Zadar: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Zadar sits on a narrow peninsula that has been a town without a break for about three thousand years — Liburnian, Roman, Byzantine, Croatian, Venetian, Italian — and each left its layer in the same few streets. Much of it was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, so old stones stand beside postwar blocks. Ninety minutes, flat.
A short history of Zadar
The Illyrian Liburnian tribe lived here before the Romans turned the place into the city of Iader, and its Roman forum is still open in the city centre. In the 9th century the round Church of St Donatus was built beside it, and it became the symbol of the city. In 1202 the men of the Fourth Crusade attacked Zadar and sacked it on behalf of Venice, even though it was a Christian city. Venice ruled it on and off until 1797. Between 1920 and 1947 Zadar belonged to Italy, and in the Second World War much of it was destroyed by bombing. In 2005 the 'Sea Organ' was inaugurated on the waterfront: pipes beneath the steps that are played by the waves.
The ten best sights in Zadar
1Sea OrganMarble steps that play music with the waves; sit at sunset
2Greeting to the SunA glass circle that stores the day’s sun and lights up at night
3St DonatusA round ninth-century church built of Roman stones
4Roman ForumThe largest forum on the eastern Adriatic, open to walk across
5St Anastasia CathedralClimb the bell tower over the peninsula
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6Gold and Silver of Zadar
The church treasures the nuns kept through every war
7St ChrysogonusA Romanesque church with an apse of blind arcades
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8Museum of Ancient Glass
Roman perfume bottles and glass from local tombs
9Narodni trgThe Venetian square of the town loggia and guardhouse
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10Five Wells Square
Five well heads over a cistern built for a siege
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Zadar →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Zadar:
Free walking tours in Zadar
Three thousand years on a peninsula
Zadar sits on a narrow peninsula that has been a town without a break for about three thousand years — Liburnian, Roman, Byzantine, Croatian, Venetian, Italian — and each left its layer in the same few streets. Much of it was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, so old stones stand beside postwar blocks. Ninety minutes, flat.
- Land Gate · The Venetians rebuilt the walls in the sixteenth century against the Ottomans, whose border was only a few kilometres inland, and this triumphal gate of 1543 carries the winged lion of St Mark. Zadar’s walls are part of a world heritage site of Venetian defences.
- Five Wells Square · In 1574, with the Ottomans close, the Venetians built a great cistern under this square so the town could survive a siege, with five well heads in a row above it. It served the town’s water until the nineteenth century.
- Narodni trg · The square of the town’s public life since the Renaissance, with the loggia where the court sat and the town guardhouse with its clock tower. The main street, the Kalelarga, follows the line of the Roman decumanus to the forum.
- Gold and Silver of Zadar · The Benedictine nuns of St Mary’s convent guarded the church treasures of Zadar for centuries — reliquaries, chalices, embroidered vestments. During the bombings of the Second World War they hid them, and later persuaded the authorities to show them here, in a permanent exhibition next to the convent.
- Roman Forum · The forum, founded under Augustus, was the largest on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. Its paving lies open in the middle of town, and one of its columns, left standing, was used in the Middle Ages as a pillar of shame where wrongdoers were chained.
- St Donatus · A tall round church of the ninth century, built straight on the Roman forum pavement out of whatever Roman stone was at hand — column drums, altars and inscriptions can still be seen in its walls and foundations. It has not been used as a church for two centuries, and its acoustics make it a concert hall.
The sea that plays
At the western tip of the peninsula Zadar did something unusual with its rebuilt waterfront: an architect, Nikola Bašić, turned it into an instrument played by the sea and a disc that greets the sun. This is a short evening walk to end at sunset, which Alfred Hitchcock is said to have called the most beautiful in the world.
- Barkajoli · For centuries rowing boatmen have carried people across the narrow harbour between the old town and the Brodarica quarter, standing and rowing with two oars. The service still runs, for a coin, a crossing of about a minute.
- St Chrysogonus · Zadar’s patron saint was a Roman martyr, and this twelfth-century church of his, with its apse decorated with a row of slender blind arches, is one of the finest Romanesque buildings in Dalmatia. Inside are thirteenth-century frescoes.
- St Anastasia Cathedral · The largest cathedral in Dalmatia, with a Romanesque façade of rose windows. Its bell tower was left unfinished for centuries and completed only in the 1890s, to the design of an English architect, Thomas Graham Jackson. The climb gives the whole peninsula and the islands.
- Sea Organ · Opened in 2005, the Sea Organ is thirty-five pipes of different lengths built into seventy metres of white marble steps. The waves push air through them, and the sound comes out of holes in the top step — random chords that change with the sea, never the same twice.
- Greeting to the Sun · Next to the organ, a circle twenty-two metres across made of three hundred glass solar panels. By day it collects the sun’s energy; after sunset it lights up in patterns of colour that follow the sound of the organ, and children dance on it.
- Museum of Ancient Glass · Roman tombs around Zadar held one of the richest collections of ancient glass found anywhere outside Italy — perfume bottles, cups and urns blown two thousand years ago. The museum shows them in a nineteenth-century palace by the harbour.
