Zadar Croatia Traveler Info

Zadar is one of the oldest cities on the Adriatic. Its almost three thousand years origins are the reason why Zadar is full of historical and cultural monuments. Today Zadar is a preserved monument of different historical times and cultures that have placed their mark in the urban appearance. Full of archives, museums and libraries, it is the keeper of literary and musical treasure and it is also the city inside which is the oldest University among Croatians (1396).

Zadar and its surroundings are at the very top of the Croatian tourist offer. That tourist offer is diverse and rich with seaside and countryside sights that are worth visiting. Zadar area is made of archipelago that counts 24 bigger and about 300 smaller islets and rocks, 3 nature parks – Telašćica, Velebit and Vransko lake and 5 national parks—Paklenica, Plitvice lakes, Kornati Islands, Krka and Sjeverni Velebit.

How to get to Zadar?

Zadar is an easily reached destination by land, sea and air. It has a good road connection with all the bigger cities in Croatia and Europe. Airport in Zadar is located only 9 kilometers from the city center and the ferry port is newly built and has sufficient capacity for tourist and local needs. You can plan your route via michellin route planner.

What to see in Zadar?

First of all, you must see unforgettable sunsets over Zadar! Words can not describe this, not even photos. This is MUST SEE. I am local, living in Split, I have seen this magic sunset twice so far. Colors are spectacularly intensive and sunset is spread on the entire sky so you are looking at 180 degrees wide and all over the sky.

When in Zadar there are many things to see. Here are the ones that are definitely a must see.
Sea Organ is on the western end of Promenade. The organ looks like a series of broad steps that are leading down into the water. This site is a magnificent blend of human ideas and skills accompanied with the energy of the sea, waves, tide and flood that create pleasant notes. The sea organ never sounds the same twice because the sea is always shifting and changing. Each sound you hear is completely unique. The architect Nikola Bašić that built the sea organs got a European prize for Urban Public Space built.
The Greeting to the Sun on the end of Promenade and Zadar Peninsula show a true symbiosis of nature with modern architecture. Solar modules collect the sunlight throughout the day and make a symbolic communication with light, just like the Sea organs do with the waves.
The forum is a place where the church of Saint Donat and the Archbishop’s Palace are located. It is a municipal square from the time when Romans lived there and it was built in 1st century BC.
Church of Saint Donat is a symbol of the city of Zadar. It originates from the early Middle ages, from the 9th century and it is a best preserved monument from that time. Holy Masses and musical performances are still held in this church due to its extraordinary acoustic features.
St. Mary’s Church and Convent was constructed on 1091 and together with St. Donat church is one of the oldest preserved churches. Its most beautiful part is a bell tower built in Romanesque style. You can see in the church a permanent exhibition of the objects that date back to the 8th century and are one of the most valuables in Croatia.
Reactor’s Palace is cultural-historical complex that is renovated I 2017 and it became a new tourist attraction in Zadar. It holds a museum space, an atrium, concert hall, halls for temporary exhibitions, video gallery and spaces for creational workshops. Modernly renovated Rector´s Palace became a must-see-place in Zadar and won the annual Croatian tourist award in the category of cultural attractions in 2017.
Gold and Silver of Zadar is a permanent display located in the Benedictine Convent of St. Mary. It is set on the surface area of about 1200 square meters in modernly equipped halls. This priceless treasure has been preserved by the Benedictine nuns and holds many great works of the locally known and unknown masters of Zadar region.

To experience all beauties of Zadar, pamper yourself in one of our Zadar area villas for rent.

