Zadar City Gates Tours and Activities

Zadar is one of the oldest cities of Croatia’s Dalmatian coastline and has its roots way back in Roman times, when the first fortified walls were constructed around the little peninsula where the old town still lurks prettily. By the 16th century, Zadar was the prize possession of the Venetian Republic and its walls were further extended and modified with a series of decorative and imposing entry gates.

The main entrance to the old town is the ornate City Gate (also called the Land Gate), which was finished in 1543 and is close to Foša harbor on the southern side of the old town. Adorned with six columns supporting a pediment, the gate is classically triumphalist in style with three arched gateways – the middle one designed for

wheeled traffic and the two side gates for pedestrians. It is topped with the coats of arms of both Zadar and the Venetian Republic, with a winged lion in between as the symbol of St Mark (the patron saint of the Republic).

The other five gates into the city are the St Rocco and Sea gates – both built by the Venetians; the medieval St Demetrius Gate, which was walled up and subsequently reopened in 1873; the Chain Gate (built under Austrian rule in 1877); and finally the Bridge Gate, built when Zadar was under Italian rule in the 1930s.