The open arcade
A 16th-century interior, usually free to enter.
Fred Romero โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Fred Romero โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Jerzy Strzelecki โ CC BY-SA 3.0
The layer of time and the function. The Roman forum is the public square of the first century BC, its stone still exposed, and is now an open archaeological space beside St Donatus. The People's Square is fifteen hundred years younger, Venetian in character, and still works as a living city square with its cafes and the town hall. They are two minutes apart on foot.
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The City Loggia stands on Narodni trg, the People's Square, Zadar's administrative heart since Venetian times โ an open arcade of wide arches built by the architect Michele Sanmicheli in 1565, the same man who designed the Land Gate. A loggia in a Venetian city is an institution rather than merely a building: a roofed space open at the sides where courts sat, laws were proclaimed and contracts were sealed before witnesses. The openness was the point โ justice practised in sight of people rather than behind doors. The city court was here, and beside it the City Guard with its clock tower. Today the loggia is used as an exhibition space belonging to the National Museum, so you can usually walk in free to see a temporary show inside a sixteenth-century interior. The square in front of it is the best place in Zadar for a coffee: enclosed by Venetian buildings on every side and lively all day.
A 16th-century interior, usually free to enter.
Zadar's best coffee spot, Venetian on every side.
Narodni trg, 23000 Zadar