Day 84 Zadar has an old face!

Wednesday 13/06/2018 Apartments Cirjak 411 Sveti Petar na moru, Sveti Petar, 23207, Croatia

Today is tour day... CRUICKSHANK Self guided tour day... off fairly early to Zadar for a day of sight seeing...

Finding a park turned into a long term project, it was only 10am but m goodness was it a buzzing little place, and not a car park insight... however we did see a heap of parking officers doing the rounds checking if people had paid and on the phone to the tow trucks if they hadn’t... just reading up on the way here about parking in Zadar apparently getting your car towed away happens a lot... they don’t tolerate unpaid cars taking up soa e for paying users... so we drove around and around trying to find a spot, must have taken us about 40 mins but eventually we scored. By accident than good fortune... we had gone into a car park instead of the streets and got ourselves stuck in there, and John was trying to get us out when a guy was getting in his car... he motioned for us to go in his spot... fortunately we could back in once he had manoeuvred himself out, talk about a tight squeeze... unreal... but finally we could go sight seeing just had to work out how to pay at the parking machine... only had enough money for 3 hrs then we will have to come back..which we ended up doing to finish if all the sights...

Where we had parked was fair square in the middle of the main forum so a lot of what we wanted to see very fortunately was right in front of us...
St Donata Church, [At the beginning of the 9th century the Zadar bishop Donatus and the city duke Paul mediated in the dispute between the Holy Roman empire under Pepin and the Byzantine Empire. The Franks held Zadar for a short time, but the city was returned to Byzantium by a decision of the 812 Treaty of Aachen.]

The ancient Roman ruins forum, St Mary’s, the Bell Tower, the Pillar of Shame, St Elias’s and from this point it was a spring board in every direction not far to heaps of other sights...

I needed some tablets we had run out of a chemist was just as we got up from our cuppa... so that was a good start.. The place we had our cuppa was inside and out and fortunately we choose to sit outside, because when i went inside to the loo it was full of smoke, I don’t think there was a table where there wasn’t a smoker... and there had to be over 20 tables... unreal just seeing how many smoke here, it’s like a right of passage to be an adult... I guess it’s not that long ago it was the same in our country... you just notice it so much now we have less and less smoking when we are out now!

A list follows below!...most if not all of what we actually did see in our 6 hrs here... was nearly everything in the list...fortunately the town wasn’t overrun with too many tourists except an altercation with some Korean ones who push me out of the way or tried to as I was taking some pics over the small marina next to the old city wall.....I was up on the top city wall looking down from under the shade of a tree minding my own business... Taking some pics, there was no one else there but a John and I, next thing I am surrounded by Koreans or Chinese not sure which and in their usual style pushing you out of the way so they could get the best spots to take their picks... I did become vocal calling them rude and pushy, but they didn’t even know I was there, just got on with their job at hand while their tour guide continued talking, while they happily snapped away...
I stomped off cranky didn’t know why they were completely obvious to me even being there... then we headed down along the ocean front away from the hordes...
we wandered around most of the day from one spot to the next... even got to hear the sea organ in get firm with the wind blowing very well today...
It’s just like the singing ship at Emu Park, but actually like steps going into the water..it’s the wind and waves make it sing.....unlike ours at Emu Park which is just wind...

We only paid to go up the Bell Tower as every single church you had to pay to go in and then most you could take pics... I know I have said this before but I think it’s a total rip of church’s charging for you to go into them... it’s just not a good witness even if they are old and have amazing relics in them... it’s just my opinion and nit everyone would agree with me...

We ran into the polish couple from our cruise the other day... they were about to leave Zadar, they stopped for a minute then off they headed, we were sitting having lunch...

We watched people going across the Most Bridge it links The Old City to the New City... Luka Port on the left sure of the bridge from the Old city is filled with floating$$$$ big Cruisers, Yachts and tourist ships and boats taking the many tourists in tours... the streets were wide in most areas, clean and had interesting little cafes and restaurants tucked here there and everywhere....

I did hav a guy yell at me for taking his paintings, but for once I actually wasn taking his pictures I was shooting the alley as it looked so interesting..l when I told him I wasn’t taking his paintings I don’t think he believed me, so I showed him the picture and he calmed down... ohh a good eye for detail he said... I guess they get sick of people trying to rip of their style and once I actually looked at his paintings, hadn’t noticed them before... he was a very different type of artist 👨‍🎤..So he was entitled to want to protect it...For once I was innocent!

All in all we had a great day worth seeing, did miss going to the Glass museum though and it would have been good to see the Greeting the sun solar lights near the Sea Organ, it’s supposed to look unreal a night... when we got there there were people on segways zipping all,over it...


It blows me away the sheer history of theses places.... we have no comprehension of the time lines these places date back to. So to se them for real is such a complete blessing and privilege..one I hope I will never take for granted..l


We did some last minute shopping on our way home for meat etc for dinner... I am actually very stumped what to cook at present.l. The never am at home, but when you get to the supermarket and try to find what you want and nothing is written in English it gets too hard trying to work it out.... in the end I opted to do,chicken Rissotto again easy and I still have ingredients I can use in it!
A great day again... worth looking at for sure..

