The view
The Five Wells Square below and the walls beyond.
Fred Romero โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Fred Romero โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Fred Romero โ CC BY 2.0
Start at the Land Gate by the harbour, climb to the park on the bastion to see the layout from above, drop down to the Five Wells Square, then continue to the main street, the Kalelarga, and on to the Roman forum and St Donatus. That order walks you from the defences into the city and down to its oldest layers in about two hours.
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This small park stands on top of the Grimani bastion at the edge of the old town, and its first value is historical: laid out in 1829, it is considered the first landscaped public park in Croatia and among the earliest in this part of Europe. The idea was new at the time: that a military work which had lost its purpose should become a space for public recreation. The Venetian bastion no longer served any defence after the Republic fell, so the Austrian administration levelled its top, planted it and opened it to people โ a conversion repeated in many European cities later, but early here. The park today is a quiet space shaded by large trees, and its main feature is the view: it rises above the level of the old town, so the Five Wells Square lies directly below you, with the Venetian walls and the harbour beyond. A good place to sit for a few minutes between sights, named after Jelena, a tenth-century queen of Croatia.
The Five Wells Square below and the walls beyond.
Rare shade in a stone old town.
Grimani bastion, old town, 23000 Zadar