How to see Zadar, Croatia: A self-guided walking tour

A nearly 3.5km walk circumnavigating Zadar's Old Town is a journey across a timeline that spans nearly every stage of Croatian history. Photo / Sara Granic, The New York Times

A nearly 2-mile walk circumnavigating Zadar’s Old Town is a journey across a timeline that spans nearly every stage of Croatian history. And it’s a long history, dating back to the 9th century BC, when the Liburnians first settled this peninsular spit of land on Croatia’s spectacular Dalmatian coast.

Start your stroll on the northwest corner of the peninsula at the Morske Orgulje, or Sea Organ: a set of 35 pipes spread under a 70m section of the city’s seaside promenade, known as the Riva. Awarded the 2006 European Prize for Urban Public Space, the Morske Orgulje plays beautifully discordant melodies as the Adriatic laps the stone and pushes air through the pipes beneath — converting the walkway into an invisible, ethereal orchestra.

After the tidal concert, continue past the Greeting to the Sun installation (you’ll have a chance to linger there at the end of your walk) and around the Old Town’s northeast corner.

Continue southeast, walking along Zadar’s harbour-facing walls, constructed and reinforced between the 12th and 17th centuries as part of the Venetian Republic’s Adriatic defence network.

Before moving on, stop at the Garden Lounge, which sits atop the fortifications with views of ferries shuttling passengers to nearby islands, for a local Garden IPA (€3.50, or about $6.15), then walk along the walls until you reach the City Bridge on your left. Take a right through the Nova Vrata, or New Gate — an archway built during Italy’s pre-World War II occupation — and into the pedestrian-only Old Town.

Make your way to People’s Square. The city’s cafe-strewn main piazza is the site of Town Hall and is defined, on its western edge, by the street known locally as Kalelarga, Zadar’s main thoroughfare since the Romans laid its grid in the first century BC.

Hang a left on the ancient avenue’s southern extension, Elizabete Kotromanic Street, which changes names three times as you pass the coral-coloured Baroque Church of St. Simeon, walk under a solitary pillar from Zadar’s Roman Forum, and cross the expansive Petar Zoranic Square, where you can view layers of history — Roman and medieval — frozen in time under glass.

Go right onto Trg Pet Bunara Street, which leads to Five Wells Square. Guarded by the 26m Kapetanova Kula (Captain’s Tower), the wells provided the city water during a 16th-century, Ottoman Empire siege. Climb the stairs to the tranquil Queen Jelena Madijevka Park, established in the early 1800s as one of the region’s first public parks. From this elevated vantage, you’ll look south over tiny Fosa Harbour and your next two stops.

The Sea Organ, a set of 35 pipes spread under a 70m section of Zadar's seaside promenade, known as the Riva. Photo / Sara Granic, The New York Times

The first is the monumental Land Gate, the most ornate of the wall entrances, built in 1543 with carvings of Venice’s winged lion and Zadar’s patron saint, Chrysogonus. Then walk halfway down the harbour, where it opens to the sea, and take a waterside table at Restaurant Fosa. The grilled sea bass with sunchoke puree and vegetables (€34.50) and a glass of local white pošip wine (€7) will provide fuel for your journey’s final stretch.

At the harbour’s end, turn north to walk the length of the 19th-century Riva, the city’s seaside esplanade. “The Riva is where friends and family meet,” said Iva Bencun, the managing director of Zadar Outdoor Festival, which hosts activities both here and on the island of Ugljan, a 25-minute ferry ride across the channel. “This is also where we find peace and realise our troubles are not that big after all.”

As daylight wanes, find your own peace near the Riva’s pier to witness the city’s famous sunset, which Alfred Hitchcock once called “the world’s most beautiful”. With the scattered ruins of the Roman Forum, dating to the first century BC and the cylindrical, ninth-century Church of St. Donat behind you, follow the sun’s last flash into the sea. Then, finish your loop, appropriately, at Greeting to the Sun, a circle of nearly 380sq m of solar panels embedded in the promenade that absorb energy all day and provide a pulsing light show all night.

Fosa Harbour in Zadar, Croatia. Photo / Sara Granic, The New York Times

Distance: 2.8km

Difficulty: Easy

Time to walk: About two hours, allowing time to linger.

Good for kids: Yes. The mostly car-free walk mixes history, the sea and science into a fun, varied outing.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Words: Alex Crevar

Photos: Maria Mavropoulou