Zadar

General facts

Zadar is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea. Zadar serves as the seat of Zadar County and the wider northern Dalmatian region. The city proper covers 25 km with a population of 75,000, making it the fifth-largest city in the nation.

Our experience

While we stayed at Brac island we made a trip to the main land, where we visited Trogir, Zadar and Sibenik. You can find a blog on my account for each city.

Generally said you can find a lot of interesting churches in the city. The church of St. Donatus is very unique because it is a monumental round building from the 9th century in pre-Romanesque style, traditionally said to have been erected on the site of a temple of Juno.The main square with the town hall is a must-see when you're visiting. The most beautiful sight to see is the old town which is surrounded by a city wall. Behind the city wall there a lots of small boats, as you can see on the picture below.

When you walk through the city you get the feeling of the town being very old. You start to wonder who and how many people have already lived there.

A few sights do remind you of the time when the Romans resided there. For example the Roman Forum, which is an obvious.

They also do have a lot of museums you can visit if you'll get there once.

History of Zadar (quite interesting)

The area of present-day Zadar traces its earliest evidence of human life from the late Stone Age, while numerous settlements have been dated as early as the Neolithic.

In 59 BC it was renamed Iadera when it became a Roman municipium, and in 48 BC, a Roman colonia.
It was during the Roman rule that Zadar acquired the characteristics of a traditional Ancient Roman city with a regular road network, a public square (forum), and an elevated capitolium with a temple.

In 1202, Zadar was conquered and burned by the Republic of Venice.
Croats again regained control over the city in 1358, when it was given to the Croatian-Hungarian king Louis I

Today, Zadar is a historical center of Dalmatia, Zadar County's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, educational, and transportation centre. Zadar is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar. Because of its rich heritage, Zadar is today one of the most popular Croatian tourist destinations, named "entertainment center of the Adriatic" by The Times and "Croatia's new capital of cool" by the Guardian. In 2016, Zadar was named "Best European Destination" by the Belgian portal Europe's Best Destinations.com after a three-week period of online voting and more than 288,000 cast votes.

While we stayed at Brac island we made a trip to the main land, where we visited Trogir, Zadar and Sibenik. You can find a blog on my account for each city.