Zadar Cathedral

Zadar Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Zadar's cathedral is free to enter, and the bell tower beside it charges a small fee for the climb, which is the thing to plan around. The tower is nearly two hundred steps and gives the best view in the city, over the Roman forum, the peninsula and the islands beyond. Walking tours of the old town cover the cathedral, the round church of Saint Donatus next to it, the forum pavement and the modern installations at the tip of the peninsula, the sea organ and the solar circle, in about ninety minutes.

That is the right combination, because the whole point of Zadar is the layering of Roman, medieval and contemporary within two hundred metres. Boat trips to the Kornati islands and buses to the Plitvice lakes leave from nearby and take a full day each. The cathedral closes for services and over lunch in some seasons, so check the board rather than assuming.

Visiting Zadar Cathedral: what to see

This is the largest church in Dalmatia, built mostly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries over a Christian basilica of the fourth and fifth. Its patron arrived as a gift: the ashes of Anastasia of Sirmium were sent from Constantinople in the ninth century, and the stone sarcophagus made for them stands in a side apse. The west front is the finest Romanesque facade on the eastern Adriatic, with blind arcading in tiers and two rose windows, the upper one Romanesque and the lower Gothic.

Inside, the nave keeps its medieval columns and a raised choir with carved wooden stalls of the fifteenth century, among the best in the region. A crypt runs beneath the sanctuary. The Venetians and crusaders wrecked the church during the siege of 1202 and it took most of the following century to repair; Allied bombing in 1943 and 1944 destroyed large parts of it again, and much of what you see is careful post-war reconstruction.

Zadar Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

The best hour in Zadar is the one before sunset, which is a local cliche with some basis: the sun goes down over the islands directly beyond the sea organ, five minutes from the cathedral, and the whole town walks out to watch it. Do the tower in the late afternoon and walk to the point afterwards. Summer is crowded, with ferry traffic and a long season from June to September; May and October are far more pleasant and the swimming is still possible. The tower closes in bad weather.

The cathedral hosts concerts as part of the summer music festival, and the acoustics in the round church next door are better still. The morning market a few streets away is the place to buy fruit and cheese. Winter is quiet and windy, with the bora blowing hard down the channel. Allow an hour for the church and tower together. Zadar is also the cheapest of the Dalmatian cities for food, and the konobas in the side lanes are still used by residents.