29 Best Sights in Northern Dalmatia, Croatia

Founded in 1832, Zadar's Archaeological Museum is one of the oldest museums in this part of Europe. It occupies a plain but pleasant modern building beside the convent complex of Crkva svete Marije (St. Mary's Church). It is home to numerous artifacts from Zadar's past, from prehistoric times to the first Croatian settlements. The third floor focuses on ceramics, weaponry, and other items the seafaring Liburnians brought home from Greece and Italy, whereas the second floor covers the classical period, including a model of the Forum square as it would have looked back then. A smaller exhibit addresses the development of Christianity in Northern Dalmatia and contains rare artifacts from the invasion of the Goths. On the first floor, you'll find an exhibit focused on the early Middle Ages, taking you to the 12th century.

Zadar's star attraction, this massive cylindrical structure is the most monumental early Byzantine church in Croatia. Initially called the Church of the Holy Trinity, it was probably inspired by plans outlined in a book by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio (On Ruling the Empire). Centuries later, it was rededicated to St. Donatus, the bishop here from 801 to 814. Legend has it that Donatus, an Irishman, was the one who had it built using stone from the adjacent Forum. The stark round interior features a circular center surrounded by an annular passageway; a sanctuary consisting of three apses attached to the lofty mantle of the church walls, set off from the center by two columns; and a gallery reached by a circular stairway. During the off-season (November to March), when the church is closed, someone at the Archaeological Museum next door may have a key to let you in.

The whimsically named The Greeting to the Sun is a 22-meter circle of multilayered glass plates set into the stone-paved waterfront. Under the glass, light-sensitive solar modules soak up the sun's energy during daylight hours, turning it into electrical energy. Just after sunset, it puts on an impressive light show, illuminating the waterfront in shades of blue, green, red, and yellow. It was installed in 2008 and was created by local architect Nikola Bašić, who also made the nearby sound art project, the Sea Organ.

The largest archipelago in the Adriatic, Kornati National Park comprises more than 100 privately owned islands, primarily by residents of Murter, who purchased them more than a century ago from Zadar aristocrats. The new owners burned the forests to make room for sheep, which ate much of the remaining vegetation. Although anything but lush today, the islands' almost mythical beauty is ironically synonymous with their barrenness: their bone-white-to-ochre colors are a striking contrast to the azure sea.

However, owners do tend vineyards and orchards on some, and there are quite a few small buildings scattered about, mostly stone cottages—many of them on Kornat, which is by far the largest island, at 35 km (22 miles) long and less than a tenth as wide.

In 1980 the archipelago became a national park. It was reportedly during a visit to Kornati in 1936 that King Edward VIII of England decided between love for his throne and love for Wallis Simpson, the married woman who was to become his wife a year later. No public transport currently goes to Kornati, so visiting is only possible as part of an excursion or with a private boat, and tickets must be purchased beforehand. Pick up tickets from the official website or through the various tour groups in Zadar or Murter. The entrance ticket is included in the price of excursions departing from Zadar.

The Velebit Mountains stretch along the Croatian coast for more than 100 km (62 miles), but nowhere do they pack in as much to see and do as in this relatively small, 96-square-km (37-square-mile) park at the southern terminus of the range. Here, less than an hour from Zadar is a wealth of extraordinary karst features—from fissures, crooks, and cliffs to pits and caves. The park comprises two limestone gorges, Velika Paklenica (which ends near the sea, at the park entrance in Starigrad) and Mala Paklenica, a few kilometers to the south; trails through the former gorge are better marked (and more tourist-trodden).

All that dry rockiness visible from the seaward side of the range turns resplendently green as you cross over the mountains to the landward side. Named after the sap of the black pine, paklina, which was used long ago to prime boats, the park is two-thirds forest, with beech and the indigenous black pine forming a crucial part of this picture; the remaining vegetation includes cliff-bound habitats featuring several types of bluebells and rocky areas abounding in sage and heather. The park is also home to 4,000 species of fauna, including butterflies that have long vanished elsewhere in Europe. It is also Croatia's only mainland nesting ground for the stately griffin vulture.

