Land Gate (Kopnena Vrata)

The magnificent Land Gate is the finest surviving Venetian-Renaissance city gate on the entire Adriatic coast — a triumphal arch of pale Kirmenjak limestone designed by Michele Sanmicheli of Verona in 1543 as the main ceremonial entrance to Zadar from the mainland side. The gate's façade combines classical Roman motifs with Venetian confidence: a central Doric arch flanked by two smaller pedestrian openings, all crowned by a huge relief of St. Chrysogonus (the city's patron) on horseback and topped by the winged Lion of St. Mark holding an open book — a Venetian sign that the city surrendered peacefully rather than by force. On either side, panels list the Venetian rectors who commissioned the gate. Passing through it brings you directly to the pretty small harbour of Foša — originally the Roman defensive moat — and the Venetian sea walls that ring the old town. The gate was hit by Allied bombs in 1944 but survived essentially intact, one of very few complete pieces of Renaissance Zadar left standing. The best photograph is from inside the Foša harbour looking out through the arch to the fishing boats bobbing in front. Approach on foot from the small Trg Pet Bunara square inside the walls.