Zadar Cathedral: A Romanesque Cathedral in Croatia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Croatia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Byzantine, Habsburg, Roman, Venetian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page9 sections
History
Zadar Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Zadar, Croatia, dedicated to Saint Anastasia and serving as the seat of the Archdiocese of Zadar. Regarded as the largest church in Dalmatia, it is a three-nave Romanesque building with Gothic elements whose present form developed through successive medieval and modern phases.
Early Christian Origins
The cathedral originated in a Christian basilica built during the fourth and fifth centuries. The earlier church was traditionally dedicated to Saint Peter. During the episcopate of Bishop Donat, the diocese received the relics of Saint Anastasia of Sirmium, a Christian martyr associated with the ancient city of Sirmium. The relics came from the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I, after which Anastasia became the cathedral’s patron. She is locally known as Stošije.
Felix was the first known bishop of Zadar. He attended church councils at Aquileia in 381 and Milan in 390. Donat later commissioned the sarcophagus made for Saint Anastasia’s remains, linking his episcopate with the relics that continue to define the cathedral’s religious identity.
Medieval Rebuilding
The church underwent extensive rebuilding during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Pope Alexander III, who led the medieval papacy from 1159 to 1181, reconsecrated the cathedral in 1177. Much of the present building was constructed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the new structure was completed in 1324.
The cathedral suffered heavy damage when Venetian forces and Crusaders besieged and captured Zadar in 1202. Repairs continued through the thirteenth century, and the restored church was reconsecrated on 27 May 1285. The medieval rebuilding established the principal form that survives today.
Later Alterations and Preservation
Between 1445 and 1452, the Venetian painter Donato Bragadin and his sons Jacopo and Tommaso decorated the Chapel of Saint Anastasia. The cathedral’s lower bell tower was built in 1452 during the episcopate of Archbishop Vallaresso, while its upper stages were added between 1890 and 1894 to designs by the English architect and architectural historian Thomas Graham Jackson.
Five years after the upper bell tower was completed, damage appeared where the medieval and modern sections met. In 1900, the architect and conservator Ćiril Iveković attributed the damage to vibrations caused by the heavy bells and replaced their iron supports with wooden ones. The cathedral was damaged again during the bombing of Zadar on 16 December 1943. Its sixth-century baptistery was later restored as a facsimile in 1989.
Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral on 9 June 2003. Zadar Cathedral has also been submitted to UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.
Remains
The surviving cathedral presents a three-nave Romanesque plan modified by Gothic elements. A broad central nave, three times the width of the side aisles, is divided from them by alternating stone columns and pylons. The elevated presbytery, the area around the main altar reserved for the clergy, stands above a twelfth-century crypt, a chamber beneath the church. A matroneum, an elevated gallery above the side aisles, extends through the upper part of the interior.
Interior and Sacred Furnishings
The presbytery contains Gothic choir stalls made by the fifteenth-century Venetian master Matej Morozan, together with a stone episcopal seat. Above the main altar stands an early Gothic ciborium, a canopy over an altar, dated 1322. The apse contains the marble sarcophagus holding Saint Anastasia’s relics and a ninth-century inscription associated with Bishop Donat. Fragments of medieval frescoes survive within the cathedral.
The northern aisle contains a marble altar dedicated to Saint Dominic, transferred from the former church dedicated to that saint. A second altar, dedicated to the souls in Purgatory, was made in 1805 by the Venetian stonemason Pietro Onega, with an altarpiece by Palma the Younger. At the end of the central nave, a marble altar has paneling depicting the Sacred Heart.
The southern aisle includes a marble relic altar and an altar of the Blessed Sacrament made in 1718 by the sculptor A. Viviani. Its decoration includes columns and statues, a Madonna holding the dead Christ above the tabernacle, Moses and Elijah at the sides, and larger figures of the four Evangelists on the wings. Figures representing the virtues appear below them, while the Lamb of God decorates the antependium, the frontal covering of the altar. The aisle ends in an apse with further remains of frescoes.
Chapel and Baptistery
The sacristy, also called the Chapel of Saint Barbara, preserves walls and an apse belonging to the oldest parts of the cathedral. Its floor contains an early fifth-century mosaic showing two deer, providing a surviving material link with the church’s early Christian origins.
A hexagonal baptistery is attached to the south side of the cathedral. The original structure dated from the sixth century. After its destruction during the bombing of Zadar in 1943, it was restored as a facsimile in 1989.
Facade and Bell Tower
Completed in 1324, the facade has two levels. The lower level is more massive and contains three portals. Above it, the upper level ends in a triangular pediment and is organized by four orders of Lombard bands. A large Romanesque rose window and a smaller Gothic rose window provide the principal openings.
Stone figures at the edges of the facade represent the Evangelists Mark and Luke, with a lion on the left and a bull on the right. The richly decorated main portal bears a relief of the Madonna and Child with saints and another showing the four Apostles. The left portal has a mystical lamb in its lunette. Near the arch, consoles carry figures of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary that are older than the portal itself.
The bell tower combines a medieval lower section with upper stages from the late nineteenth century. Its three upper floors have four-sided elevations with double-mullioned windows. Floral mosaic ornament enlivens the flat wall surfaces, while fretwork emphasizes the cornices between the floors. An octagonal pyramidal roof is crowned by a brass angel that turns with the wind.
Art and Organ
The cathedral’s art museum houses the Zadar Polyptych, a multi-panel painted altarpiece and an early work by the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio. The cathedral also contains an organ built by the German company Eisenbarth in 2010. Designed in the French nineteenth-century musical style, it has three manuals, a pedalboard, and 56 stops, together with mechanical and electrical couplings, 4,000 free combinations, and two crescendo rollers.
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