Zadar: the back story

About Zadar: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Zagreb Editorial Team

Zadar sits on a narrow peninsula on the Dalmatian coast, a town of Roman ruins, Romanesque churches and marble streets, and one of the liveliest cities on the Adriatic. Its waterfront has two modern wonders: the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun.

Three thousand years

Zadar has been inhabited for some three thousand years. The Romans laid out a forum on the peninsula, and its stones are still scattered around the square in front of the Church of St Donatus, a round, massive 9th-century church that has become the symbol of the city. Beside it rises the Romanesque Cathedral of St Anastasia.

The Sea Organ

In 2005, the architect Nikola Bašić built the Sea Organ into the steps of the waterfront: pipes under the marble let the waves and the wind make music, a soft, ever-changing sound you can listen to for hours.

In Zadar, the sea itself plays the organ.

The Greeting to the Sun

Beside it, Bašić’s Greeting to the Sun is a great circle of glass panels that soak up sunlight by day and glow with colour after dark, especially magical after the famous Zadar sunset.

A lively town

Zadar is a real, lived-in town, with cafés on its marble streets, a busy market, beaches nearby and ferries to the islands of the Zadar archipelago.

Our advice: Zadar is about three hours from Zagreb by motorway, best as an overnight trip. Walk the old town in the morning, swim in the afternoon and be at the Sea Organ for sunset.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Zadar: the back story before you go.