Exploring Zadar

Friday, October 19

Our first stop was at the church of Saint Simeon.  Inside, where no photos were permitted, we found the Chest of Saint Simeon which holds the relics of the named saint.  The chest, made by local goldsmiths in the late 1370s, is considered a masterpiece and is under the protection of UNESCO.

Next was the Church of Saint Anastasia which dates from the fourth and fifth centuries.  It was rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Romanesque style.  This church is home to the Zadar Catholic Archdiocese and is the largest church in Dalmatia.  The interior is distinguished by stone colonnades connected by arches which support a second level.  The stonework is rather plain but contrasts nicely with the Baroque style altarpieces.

(Church of Saint Anastasia)

Nearby we visited the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Elias.  It’s a lovely little church with a very tall bell tower.  It has the typical golden iconostasis and has whitewashed walls in place of the usual frescos.  In the back was a three tier balcony made of carved stone.

(Iconostasis from the Church of Saint Elias)

The last church of the day was the Church of our Lady of Health.  It’s a small Roman Catholic church with a very plain interior.  The church was severely damaged by bombs in Croatia’s War of Independence against Serbia in 1991.  Some of decorative elements of the outside of the church used original stones in the reconstruction but the church was substantially rebuilt.

Our last stop of the day was to the Museum of Archeology.  The museum is said to include exhibits from pre-historic times until Roman times.  Entry was 30 KN / $5.00 per person.  Cash only.

The museum starts on the second floor in pre-historic times.  There were several informational panels and display cases full on uninteresting rocks.  It quickly moved through paleo/neolithic times to the stone, copper, bronze and iron ages.  There we saw displays made up of flints, arrowheads and axes.

The next section went directly to Roman times.  There were a couple of nice mosaics that had been taken from elsewhere in town, a few pieces of gold jewelry and lots of carved stones from building pediments.  Near the end there were four statues of famous Romans from the Imperial period.  Two were nearly complete and two were unrecognizable.

(Augustus Represented as Jupiter) 

We zipped through the museum in less than one hour.  The displays were not particularly interesting nor were they informative.  None of the pieces were particularly special or rare and many of the artifacts were in poor condition.  We could not recommend this museum especially in light of the very high ticket prices.

For lunch we got sandwiches and, once again, sat by the waterfront and amused ourselves by watching the boat traffic.

Distance walked: 4.9 miles

Saturday, October 20

We walked back to the old town and hunted for a coffee shop that was highly recommended named Kavana Danica.  As usual we ordered two cappuccinos.  When they arrived we discovered that it was Franck brand coffee that we’d had in Zagreb.  We liked the coffee but had been looking forward to trying something new.

We’ve made an interesting observation since we’ve been in Croatia.  All of the coffee houses have exceptionally good foam in their cappuccinos.  It’s thick, creamy and composed of small, dense bubbles.  We’ve tried many different brands of coffee and many different coffee houses (and doubtless many different expresso machines) and the foam is very consistent.  We suspect it may have to do with the milk.

After coffee we walked over to the far side of the fortress.  We found a barbican and a gate with intricate carvings.  We continued passed another marina and were once again on the western side.  What did we see in the water: over 150 sailboats of every size, type and class were gathered near one of the piers.  It looked like the setup for a regatta.  We walked over to the northern end of the peninsula where we had a good vantage point near the Sea Organ.

What is a Sea Organ?  It’s a very interesting installation done in 2005 as part of the reconstruction of the waterfront after the devastation suffered during World War II.  Movement of the water pushes air through pipes at water level underneath marble stairs that lead to the sea.  The area under the stairs is hollow and serves to amplify the sound.  The configuration of the stairs is said to resemble the organ’s keyboard.  When nearby boats cause a wake the organ gets louder and higher pitches are produced.  The organ doesn’t actually play anything resembling a tune but the sounds are soothing and organic (no pun intended).

Sea Organ Video

We watched the regatta for some time.  Different classes of boats took turns crossing in front of us to get to the starting point where they would follow the prescribed course.  By the time they finished the course and headed back towards where we were they were flying their colorful spinnakers.

Eating out in Zadar has been a real problem.  The restaurants are, compared to Zagreb, horribly expensive.  What’s worse is that most of them have Google ratings in the 3 – 3.5 range.  That’s pretty bad.  It’s been a real challenge.  After searching for a while we found a small place that was off the main road.  We ordered čevapi with ajvar and fried calamari.  The food was fairly good.  We ordered a piece of rožata for dessert.  It’s a speciality of the Dalmatian coast area and was originated in Dubrovnik.  It’s a cross between a flan and a creme brûlée and comes with a rose flavored sauce.  We really hate flan but this was pretty good.  The total came to 150 KN / $24.00.  That’s a lot more than we’re used to spending and a lot more than we’d like to spend.  Sadly, it’s probably going to get worse as we go further south.

(Rožata for Dessert)

After lunch we tried to go to the Museum of Ancient Glass where they have glassblowing demonstrations.  We found out that the demonstrations ended a few minutes before we got there so we’ll go back on another day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at the Sea Organ watching the sailboats coming back to the harbor in the setting sun.  We didn’t do much but we had a great time.

Distance walked: 7.5 miles