The park has more than 150 km (94 miles) of trails, from relatively easy ones leading from Velika Paklenica (from the entrance in Starigrad) to the 1,640-foot-long complex of caverns called Manita peć, to mountain huts situated strategically along the way to the Velebit's highest peaks, Vaganski vrh (5,768 feet) and Sveto brdo (5,751 feet). The most prominent of the park's immense and spectacular caves, Manita peć is accessible on foot from the park entrance in Starigrad; you can enter for €10, but remember to buy your ticket at the park entrance. Rock climbing is also a popular activity in the park. Meanwhile, mills and mountain villages scattered throughout Paklenica evoke the life of mountain folk from the not-too-distant past.

About a half mile down the park access road in Starigrad, you pass through the mostly abandoned hamlet of Marasovići, from which it's a few hundred yards more downhill to the small building where you buy your tickets and enter the park (from this point on, only on foot). From here, it's 45 minutes uphill to a side path to Anića kuk, a craggy peak, and from there it's not far to Manita peć. However, if you don't have the time or inclination for a substantial hike into the mountains, you will be happy to know that even the 45-minute walk to the entrance gate and back from the main road affords spectacular close-up views of the Velebit range's craggy ridgeline and the gorge entrance. Also, be forewarned that if you are looking to escape the crowds, you will be hard-pressed to do so here in midsummer unless you head well into the mountains or, perhaps, opt for the park's less frequented entrance at Mala Paklenica; more likely than not, you will be sharing the sublimities of nature with thousands of other seaside revelers taking a brief respite from the coast.

A further point of interest at the park is the Bunkers, an intricate system of underground shelters built by Marshal Tito in the early 1950s. With relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR then at their worst, Tito used the geographical benefits of the gorges to build a bomb shelter. All the work was done in complete secrecy, and very few people knew of the Bunkers. After Stalin's death, they were closed down and only reopened in 1991.

Although the park headquarters is on the main coastal road in the middle of Starigrad, fees are payable when you enter the park on the access road. Beyond the basic park admission and the supplemental fee to enter Manita peć, the park offers every possible service and presentation that might encourage you to part with your euros, from half-day group tours to presentations and more.

Comprising 35 pipes under the quay stretching along a 230-foot stretch of Zadar's atmospheric Riva promenade, the Sea Organ yields a never-ending concert that delights one and all. Designed by architect Nikola Bašić with the help of other experts, the organ's sound resembles a whale song, but it is, in fact, the sea itself. It's hard not to be in awe as the sound of the sea undulates in rhythm and volume with the waves.

This nature park encompasses Telašćica Bay, which cuts 7 km (4½ miles) into the southern tip of Dugi Otok with an indented inner coastline that is a series of smaller bays and a handful of islands. Flanked by high vertical cliffs facing the open sea to the west and with low peaceful bays on the other side, it has a variety of vegetation. Relatively lush alpine forests and flower-filled fields, as well as vineyards, olive groves, and one-time cultivated fields give way as you move south to bare rocky ground of the sort that predominates on the Kornati Islands, whose northern boundary begins where Telašćica Nature Park ends.

Aside from Telašćica's other attractions, most of which are accessible only by boat, one of the park's key highlights—accessible by land on a 20-minute drive from Sali—is the salt lake Jezero mir, which formed when the sea filled a karst depression. Small boats (generally with 8–12 passengers) bound for both Telašćica Nature Park and the northern fringes of Kornati National Park leave the east side of Sali's harbor (i.e., where the Zadar ferry arrives) at approximately 11:15 each morning and return by 6 or 6:30 in the evening. Verify ferry times at  www.croatiaferries.com. The best way to arrange ferry passage is in person—by going to the harborside square near the post office around 8 pm on the day before you wish to leave, when boat captains gather there looking for passengers for the next day's excursion (which means at least a one-night stay in Sali). However, the tourist information office in Sali can put you in touch with operators by phone as well.

Close to Nin and situated 6 km (3¾ miles) east of Benkovac, near the village of Podgrađeare, lie the massive ruins of Asseria, an ancient city. First settled around 6 BC by Liburnians, who built it into one of their most important towns before the Romans came, Asseria—which is nearly 1,640 feet long and roughly a third as wide—was inhabited for more than 1,000 years before crumbling away along with the Roman Empire.