Marco Polo was Croatian Traveler and Explorer

born on the island of Korcula  in 1254. (in Venetian times it was part of the Venetian Republic and Korcula was called Curzola). Korcula takes big pride in being a birthplace of this worldly renowned traveler and to this day a surname Polo (another variant is De Polo) is present in Korčula. Marco’s father surname was Pilic, he was Dalmatian merchant from Korcula. Even today surname Pilic is widely spread Croatian surname. In time of Venetians ruling over Dalmatia, most of merchants and higher class people italianized their names and surnames into Italian variants, so Pilic changed his surname into Polo (in Croatian language Pilic means chicken, and also in Italian Pollo means chicken).
His birthplace house is restaurated on the remains of the Polo’s property, today turned into museum of Marco Polo and available for visitors. Despite its rather plain interior, the tower (loggia) on the house allows for a panoramic view of Korčula, stretching from east to west.  The Museum tells story about one of the first Europeans to travel the famous Silk Road trade route and many other travels of Marco Polo that are famous throughout the world. One of the most interesting stories is the one with Asian emperor Kublai Khan. He heard many stories about Marco Polo and wanted to meet him in person. Marco agreed to meet him and to tell him all the stories about his travels. Marco Polo served Kublai Khan as one of his important advisors. But after some time Marco was fed up and asked the emperor his permission to go back to his beloved Korčula and Venice. During his stay he fell in love with a young princess that was promised to the emperor, but she was in love with Marco and wanted to go with him. Marco found a way to take her with him. They sailed for three months around and he left the princess in Tabriz from where he proceeded his journey home. This was his last mission he had.

Museum of Marco Polo was opened to the public in 2011. in Chinese town of Yangzhou, where former President of Croatia Stjepan Mesic was invited to the opening ceremony and informed the world that Marco Polo was Croatian born in Korcula town in 1254.

Number of serious scientific researches confirm Marco Polo’s Croatian origin.

Analysis of Hilda Marija Foley,
North Tustin, CA 92705, US, wrote in 2007.:

Records show that Marco Polo’s father Nicolo (Croatian: Nikola) and uncle Maffeo (Croatian: Mate) Pilic were rich merchants from Sibenik in Dalmatia, then under Venetian rule, who went to Venice as established businessmen. All of the merchant and nobility class of that time used the Italian version of their names, so Pilic, which is Croatian for chicken, became Polo in Italian. The Pilic/Polo family coat of arms shows a crown and four chickens.

The medieval archives of Venice are among the best in Europe, yet there is no mention of Marco Polo’s birth, only citizen of Venice and his date of death. There is a quay in Venice near the Duke’s Palace still called Schiavoni (“Slavs”) as Croatians/Dalmatians were called at that time, where many Croatian seamen and merchants arrived from Dalmatia. The Polo family lived in this Schiavoni section of Venice were the Croatians had their churches, school and Guild Hall. Today there are still Croatian families named Polo, de Polo and Pilic in Croatia, but according to Italian sources there are no Polos in Italy.

Excerpt about Marco Polo Croatian Traveler Explorer:

Korcula, either by force or willingly, accepts the previous duke of Dubrovnik, Marsilie Zorzi, a Venetian nobleman, as its duke in 1254. In that same year Marko Polo was born.

The Polo family is much respected in Korcula; living over centuries in the town of Korcula. It produced over the years numerous shipbuilders, smiths, stone-masons, tradesmen, priests, and public notaries. Marko’s father Nikola and uncle Mate founded their trading outpost in Korcula, and the members of the Polo family were guardians of the walls around the town of Korcula. But, for the skilful tradesmen Nikola and Mate, Korcula was only the starting point of their business trade and their adventurous life. Marko’s father and uncle penetrated deeply into Asia. They erected a tower and founded their own trading outpost in the town of Sudac on the Crimea. They had their main trade centre in Constantinople, to which many Korcula businessmen and shipbuilders were travelling and for some time they were living there. Mate and Nikola Polo traded successfully with the Persians. They were cognisant with the secret ways which led through Syria and Iraq as far as the coasts of Persian Gulf. They also knew the areas where the precious pearl oysters could be found. Wherever they ventured they were made welcome as people who were “noble-minded, wise and reasonable”. They knew the routes that led to the fur traders of southern Siberia. They had trade contacts with the dignitaries of various Tartar peoples, and they reached the court of the Great Kublai Khan in China. They had started their journey before Marko Polo was born. The successful Korcula tradesmen feeling secure in their centuries-old native soil of Korcula, left their family and still unborn son Marko, as they gazed towards the Far East searching there for a realization of their dream of the rich life. Their ideas of fusing the cultural structures of the West and the East also decreed the destiny of Nikola’s son, Marko Polo, from the day of his birth.

