The fish market
The previous night's catch on ice, priced.
Matti Blume — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Boehringer Friedrich — CC BY-SA 2.5 · Elmar Zenner — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Boehringer Friedrich — CC BY-SA 2.5
Zadar's central market is a genuine daily market inside the old town near the walls, where farmers from the surrounding countryside and the islands sell — not a tourist market with goods brought in from elsewhere. What is on the stalls tells you the Adriatic season: cherries, figs and melon in summer, pomegranates, olives and grapes in autumn, turnips, cabbage and citrus in winter. Beside it is the covered fish market, the best thing here: the previous night's catch laid out on ice with its prices, and Adriatic fish costs far less than you would pay in a waterfront restaurant. For a Muslim visitor there is a practical benefit: this is the easiest place to buy food that needs neither cooking nor questions about its ingredients — fruit, vegetables, olives, cheese, bread, honey, almonds and dried figs. Prices are by weight and the sellers are used to visitors. It opens very early and begins closing in the early afternoon, so a morning visit is the only worthwhile one.
The previous night's catch on ice, priced.
Figs, grapes, pomegranates and olives by month.
By the Land Gate, old town, 23000 Zadar
The Zadar City Walls and Land GateZadar's Venetian walls are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list within th2 minutes walk4.6
Croatian National Theatre, ZadarA theatre in Zadar's old town, one of the Croatian national theatres, with a his2 minutes walk4.8
The City LoggiaThe City Loggia stands on Narodni trg, the People's Square, Zadar's administrati2 minutes walk4.1
Rector's Palace, ZadarThe seat of Zadar's government through centuries of Venetian rule and after it, 3 minutes walk4.6
Zadar Old TownZadar's old town is Dalmatia condensed: a walled peninsula split by the Kalelarg4 minutes walk4.8Meat is difficult — there is effectively no halal butcher in Zadar, and most restaurants serve pork and alcohol. The practical answer is what this market sells: fresh fish (halal with no slaughter requirement), vegetables, fruit, olives, dairy cheese and bread. In restaurants, look to grilled fish and vegetable dishes, and ask about cooking stock, which is sometimes made with cured pork.