This winery, which operates a wine boutique in Zadar, produces wine both from native Dalmatian varieties, including Babić, Plavina, Lašina, and Debit, and nonnative grapes, including Grenache and Shiraz. The winery itself is located just outside of Skradin.

This three-nave basilica's simple front is decorated with a Gothic portal, an appropriately lacelike Renaissance rosette, and unfinished figures of saints. A relief over the entrance depicts the Virgin Mary protecting the townsfolk of Pag. Begun in 1466 under Dalmatinac's direction, it was completed only decades after his death. Inside, note the elaborate 18th-century Baroque altars and the wood beams visible on the original stone walls. The church is open daily from 9 until noon and from 5 until 7 in the evening.

Legend has it that a local noblewoman founded a Benedictine convent on this site in 1066 and the adjoining St. Mary's Church in 1091. Rebuilt in the 16th century, the church was supposed to incorporate a new Renaissance look into the remnants of its earlier style: its rounded gables remained, continuing to express a particular Dalmatian touch. Early Romanesque frescoes are still evident amid the predominantly Baroque interior, and your eyes will discover 18th-century rococo above the original columns. Most noteworthy for modern-day visitors, however, is the adjoining convent complex, two wings of which house one of Zadar's most treasured museums. The Permanent Exhibition of Religious Art, whose highlight is commonly called "The Gold and Silver of Zadar," is a remarkable collection of work from centuries past by local gold- and silversmiths (including Italians and Venetians who lived here), from reliquaries for saints and crucifixes to vestments interwoven with gold and silver thread.

The 18th-century Crkva svetog Anselma, dedicated to a 1st-century martyr believed to have been Nin's first bishop, was built on the site of Nin's former 9th-century cathedral, the first cathedral of the medieval Croatian principality. To the right of the altar is a 15th-century statue of the Madonna of Zečevo, inspired by the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a woman on a nearby island. Though the church is plain—the ceiling is adorned with only a lovely chandelier and a smoke detector—the foundations of the former cathedral are still much in evidence. Beside the church is the belfry, and next door is the treasury, which houses a stunning little collection of reliquaries containing various body parts of St. Anselmo.

Built in the 5th century as a three-nave basilica, St Simeon's Church was later reconstructed in Gothic style and again in Baroque style—however, the terra-cotta and white exterior pales when compared to some of the city's other churches. St. Simeon's Church is best known for housing the gilded silver sarcophagus of Zadar's most famous patron saint. The chest, which depicts intricately detailed scenes from St. Simeon's life and the city's history, was commissioned in 1381 by Elizabeth, wife of Croat-Hungarian King Ludwig I, and made by Francesco di Antonio da Sesto of Milan, one of Zadar's best silversmiths. As for St. Simeon, legend has it that his body wound up here while being transported from the Holy Land to Venice by a merchant who got caught in a storm, took refuge here, fell ill, and died—but not before drawing attention to the saintliness of the body he'd brought with him. Palm trees outside the church lend the site a pleasant Mediterranean touch.

Croatia's oldest church, the 8th-century Crkva svetog Križa is also known locally as the "world's smallest cathedral." Indeed, the simple, three-naved whitewashed structure—which has a solid cylindrical top and a few tall Romanesque windows (too high to peek inside)—has an unmistakable monumental quality to it even though it's no larger than a small house. There's little to see inside, though it is sometimes open, erratically, in summer; check with the tourist office or the Archaeological Museum.

Established in the 1st century BC by the first emperor Augustus, the Roman Forum is, more than 2,000 years later, a vast empty space with some scattered ruins. However, since it was rediscovered in the 1930s and restored to its present condition in the 1960s, the Forum has been one of Zadar's most important public spaces. A raised area on the western flank indicates the site of a one-time temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. If you look closely, you will notice what remains of its altars that served as venues for blood sacrifices. The only surviving column was used in the Middle Ages as a "Pillar of Shame," to which wayward individuals were chained. Fragments of a second column were removed from the Forum in 1729 and put back together again near the Square of Five Wells, where the column still stands today.

