Zadar

Zadar Old Town is surprisingly beautiful.  It is the gateway to the North Dalmatian coast in Croatia and it sits on a peninsula to the west of the modern city of Zadar.  Two sides are still surrounded by the old city walls, while the other sides have been opened to create a sea front with views out to the islands just off the coast.  The city has over the past 1200 years been under constant attack and has been occupied by everyone from the Romans, the Venetians, the Ottomans, the French under Napoleon, the Austrian/Hungarian Empire of the Hapsbergs, and after WWII until recently was incorporated into Yugoslavia.  Despite this, or maybe because of this, we were surprised at how little damage is visible in the buildings.  They have made a huge effort to repair  and restore their buildings, and preserve and display the city's patchwork history.  Most of the streets are still paved with the old marble and are polished smooth from the millions of feet that have walked them over the years.


We flew into Zadar as it was the rendezvous point for the next leg of our trip and thought we'd spend a few days exploring it!

Beautiful polished streets

Sunset

The old entrance gate to the walled city.

Some random facts about Croatia (mostly pillaged from the Lonely Planet):

• Dalmatian dogs are thought to be one of the oldest breeds, however, there is no conclusive evidence that the originated in Dalmatia. Some experts believe that the were brought to Dalmatia by the Roma.
• Sibenik born Fraust Vrancic (1551 - 1617) made the first working parachute.
• The neck tie is a descendant of the cravat, which originated in Croatia as part of military attire and was adopted by the French in the 17th century.  The name 'cravat' is a corruption of Croat and Hrvat.
• The ball point pen and the fountain pen were invented in 1906 by the Croatian Slavoljub Penkala (1871 - 1922), who also introduced the hot-water bottle and a laundry blueing agent.

We stayed in a backpackers near the town square in the centre of Old Town.  The 4 flights of the winding staircase nearly killed us at 8:30 in the morning as it was already over 25 degrees, but the view from our room over the town was fantastic!  The streets are narrow (almost entirely car-free in the old town) and it is amazing how none of the city blocks line up, so the roads meander a few metres this way or that at each intersection.  Most restaurants are a cluster of tables and chairs in a slightly wider part of the road with just the kitchen in the building.  The beer (pivo) is fantastic, the pizza's great and there are many many ice-cream shops (prices are comparable to South Africa which is also a huge consolation after France!).  Some of the squares become bustling markets during the day, fruit, vegetables, cheese, clothes, souvenirs, and more.  

Pizza on the Promenade

Dinner at a street cafe

Due to the heat during the day, there are very few people around from midday till late afternoon and then the streets start to fill as tourists and locals flock to the seafront to swim or to one of the restaurants for drinks.  One of the big open squares is the old Roman Forum around which many different churches cluster and the pavements are scattered with worked marble 'debris'.  The colours are fantastic - bright white marble, terracotta roofs, bright blue sky, green trees and shimmering blue sea.  We quickly headed to the sea front to seek relief from the heat in the water and found ourselves at the Zadar Sea Organ.  This is an amazing piece of public artwork cum public recreation area.  At first it just looks like a series of staggered steps leading into the sea, but as you draw nearer, you hear the hypnotic organ music created by the waves pressurising different chambers within the promenade.  It was designed by the Zadar architect Nikola Basic and is unique in the world.  What a fantastic way of using the sea's energy to create a public space used by locals and tourists alike.  Next to the sea organ is the Sun Salutaton, also created by Basic.  This is a disc, 22m in diameter, and set into the promenade.  During the day this looks like a blue disc with small solar cells in it.  By night, it is a light spectacular with LED bulbs creating ever changing coloured light patterns.  The Sun Salutation collects enough energy to power all the street lights along the promenade too! 

The Sea Organ is the most pleasant piece of marine architecture that we've ever experienced.

The Sun Salutation during the day - this odd blue disc covered in solar cells.

A crowd collects at dusk in anticipation of the display.

Dusk and the spectacular display begins.

The light spectacular is best once the sky has turned black

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the cool gardens in the old town, wandering polished streets and being surrounded by old architecture.  Another highlight for us was a visit to the Museum of Ancient Glass which showcases the history and invention of glass with displays of the old tools and examples of early vessels from Egypt and Mesopotamia.  During Roman occupation it was thought that there was a large glass factory set up in Zadar and a large number of items are on display that have been recovered from within the city's boundaries.  Many of these are exquisite and of unusual shapes and include everything from goblets, jars and plates, to jewellery, amulets, funeral jars etc.  They have 2 glass artists stationed at the Museum - one who works with glass blowing (who unfortunately had the day off when we visited) and one who makes glass beads.  We spent about an hour watching the lady making beads, heating the glass, dabbing on colours, pricking the glass, redabbing on colours and always heating, heating, heating to bring out the different colours of the glass.

Lucy looking out at the islands from the Promenade.

St Anastasia Cathedral is a marvel of ornate marble work with a simple wooden planked ceiling and that famous radial 'rose' window typical of medieval churches; while the Church of St Donat (which dates from the 9th century) is now a museum space.  The latter is built on part of the old Roman Forum and the foundations for the church use broken pieces of marble from the old Roman temple that stood in the vicinity.  The display in St Donat was fascinating and exhibited artefacts that show evidence of what they think was Roman Cinema!  These consist of bronze wedges that make up a circular slide projector and a collection of (broken) hand painted glass slides showing images that vary slightly from plate to plate - almost like those flick movie books that you get.  It was fascinating and if it is indeed evidence of an early projector, then this puts movie making almost 1000 years earlier than previously thought.

Some of the remaining Roman architecture.

The Roman Forum with St Donat Church and St Anastasia Cathedral

St Anastasia's radial rose windows at night

A recent statue addition to the Forum

The view from the top of the bell tower for St Anastasia gives a 360 degree vista of Zadar Old Town and looks out to the nearby islands.  Well worth the climb up the 4 long flights of stairs!

Looking down on the Roman Forum and St Donat Church from the bell tower

After 2 and a half days exploring the city by ourselves, the rest of our team for the yacht charter started to arrive.  First Lucy's parents Neville and Diny arrived and while we were exploring the town with them, we bumped into Jenny and Jamie Hart who were also joining us. 

Next stop: Olive Marina where we pick up our charter yacht and meet up with Geoff's folks and his aunt Jenny.