Zadar
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Zadar
Zadar
a city in Yugoslavia, in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Population, 43,200 (1971). It is a transportation junction, with a railroad station, a port, and an airport, and is the center of a region of viticulture and olive planting. Industry includes tobacco, jute, oil extraction, wines and spirits (including the production of maraschino liqueur), fish canning, and machine building. Zadar is a tourism center. The National Museum, Archaeo-logical Museum, and Naval Museum, as well as the department of philosophy of the University of Zagreb, are located in Zadar. Zadar is one of the oldest European cities.
Zadar became known as a settlement in the fourth century. During the Middle Ages it was a major commercial city and the center of Dalmatia. It was captured by Venice in 1409 and by Austria in 1797. In 1918, after the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy, it was occupied by Italian troops. Zadar was declared a free city under Italy’s sovereignty by the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) between Italy and Yugoslavia. The Treaty of Paris (1947) with Italy transferred Zadar to Yugoslavia.
Fragments of Roman triumphal arches, a forum, and an aqueduct have been preserved in Zadar. Other architectural monuments include the rotunda Church of St. Donat (now the Archaeological Museum; 810-15), the Romanesque basilicas of St. Krševan (12th century) and St. Stošije (12th and 13th centuries, with fragments of the altar by V. Carpaccio, c. 1480), the churches of St. Mary (llth century, with a Renaissance facade built in the 16th century) and St. Simeon (12th century; rebuilt in the baroque style in the 17th century); the Porta di Terraferma, a Renaissance fortress gate (architect M. Sanmicheli, 1543), and houses in the Venetian Gothic and Renaissance styles.