Cathedral of St. Anastasia

The Cathedral of St. Anastasia is the largest church in all of Dalmatia and the seat of the Archbishop of Zadar since the 12th century — a superb three-nave Romanesque basilica built on the foundations of an earlier Byzantine church that itself sat on Roman remains. The façade is a masterwork of Zadar Romanesque with two magnificent rose windows (one strictly Romanesque, one very early Gothic — a rare pairing) and elegant blind arcading. Inside, the cathedral is atmospheric and dim, with wooden choir stalls carved in 1418 by Matteo Moronzon considered among the finest gothic woodwork in the Adriatic, an early-Christian marble ciborium above the high altar, and the sarcophagus of St. Anastasia herself — brought here from Constantinople in 807 AD as a diplomatic gift from Byzantine Empress Irene. The 15th-century campanile beside the church was left half-finished for four centuries and only completed in 1892 by British architect Thomas Graham Jackson (who also designed several Oxford university buildings); climbing its 180 steps rewards you with the finest panorama of Zadar's old town, the harbour and Ugljan island beyond. The cathedral was struck by Allied bombs in 1944 and painstakingly restored over the following two decades. Modest dress required; photography discouraged during services.