Dalmatia's oldest Gothic church, consecrated in 1280, is a stellar example of a so-called Gothic monastic church, characterized by a single nave with a raised shrine. Although the church underwent extensive reconstruction in the 18th century, behind the main altar is a shrine dating to 1672; inside the shrine, you can see choir stalls in the floral Gothic style that date to 1394. In 1358 a peace treaty was signed in this very sacristy under which the Venetian Republic ended centuries of attack and handed Zadar over to the protection of the Croat-Hungarian kingdom. From mid-October through March or April, the church may keep irregular hours.

From an earlier church, Dalmatia's largest basilica was shaped into its magnificent Romanesque form in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, it was damaged severely during World War II and later reconstructed. The front portal is adorned with striking Gothic reliefs and a dedication to Archbishop Ivan from 1324. The interior includes not only a high spacious nave but also a Gothic stone ciborium from 1332 covering the 9th-century altar; intricately carved 15th-century choir stalls by the Venetian artist Matej Morozon; and, in the sacristy, an early Christian mosaic. St. Anastasia is buried in the altar's left apse; according to legend, she was the wife of a patrician in Rome but was eventually burned at the stake. Bishop Donatus of Zadar obtained the remains in 804 from Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I. The late-19th-century belfry, separate from the main church building, offers a sweeping view to those who climb to the top for a fee, but even the 20 steps up to the ticket desk rewards you with a decent view of the square below.

Across the square is the imposing Knežev dvor, with its magnificent richly detailed portal, a grand 15th-century edifice built to house the duke. Until the early 1990s, it housed a grocery store and a café; now it is a cultural and exhibition venue, hosting concerts, plays, and manifestations during the summer months. The upper floors have been converted into the City Hall.

A walk around the walls of Zadar's Old Town is a walk around what was once the largest city-fortress in the Venetian Republic. One of the finest Venetian-era monuments in Dalmatia, the Land Gate was built in 1543 by the small Foša harbor as the main entrance to the city. It takes the form of a triumphal arch, with a large central passage for vehicles and two side entrances for pedestrians. It is decorated with reliefs of St. Chrysogonus (Zadar's foremost patron saint) on his horse and a winged lion (the symbol of the Venetian Republic).

Many of Croatia's islands like to emphasize their serenity, but only one island gets the status of a true hermit heaven. Fewer than 200 people live on magnificent Molat, a verdant island covered in maquis and pine and a tranquil place that has fought for its survival over the centuries and lived to tell the tale. There isn't much to do on the island itself, but that is the point; this is an island for those searching for space and peace. One ferry heads this way daily from Zadar (sometimes two in summer, but there is no concrete schedule), with the journey taking an hour or so. Tickets are €3.50 in high season for foot passengers.

However you go to Murter, you'll pass through Biograd-Na-Moru, a relatively big, bustling—but thoroughly tourist-trampled—town, where the resorts have long come to dominate what was once a charming place; Biograd-Na-Moru also serves as another access point for ferries to the Kornati Islands.

Murter, a town of 2,000 on the island of the same name that lies just off the mainland, is accessible by road from the main coastal route that runs south from Zadar toward Split. As important as tourism is to its present-day economy, boatbuilding has, not surprisingly, long been vital to Murter as well. This is not to mention its olive oil, which was once so famous that it made its way to the imperial table in Vienna.

Occupying the 19th-century Cosmacendi Palace on the edge of the Old Town, this museum displays one of the world's finest collections of Roman glassware outside Italy, with a vast array of ancient pieces unearthed from archaeological sites across Dalmatia. Highlights include the delicate vessels used by Roman ladies to store their perfumes, skin creams, essential oils, and sacred goblets used to celebrate Mass.

Nin's shallow coast and centuries of sand deposits preserved numerous remains from prehistory to the Middle Ages under the sea. The Archaeological Museum has a rich collection for a town of this size, including replicas of two small late-11th-century fishing boats discovered only in 1966 and carefully removed from the sea in 1974. One of these boats has been completely reconstructed, the other only to the extent to which it had been preserved underwater. The main themes in each room are elucidated in clear English translations.

