Šibenik

Šibenik stands at the mouth of the **Krka** river in central Dalmatia, and differs from its neighbours in one fundamental way: it is **the only Dalmatian city founded by Croats themselves**, rather than by Romans or Greeks. Its foremost monument is the **Cathedral of St James**, UNESCO-listed and built **from stone alone** — no timber, no brick and no mortar in its structure, its dome assembled from interlocking stone slabs. Around its outside runs a frieze of **seventy-one carved heads** of the city's inhabitants in the fifteenth century: real individuals, not saints. Four fortresses stand above the town, and from their walls the view runs out over an archipelago. Half an hour away is **Krka National Park** and its stepped waterfalls, which is what most of the city's visitors actually come for.