Croatia : Zadar

Boasting a historic old town of Roman ruins and medieval churches, cosmopolitan cafes and quality museums, Zadar is an excellent city. It’s not too crowded, it’s not overrun with tourists and its two unique attractions – the sound-and-light spectacle of the Sea Organ and Sun Salutation – need to be seen and heard to be believed.

It’s not a picture-postcard kind of place, but the mix of beautiful Roman architecture, Habsburg elegance, a wonderful seafront and some unsightly ordinary office blocks is what gives Zadar so much character. It’s no Dubrovnik, but it’s not a museum town either – this is a living, vibrant city, enjoyed by its residents and visitors alike.

The centre of town is not well blessed with hotels, though a few new places spring up each year. Most visitors stay in the leafy resort area of Borik nearby. Zadar is a key transport hub with superb ferry connections to Croatia’s Adriatic islands, Kvarner, southern Dalmatia and Italy.

History

Zadar was inhabited by the Illyrian Liburnian tribe as early as the 9th century BC. By the 1st century BC, Zadar had become a minor Roman colony. Slavs settled here in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, and Zadar eventually fell under the authority of Croatian-Hungarian kings.

The rise of Venetian power in the mid-12th century was bitterly contested – there was a succession of citizens’ uprisings over the next 200 years, but the city was finally acquired by Venice in 1409, along with the rest of Dalmatia.

Frequent Veneto-Turkish wars resulted in the building of Zadar’s famous city walls in the 16th century. With the fall of Venice in 1797, the city passed to Austrian rulers who administered the city with Zadar’s Italianised ruling aristocracy. Italian influence endured well into the 20th century, with Zadar remaining an Italian province. When Italy capitulated to the Allies in 1943, the city was occupied by the Germans and then bombed to smithereens by the Allies, with almost 60% of the old town destroyed. The city was rebuilt following the original street plan.

History repeated itself in November 1991 when Yugoslav rockets kept Zadar under siege for three months. No war wounds are visible, however, and Zadar has re-emerged as one of Croatia’s most dynamic towns.