Old Town
Guide to Zadar Old Town
The Old Town fills a walled peninsula where the Roman forum, St Donatus, Kalelarga and Five Wells Square all sit within a ten minute walk of each other.
Zadar's Old Town occupies a peninsula barely six hundred metres across, entered through the Venetian Land Gate or from the footbridge at the north end. The Roma…Zadar's Old Town occupies a peninsula barely six hundred metres across, entered through the Venetian Land Gate or from the footbridge at the north end. The Roman forum is the centre of it: an open paved square laid out in the first century, with the round ninth-century church of St Donatus standing on its rubble and the cathedral of St Anastasia alongside. Kalelarga, officially Siroka ulica, runs the length of the peninsula as the main street, and Narodni trg with its Renaissance guard house is the square most people end up crossing several times a day.
Almost everything a visitor comes for is inside these walls. The Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Ancient Glass hold the Roman material, Five Wells Square backs onto the Queen Jelena Madijevka park on the old bastion, and the western tip of the peninsula carries the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun on the waterfront steps. Restaurants and bars cluster along the lanes off Kalelarga and around the forum, and a large share of the city's small hotels and apartments are in the same few streets. The peninsula is pedestrian, so arriving by car means parking outside the walls and walking in.
Nearby places in Zadar
Other places around the bay, sorted by distance.
Kolovare
Kolovare is the beach nearest the Old Town, a fifteen minute walk south east along the shore, backed by a promenade of cafes and a handful of hotels.
Borik
Borik is Zadar's resort strip four kilometres north west of the Old Town, with most of the larger hotels, a marina, a campsite and the city's main swimming beach.
Gazenica
Gazenica is Zadar's ferry and cruise port, four kilometres south east of the Old Town, handling the island lines and the large ships that once used the city quay.
Diklo
Diklo is a quiet coastal suburb north west of Borik, mostly apartments and family houses along a low rocky shore with small coves and long sunset views.
Petrcane
Petrcane is a village on a wooded headland twelve kilometres north west of Zadar, with pine-backed coves, a small harbour and the Punta Skala resort complex.
Sukosan
Sukosan lies ten kilometres south east of Zadar and holds Marina Dalmacija, one of the largest marinas on the Adriatic and the usual start point for a yacht charter.