Zadar Travel Guide

The Sea Organ (Morske orgulje) is a wave-played acoustic installation on Zadar's waterfront, designed by architect Nikola Basic and opened on 15 April 2005. White marble steps run about 70 metres along the shore in seven sections, with 35 polyethylene pipes of differing length, diameter and inclination buried beneath; as waves break they push air through the pipes in low, ever-changing organ-like chords - five tones combining into seven chords, arranged by acoustician Ivica Stamac and inspired by klapa, Croatia's traditional a cappella singing. Free and open around the clock, in 2006 it shared the European Prize for Urban Public Space with the neighbouring Greeting to the Sun. It replaced the monotonous concrete sea wall left by postwar reconstruction, turning the land-water border into a public sitting room. After dark, the 22-metre circle of 300 solar glass plates beside it lights up in a random show, answering the organ's low drone. Alfred Hitchcock once called Zadar's sunset the finest in the world - sitting on the steps at dusk to hear the sea and watch the lights is the old town's classic half hour.

The Church of St Donatus is the symbol of Zadar: a circular pre-Romanesque rotunda completed in the 9th century on the northeastern corner of the Roman Forum. First dedicated to the Holy Trinity, it was rededicated in the 15th century to St Donatus, bishop and diplomat of Zadar, the man who led Dalmatian delegations to Constantinople and the court of Charlemagne. The church stands 27 metres high and 22 metres across, the largest pre-Romanesque building in Croatia: its massive cylindrical walls form a cylinder-within-a-cylinder, the interior carried by six piers and two monolithic columns from the Roman forum, with three radial apses echoing the Trinity - and much of its stone came straight from the neighbouring forum, the clearest proof that the medieval city was built literally on top of the Roman one. Desacralised for about two centuries, it served as a storehouse, wine cellar and archaeological museum until 1954. Its exceptional acoustics have made it the fixed stage of the Musical Evenings in St Donatus, the international festival of medieval and Renaissance music founded in 1961 by Zadar-born conductor Pavle Despalj, resident ensemble the Zadar Chamber Orchestra; the 66th edition runs from 5 July to 6 August 2026, with a free opening concert. The exterior and forum are free around the clock, with daytime interior access posted on site.

The Land Gate (Kopnena vrata) is the grandest entrance to Zadar's old town, designed in 1543 by the Venetian architect Michele Sanmicheli and reckoned a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture and sculpture in Dalmatia, part of the city's UNESCO-listed walls. The gate takes the form of a triumphal arch with three passages: a large central arch for carts and two smaller ones for pedestrians. In the keystone of the central arch rides St Chrysogonus, the city's patron saint, above whom soars the winged Lion of St Mark of the Venetian Republic with its book open - by tradition a sign the city was at peace when the gate was built - flanked by the Rector's and Captain's coats of arms. It stands on the old town's southeastern side beside the little Fosa harbour; visitors once crossed a long wooden bridge and two drawbridges before reaching it, and the moat was only filled in during the 19th century. Open free around the clock, passing through leads into the Queen Jelena Madijevka park and the Five Wells Square, then on to the People's Square, the Roman Forum and the Church of St Donatus - the natural start of any walk through Zadar.