3 Best Sights in Northern Dalmatia, Croatia

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.

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.

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).