One of the Old Town's two main public spaces, the ever-bustling Narodni trg is home to the Gradska straža (City Sentinel), which was designed by a Venetian architect in late-Renaissance style with a large central clock tower. The sentinel's stone barrier and railing, complete with holes for cannons, were added later. This impressive tower once housed the ethnographic section of the National Museum and is today a venue for various regular cultural exhibits.

Historically, Nin's riches came from an unlikely source: salt. Making the best of a rare geographical location with lots of sun, wind, and shallow sea basins, Nin Saltworks still produces salt in a traditional ecological way to this day. To commemorate salt's vast influence on the city's development, Nin opened a small but charming salt museum showing how this common table adornment was produced back in the day. While there, make sure to pick up a bag of fleur du sel, or "flower of salt," ultra-rich in minerals. You can take a tour led by a professional guide (offered on the hour) for a fee.

Once an out-of-the-way fishing village, Sali draws tourists thanks to its location in and near such natural splendors. It is home to several old churches, including the 12th-century St. Mary's Church, whose Baroque altar was carved in Venice. Adding to the village's appeal is its annual Saljske užance (Donkey Festival) during the first full weekend in August, which includes an evening ritual during which lantern-lit boats enter Sali Harbor and there are donkey races and tovareća muzika (donkey music) produced by locals blowing or braying raucously into horns. Spending at least a night or two here can provide a relatively peaceful nature-filled respite from the rigors of tourism on the mainland or, for that matter, on more tourist-trodden reaches of the Zadar Archipelago.

The square is the site of a large cistern built by the Venetians in the 1570s to help Zadar endure sieges by the Turks. The cistern has five wells that still look serviceable, even though they have long been sealed shut. Much later, in 1829, Baron Franz Ludwig von Welden, a passionate botanist, established a park above an adjacent pentagonal bastion built to keep the Turks at bay.

A mere 20-minute walk south of the present town center lies the ruins of the previous 9th-century town. You can wander around for free, taking in the Romanesque-style Crkva sveta Marija (St. Mary's Church), first mentioned in historical records in 1192; the ruins of a Franciscan monastery; and a legendary centuries-old well whose filling up with water after a drought was credited to the intervention of the Holy Virgin. On August 15, a procession of locals carries a statue of the Virgin Mary from here to the church on present-day Pag's main square. On September 8, they return. To get to Stari Grad, walk across the bridge and keep left on Put Starog Grada, the road that runs south along the bay.

The Zadar Archipelago is so close and yet so far away: Ugljan and Pašman are just two of the myriad islands comprising the lacelike islands and are among the largest and the easiest to reach from Zadar. More than 15 ferries a day run the 5-km (3-mile) distance between Zadar and Ugljan, a 19-km-long (12-mile-long) island whose narrow width of just a couple of kilometers runs parallel to the mainland, with its midway point across from Zadar. From the ferry landing on Ugljan, your best bet may be to head north along the seafront for 10 minutes on foot to the heart of Preko, a fine access point to several worthwhile destinations (very) near and (not too) far. Going south will get you to the unassuming fishing village of Kali. From Preko's harbor, you can walk about 1 km (½ mile) farther north to a shallow bay locals like to swim in, or better yet, take a taxi-boat to Galevac, a charming wooded islet less than 100 yards from Preko that has not only splendid swimming but also a 15th-century Franciscan monastery set in a lush green park. And then there's the Tvrđava svetog Mihovila (Fortress of St. Michael), a 13th-century landmark atop a hill roughly an hour's walk west of town. Though mainly in ruins, the fortress offers spectacular views of nearby Zadar to the west and, on a cloudless day, the Italian coast.

Meanwhile, 10 km (6 miles) farther north is the quiet village of Ugljan, accessible from the ferry port by a handful of buses daily. For a somewhat sleepier island experience, hop aboard one of eight buses daily from Preko to the village of Pašman. You can eventually get to Tkon, Pašman Island's largest village, from which some 10 ferries daily can get you back to the mainland south of Zadar.