. The ornately-decorated tube was unearthed during the Croatian theater’s last major restoration in 1970. It has sat in the building’s archives ever since.

It remained forgotten until the Museum of the City of Rijeka’s director Ervin Dubrović intervened. The organization coveted the time capsule and its collection of rare posters, hoping to add them to its collection.

The director’s gumption and Rijeka’s role as the European Capital of Culture were enough to bring the capsule out to the public. 

The capsule and its contents will feature in a large exhibition called "Unknown Klimt" prepared by the City of Rijeka Museum. The show includes the paintings by the brothers Klimt (Ernest and Gustav) and Franz Matsch.

Rijeka's theater was considered a masterpiece of architecture at the time it opened on Oct. 4, 1885. 

The famous Venetian sculptor August Benvenuti created at the theater’s imposing figures and ornaments. The ceiling painter Franz Matsch collaborated with the brothers Gustavo and Ernest Klimt for many of its drawings.

The time capsule itself has a strange history of discovery followed by neglect. The mayor entombed the highly-ornamented lead tube in a small cavity beneath the front door.

It contained documentation about the theater’s construction, a poster from the first show and the currency in circulation at the time. 

Despite their gorgeous appearance, both the time capsule and its posters were almost forgotten.

Workers overseeing the theater’s 1970 renovation knew of the capsule, but couldn’t find it. Then, the foreman at the time obtained a newspaper article describing the opening ceremony in detail. It mentioned the symbolic laying of the final stone at the bottom of a staircase near the entrance.

The time capsule finally saw daylight again, after nearly a century underground. But then the theater relegated it to the archives.

The poster became one of the time capsule’s better-known treasures and a slight obsession for the Museum’s director Dubrović. It is the only multicolored lithographic poster of Rijeka, and only preserved poster from the 19th century.

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