Marko achieved the usual education of a young nobleman of his age. He learned a lot about classical writers, he understood the text of the Bible and knew the basic theology of the Roman Catholic Church. He spoke French and Italian, especially the trade vocabulary, and was skilful in keeping business books. The Church books and songs in Croatian from Marko’s time have been preserved in Korcula, and it is most probable that Marko knew the Croatian language as spoken by the inhabitants of Korcula. That knowledge was to help him very much when he traveled with his father and uncle across south Russia, then inhabited by Slavonic tribes and under Tartar reign. The European languages which Marko learned in his youth were to be the basis for the development of his polyglot talents when he came in touch, in the Far East, with Chinese; this, too, he learned successfully.

Korcula first had a bishop in 1300, which contributed a great deal to the writing and maintenance of the archives, both Church and secular, and some well-known families kept their own archives. Thus, the always rich Korcula tradition passed on by word of mouth, received also written support for the preservation of the collective communal memory, thus giving birth to capable men ready for the adventures of body and spirit in distant worlds.

The oldest written document in which the Polo family is mentioned is a deed of gift dated March 14th 1400. The then duke of Korcula, Mihajlo Musi and three Korcula judges donated to a certain Joannis a building in the town quarter on the eastern side, near the house of Bogavaz Dupolo. It is the exact location of the present “tower of Marko Polo”; from which one can see clearly all the Peljesac Channel; the route of trading vessels from Hellenic times to the present day.

A somewhat older document, from 1430, speaks about the life and work of members of the Polo family in Korcula in the 13th century, mostly featuring the centuries-old tradition of building Korcula style wooden boats, well known in the whole of the Mediterranean. That document is to be found in the private archives of the Kapor family in Korcula. In this, Mate Polo applies to the community of Korcula for a piece of land for his ship-yard, near the place where his grandfathers were building boats. That document is concrete evidence that the Polos were living in Korcula and building the boats even before Marko Polo was alive. Korcula shipyards were situated both on the eastern and western shores adjacent to the fortified medieval town. In this a way, the shipbuilders, working in the vicinity of the city walls, and living inside them, were able to defend their town in case of enemy attack. In the list mentioning ship-builders in 1594, there are 16 ship-rights from the Polo family, and in the 1810 list, 22. From a legal case of 1778, we learn that the name of the owner of a shipyard in the eastern suburb was Marko Depolo. As the skills of ship-building, as well as the ownership of the shipyards, were passing from generation to generation, from father to son, various families were for centuries using the same plots for the needs of their workshops. It is evident from the land-registry maps of the past century, and from photos exhibited in the City Museum that Mihovil Depolo, Nikola’s son, (1864-1943) was the owner of one of the bigger shipyards on the eastern side (“Borak”), and that Lovro Depolo (1853-1943) was the owner of the biggest shipyard of all on the western side of the town of Korcula (“Sv. Nikola”).

The Korculans were not only outstanding ship-builders but also experienced seamen. They excelled, too, as good warriors in many sea battles; among them, members of the Depolo family. Archive material and memorials confirm that the duke of Korcula, Andrea Zane, in 1584, entrusted, among others, Jerolim, Pavle and Nikola Polo, with finding crews for the participation of the town of Korcula in one of the sea battles. (excerpt taken from Korcula.net  where you can read in details about life of Marco Polo)

To explore this beautiful town of Korcula, stay in one of our Korcula island villas.