Zadar Churches

The round church of St Donatus is the building on every photograph of this city, begun in the ninth century directly on the Roman forum and built partly from its stones, with column drums visible in the base of the walls. It has not held services for two centuries and is used instead for early music, because the bare interior carries sound.

Beside it stands the cathedral of St Anastasia, the largest Romanesque church in Dalmatia, with blind arcades and two rose windows on the west front and a bell tower that can be climbed for the best view of the peninsula. Across the square the Benedictine nuns of St Mary have held their site since 1066 and show the reliquaries and church silver known as the Gold and Silver of Zadar, kept safe through every siege the city survived. All three sit within two minutes of each other.