Most important landmarks include:
Roman Forum – the largest on the eastern side of the Adriatic, founded by the first Roman Emperor Augustus, as shown by two stone inscriptions about its completion dating from the 3rd century.
Most Roman remains were used in the construction of the fortifications, but two squares are embellished with lofty marble columns; a Roman tower stands on the eastern side of the town; and some remains of a Roman aqueduct may be seen outside the ramparts.
Church of St. Donatus – a monumental round building from the 9th century in pre-Romanesque style, traditionally but erroneously said to have been erected on the site of a temple of Juno. It is the most important preserved structure of its period in Dalmatia; the massive dome of the rotunda is surrounded by a vaulted gallery in two stories which also extends around the three apses to the east. The church treasury contains some of the finest Dalmatian metalwork; notably the pastoral staff of Bishop Valaresso (1460).
St. Anastasia's Cathedral (Croatian: Sv. Stošija), basilica in Romanesque style built in the 12th to 13th century (high Romanesque style), the largest cathedral in Dalmatia.
The churches of St. Chrysogonus and St. Simeon are also architectural examples in the Romanesque style. The latter houses the ark or reliquary of St. Simeon (1380), made in gilted silver by Francesco Antonio da Milano under commission of queen Elizabeth of Hungary.
St Chrysogonus's Church – monumental Romanesque church of very fine proportions and refined Romanesque ornaments.
St Elijah's Church (Croatian: Sv. Ilija)
St Francis' Church, Gothic styled church, site of the signing of the Zadar Peace Treaty 1358. Its choir is home to several carved stalls, executed in 1394 by the Venetian Giovanni di Giacomo da Borgo San Sepolcro.
Five Wells Square
St Mary's Church, which retains a fine Romanesque campanile from 1105, belongs to a Benedictine Convent founded in 1066 by a noblewoman of Zadar by the name of Cika with the permanent Ecclesiastical art exhibition "The Gold and Silver of Zadar".
The Citadel. Built in 1409 southwest of the Land Gate, it has remained the same to this day.
The Land Gate – built to a design by the Venetian architect Michele Sanmicheli in 1543
The unique sea organ
The greeting the sun solar lights
The Great Arsenal
Among the other chief buildings are the Loggia del Comune, rebuilt in 1565, and containing a public library; the old palace of the priors, now the governor's residence; and the episcopal palaces.

The history of Zadar:
Zadar (Croatian: [zâdar] (About this sound listen); see other names) is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serves as the seat of Zadar County and the wider northern Dalmatian region. The city proper covers 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi) with a population of 75,082 in 2011, making it the fifth-largest city in the nation.
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. Before the Illyrians, the area was inhabited by an ancient Mediterranean people of a pre-Indo-European culture. Zadar traces its origin to its 9th-century BC founding as a settlement of the Illyrian tribe of Liburnians known as Iader. 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. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and the destruction of Salona by the Avars and Croats in 614, Zadar became the capital of the Byzantine theme of Dalmatia. In the beginning of the 9th century, Zadar came under short Frankish rule, and was returned to the Byzantines by the Pax Nicephori in 812. The first Croatian rulers gained control over the city in 10th century.
In 1202, Zadar was conquered and burned by the Republic of Venice, which was helped by the Crusaders. Croats again regained control over the city in 1358, when it was given to the Croatian-Hungarian king Louis I. In 1409, king Ladislaus I sold Zadar to the Venetians. When the Turks conquered the Zadar hinterland at the beginning of the 16th century, the town became an important stronghold, ensuring Venetian trade in the Adriatic, the administrative center of the Venetian territories in Dalmatia and a cultural center. During this time, many famous Croatian writers, such as Petar Zoranić, Brne Krnarutić, Juraj Baraković and Šime Budinić, wrote in the Croatian language. After the fall of Venice in 1797, Zadar came under the Austrian rule until 1918, except for the period of short-term French rule (1805–1813), still remaining the capital of Dalmatia. During the French rule, the first newspaper in the Croatian language, Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin, was published in Zadar (1806–1810). During the 19th century, Zadar was a center of the Croatian movement for cultural and national revival, in a context of increasing polarization and politicization of ethnic identities between Croats and Dalmatian Italians.With the 1920 Treaty of Rapallo Zadar was given to the Kingdom of Italy. During World War II, it was heavily destroyed by the Allies and witnessed the evacuation of ethnic Italians. After liberation on 1 November 1944, it was ceded to Croatia, at the time federal constituent of the SFR Yugoslavia, whose armed forces defended it in October 1991 from the Serb forces who aimed to capture it. 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.

Historical affiliations
Liburnia (9th century BC – 59 BC)
Roman Empire (59 BC – 476)
Byzantine Empire (476–800)
Carolingian Empire (800–812)
Byzantine Empire (812 – 10th century)
Kingdom of Croatia (10th century – 1202)
Republic of Venice (1202–1358)
Kingdom of Croatia (1358–1409)
Republic of Venice (1409–1797)
Austrian Empire Habsburg Monarchy (1797–1804)
Austrian Empire Austrian Empire (1804–1805)
Napoleonic Italy (1806–1809)
France Illyrian Provinces (1809–1813)
Austrian Empire Austria-Hungary (1813–1918)
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (1918)
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918–1920)
Kingdom of Italy (1920–1944)
Yugoslavia ( SR Croatia) (1944–1991)
Croatia (1991–present)Meer informatie