Things to Do in St. Donatus Church

Climb the bell tower of St. Anastasia next door

The cathedral's campanile rises beside St. Donatus and gives the best aerial view of the rotunda's conical roof against the Adriatic. The climb is a tight stone spiral, breath-catching in warmer months, and the upper platform is windier than you'd guess from street level. You'll hear gulls and the distant clatter of café chairs on Kalelarga drifting up.

Attend a Musical Evenings concert inside the rotunda

From early July through mid-August, the church hosts an early-music festival that exploits its unusual acoustics, lute, harpsichord, viol consorts, the occasional choral piece. Sound blooms from the stone itself, and audience members sit on the steps outside when concerts sell out. Go even if early music isn't your thing, just to hear how the building handles silence between movements.

Walk the Roman Forum at dusk

The forum surrounds St. Donatus on three sides, and the carved stones, broken column drums, and the so-called Pillar of Shame look different in the low orange light of evening. Swallows dip and screech above the rooftops, and the limestone underfoot gives off the day's heat through your shoes. Locals walk dogs across the forum and use it as a shortcut, which keeps the whole scene feeling lived-in.

Combine a visit with the Museum of Ancient Glass

A ten-minute walk across the footbridge takes you to one of Croatia's stranger small museums, where Roman glass excavated around Zadar, including pieces that almost certainly passed through the forum St. Donatus sits on, is displayed in a darkened gallery. Glassblowing demonstrations run a few times daily, and the smell of hot furnace work carries from the workshop. It pairs unexpectedly well with the church.

Catch the Sea Organ and Sun Salutation after your church visit

A five-minute walk west along the waterfront brings you to two of Nikola Bašić's installations: the Sea Organ, which moans and chimes through underwater pipes as waves push air through them, and the Sun Salutation, a solar-powered light disc set into the quay. The contrast with St. Donatus's silent stone is the point, twelve centuries of Zadar architecture in one short walk.

Old Town (Poluotok), within a five-minute walk of St. Donatus, mostly small guesthouses and apartments in stone buildings. Atmospheric but noisy on summer nights

Voštarnica, just across the footbridge, quieter residential streets with mid-range hotels and easy access to the old town

Borik sits 4km north of the old town. Big hotels line the shore. The beach is swimmable and buses run every fifteen minutes. Easy base for sun seekers.

Diklo lies further up the coast past Borik. Family apartments replace hotel towers. Pebbly coves hide between pine trees. Evenings feel like a village.

Puntamika crowns the peninsula tip. Nights are breezier and sunsets frame the islands. Prices stay lower than inside the walls. Bring a jacket for dusk.

Arbanasi sits inland and sees fewer tour buses. Rooms cost less and breakfast is generous. A fifteen-minute walk drops you at the harbour. Good for quiet sleep.