Stories about the Zadar waterfront
A place for meetings, socialising and events
Zadar waterfront has always played an important role in the lives of Zadar’s residents. As a promenade ideally orientated towards the sun and the sea, the waterfront in Zadar is a place for meetings, socialising and events, as well as pleasant walks with a view of the islands and the sunset.
The most beautiful description of the Zadar sunset was given by one of the world’s greatest film directors, Alfred Hitchcock, during his visit to Zadar in May 1964. While observing the sunset from the window in room 204 of the then Zagreb Hotel, he wrote the following:
The following morning, the famous director stood in front of the lens of the great Zadar photographer Ante Brkan, who managed to capture one of the director’s best portraits.
Zadar waterfront is also an inspiration to many musicians.
...are the verses of one of the most beautiful and popular songs about Zadar, whose author is the legendary troubadour Duško Nonković Bućo.
Numerous musicians sang about the Zadar waterfront, so it carries the title of Vedran Ivčić’s song who was in this place, and the melancholic verses of the singer from Bibinje Ivica Sikirić Ićo, who asks his darling:
Waterfront found its place in the song ( “...you and me, my love, to sit by the sea, and enjoy on the waterfront...”), that Rudi Martinov gave to the artist Joso Špralja, and was later sung by many singers, among which the great Croatian pop music singer, Tomislav Ivčić.
Even the most popular Zadar klapa could not leave out the city’s waterfront and published the :
During his rich music career Đani Maršan also took
two, three strolls along the waterfront
and concluded:
Cultural and historical value
Apart from its value in social life, the waterfront also has a rich cultural and historical value. The origin of the waterfront is associated with the distant 1868, when by a decree of the Emperor Franz Joseph I Zadar ceased to be a city – fortress. Only six years later, the city walls were torn down and Zadar started to open towards the sea with its new waterfront.
This transformation of the city was best described by the cultural historian and famous publicist Abdulah Seferović on the ZadarRetro portal:
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, 18 magnificent palaces, a dock for luxury passenger ships, landscaped gardens, promenades and walkways as public and gathering places for the residents were already built on the then New waterfront.
The original pier was fifteen meters longer than the today’s one and it had a lighthouse at its end. Due to the good maritime conditions, it was used for berthing of steamship on the Rijeka – Kotor line, to which numerous postcards from that time witness.
During the bombing in the Second World War, most of the buildings on the waterfront were damaged or completely destroyed, and were largely replaced by horticulture during the post- war reconstruction. The mole (pier) suffered damages as well and it was reconstructed after the war, but in smaller size.
At the beginning of this century, the Sea Organ and Greeting to the Sun successfully breathed a new life to the waterfront, attracting the Zadar residents and numerous tourists. These creations of the architect Nikola Bašić are unique in the world, and were designed out of a need to revitalise the waterfront on the west side of the Peninsula.
The Sea Organ was built in 2005 and is a blend of human ideas and skills and the energy of the sea. It extends to about seventy meters of waterfront, bellow which, at the level of the lowest low tide, 35 pipes of different lengths, diameters and inclinations are installed and play a continuous concert of tones of the .
Three years later, Zadar got a new tourist attraction – the Greeting to the Sun. The installation, made up of 300 multi-layered glass panels in the shape of the 22-meter diameter circle, collects the energy of the sun throughout the day and transforms it into electric energy, which is then used on and around the installation at night. When the most beautiful sunset permeates the Zadar waterfront, the light game of the Greeting to the Sun accompanies the rhythm of the waves and sounds of the Sea Organ. Due to the two installations, Zadar made the front pages of all world media.
In recent years, many important manifestations were held on the Zadar waterfront and its immediate vicinity, among which the dm Millenium jump, a collective jump into the sea of thousands of residents and visitors from all over the world, Full Moon Night, a manifestation which promotes tradition, history, culture, customs and gastronomy of the Zadar region.
However, under the influence of strong southern waves, the Zadar waterfront is starting to deteriorate, and the need for the renovation and reconstruction of the coastal belt appeared. This project will bring to the waterfront the place it always had in the life of the city of Zadar – a place for socialising and gathering on the most beautiful promenade on the Adriatic.
