CROATIA: Coastal Cities - Zadar, Sibenik and Split

We rented a car and drove down the Dalmatian Coast. 

Enroute, we had two nights in Zadar and were able to experience their famous sunset and listen to their Sea Organ.

The Sea Organ was opened in 2005 and was designed to rejuvenate the sea-front area. There are 35 organ pipes under the walkway. As the waves constantly move water in and out of the pipes of different lengths and sizes, music is formed. 

You can see the holes in the sidewalk where the sounds come out. The second row of steps in the far background were designed to look like piano keys. 

It is very soothing to look out to sea and listen to the ever changing music. Locals, and tourists, love to watch the sunset with the music in the background.

Having been inhabited by the Romans many centuries ago, Zadar has old Roman ruins. In front of the circular Catholic San Donato church, started in the 9th century, is what used to be a Roman forum. It now sits basically empty.

Zadar was also occupied by the Venetians at one time. There are several Venetian gates into the old town. 

The old town is on a peninsula and on the other side of the gates and water is the "new" Zadar. A lot of the city of Zadar was destroyed during the Balkan War in the 1990's. We did a couple of walking tours with a Balkan war focus in both Zagreb and Zadar. They brought home the situation in a much more personal way than the news media can.

I have to mention that our AirBnb host in Zadar was extraordinary. He had the fridge stocked for us with cheeses, meats, tomatoes, eggs, milk, yogurt, fruit, etc. and the other important essentials - wine, beer and homemade grappa. Later, when he looked at John's passport and realized it was John's birthday, he went out and bought John a birthday cake, birthday candles, birthday card and more beer. (Which made him very popular with John!) Tomislav accepted our gratitude with a shrug of his shoulders and said "I am not a good businessman". Many, many thanks to our gracious, thoughtful and generous host, Tomislav, who made our stay in Zadar very special. 

We then drove further south along the coast and stayed in Sibenik. 

The Cathedral of St James is a 15th century unique fusion of Gothic and Renaissance architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has a triple-nave basilica made of stone and is the most important Renaissance monument in the country.

It was built in 3 stages by 3 architects over 100 years (1442 to 1535). If you think about that for a moment, you'll realize that no one worked on this from beginning to end. Several generations of workers contributed to the start and completion of this cathedral. 

Our tour guide was passionate about the architecture of the building. He explained to us how a short church was designed to look much longer and bigger on the inside than it actually was by making the altar higher, amongst other unique design features. 

One of its other claims to fame are the 71 sculptured faces on the exterior. Nobody knows who they belong to. There is speculation they are the faces of the people that worked on the church and lived in the area. As a closet feminist, I did notice a couple of women's faces, which I consider it to be unusual to represent and acknowledge women in that era. Kudos to the women that were represented, and, kudos to the men that included them.

The town square beside the Cathedral is a central meeting place and starts the climb up.

There were lots of stairs to keep everyone in shape. 

And more stairs up.

I am not generally into cemeteries, but this one has awesome views (after climbing up more stairs). I am not going to say "people are dying to get into this place" because it is just too cliché to say that. 

Driving further south we spent 2 nights in Split, the largest city on the Dalmatian coast. 

Their biggest attraction that most people come to see is the Diocletian Palace of a Roman Emperor. 

It was a bit confusing for me to follow at first because I couldn't figure out if it was a Palace, 

a fortress,

a military garrison, summer home, or retirement home.

Turns out it was all of them! The designs started as a summer home, then since there were military threats, it became a fortress. Then it became a retirement home for the Diocletian. 

He had "borrowed" 8 Egyptian sphinxes and shipped them to his Palace. Only one complete one remains.

The palace had its own temple for Roman worship that included a mausoleum for the Diocletian. 

As religious turmoil and battles continued to plague the area for centuries, when it became a Christian territory, it was "repurposed" and the temple became a Catholic church, which it still is.

There is a bell tower, which we climbed.

It was a steep slog up. 

We were rewarded with awesome views. 

The walk passed the bells in the tower. Fortunately they did not ring while we were near them.

 At the end of every day we had an awesome sunset from the window of our Airbnb.

Next on the agenda is taking the ferry from Split to explore some of the islands.

There were some "interesting" moments on our ferry rides. More later....