The town of the Croatian kings
Twenty minutes north of Zadar, the little island town of Nin was the first seat of the Croatian bishops and, by tradition, a place where early Croatian kings were crowned. Around it are salt pans, a lagoon of healing mud and long sandy beaches; beyond, the coast road leads to the canyons of the Velebit. A full day and a car.
- Holy Cross, Nin · A tiny white church of the ninth century, often called the smallest cathedral in the world. Its windows and walls are arranged so that the sun marks the solstices and equinoxes on its floor, and it may have served as a calendar.
- Gregory of Nin · Gregory, bishop of Nin in the tenth century, fought for the right to say mass in Croatian rather than Latin. The sculptor Ivan Meštrović made a giant statue of him for Split; this is a smaller copy, and visitors rub its big toe, now worn shiny, for luck.
- Queen’s Beach, Nin · A long sandy beach with shallow warm water, rare on the rocky Croatian coast, and behind it a lagoon whose mud is used as a cure for rheumatism — people coat themselves in it and dry in the sun.
- Maslenica Bridge · A single concrete arch over the narrow sea channel where the Adriatic reaches inland. In the war of the 1990s the old bridge was destroyed and Dalmatia was nearly cut off from the north of Croatia until a pontoon was built here.
- Zrmanja Canyon · A green river winding through a deep white limestone gorge on its way to the sea. In the 1960s the canyons around here stood in for the American West in the German Winnetou films, and the river is now rafted and kayaked.
- Paklenica · Two canyons cut into the Velebit, the mountain wall that rises straight behind the coast. The cliffs of the Velika Paklenica gorge are one of the main rock-climbing sites of Europe, and a path leads up the canyon to a mountain hut.
Getting to Zadar and getting around
- Zadar Airport · About twenty minutes to the old town; buses meet the flights
- Barkajoli · Rowing boats that ferry people across the harbour for a coin
Cheap eats in Zadar
Zadar’s own drink is Maraschino, a clear cherry liqueur distilled from the sour marasca cherry, made here since the sixteenth century and once served at the courts of Europe. The food is northern Dalmatian: Pag cheese, hard and salty from sheep that graze on herbs and sea salt; Pag lamb; scampi cooked buzara in wine, garlic and breadcrumbs; and salt from the pans of Nin. A wedge of Pag cheese and a glass of wine cost a few euro at the market bars.
- Zadar Market · Pag cheese, figs and the morning fish
- Narodni trg · A glass of Maraschino in the old town
- Holy Cross, Nin · Salt from the pans of Nin
- Barkajoli · Scampi buzara by the harbour
- Galevac · Grilled fish in the island villages
- Kolovare · Beach bars and ice cream
Museums in Zadar
Zadar’s museums are small and good: Roman glass, church gold guarded by nuns, an archaeological museum on the forum, and a ninth-century church built from Roman stones.
- Museum of Ancient Glass · Roman glass from local tombs
- Gold and Silver of Zadar · The nuns’ treasury
- St Donatus · Roman stones in a ninth-century church
- Roman Forum · The forum and the archaeological museum
- Holy Cross, Nin · The calendar church and Nin’s museum
Nature and day trips near Zadar
Zadar faces an archipelago of hundreds of islands, from green Ugljan close by to the bare white Kornati, and behind it rises the Velebit, a mountain wall cut by canyons. Inland is the largest natural lake in Croatia.
- Kornati · A day boat to the bare islands
- Telašćica · A salt lake and sea cliffs
- Paklenica · The canyon walk into the Velebit
- Zrmanja Canyon · Rafting and kayaks
- Vransko Lake · Birds in the reed beds
- Galevac · Swim to the monastery islet
Things to do in Zadar with kids
Children love Zadar’s waterfront: steps that sing, a floor that lights up at night, a rowing boat across the harbour, and shallow sandy beaches at Nin.
- Greeting to the Sun · Dance on the lights after sunset
- Sea Organ · Listen to the sea play
- Barkajoli · A rowing boat across the harbour
- Queen’s Beach, Nin · Shallow sand and mud baths
- Gregory of Nin · Rub the giant toe
- Kolovare · The town beach
Holy places in Zadar
Zadar is a city of early churches, from the ninth-century round church to Romanesque basilicas, and Nin was the cradle of the Croatian church, where a bishop fought for mass in the people’s language.
- St Anastasia Cathedral · The largest cathedral in Dalmatia
- St Chrysogonus · The church of the patron saint
- St Donatus · The round church on the forum
- Holy Cross, Nin · The smallest cathedral
- Galevac · A Franciscan monastery on an islet
Nightlife in Zadar
Zadar’s night begins on the steps of the Sea Organ at sunset and moves into the bars of the old town lanes and along the harbour. In summer there are festivals on the islands and beach clubs at Zrće on nearby Pag.
- Sea Organ · The sunset on the singing steps
- Greeting to the Sun · The light show after dark
- Narodni trg · Bars along the Kalelarga
- St Donatus · Summer concerts in the round church
- Barkajoli · Harbour bars across the water
Frequently asked questions about Zadar
What is there to see in Zadar?
The top sights in Zadar are Sea Organ, Greeting to the Sun and St Donatus. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Zadar?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Zadar without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Zadar?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Zadar, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Three thousand years on a peninsula.
How do you get to Zadar and get around?
The main ways are Zadar Airport and Barkajoli. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Zadar, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Zadar that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Zadar for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.