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city and settlement in Zadar County, Croatia
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Zadar ( ZAH-dar, Croatian: [zâdar] ⓘ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, pronounced [ˈdzaːra]; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serves as the seat of Zadar County and of the wider northern Dalmatian region. The city proper covers 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi) with a population of 75,082 in 2011, making it the second-largest city in Dalmatia and the fifth-largest in the country.
Zadar traces its origins to the 9th century BC as a settlement of the Illyrian tribe of the Liburnians, called Iader. In 59 BC, it was renamed Iadera (Jadera) when it became a Roman municipium. In 48 BC, it became a Roman colony. During Roman rule, Zadar acquired the characteristics of a traditional ancient Roman city, with a regular street grid, a public square (forum), and an elevated capitolium with a temple. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Zadar became the capital of the Byzantine Theme of Dalmatia.
At the beginning of the 9th century, Zadar briefly came under Frankish rule. In 998, the city swore allegiance to Doge Pietro II Orseolo and became a vassal of the Republic of Venice. In 1186, it placed itself under the protection of the Hungarian King Béla III. In the Middle Ages, Zadar's population was predominantly Romance and the Dalmatian language was spoken, later largely replaced with related Venetian, which would remain the principal language spoken in the city until the 20th century.
In 1202, during the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians, with the help of the Crusaders, reconquered and plundered Zadar. The Kingdom of Hungary gained control of the city following the Treaty of Zadar in 1358, when it was taken by King Louis I. In 1409, King Ladislaus of Naples sold Dalmatia back to Venice, and Zadar became the de facto capital of Venetian Dalmatia. When the Ottoman Empire conquered the Dalmatian Hinterland in the early 16th century, the city became an important stronghold safeguarding Venetian trade in the Adriatic, as well as the administrative and cultural center of Venetian possessions in Dalmatia. This fostered an environment in which art and literature could flourish, and between the 15th and 17th centuries Zadar came under the influence of the Renaissance, producing many important Italian Renaissance figures such as Giorgio Ventura and Giovanni Francesco Fortunio, who wrote the first Italian grammar, as well as many Croatian writers, including Petar Zoranić, Brne Krnarutić, Juraj Baraković, and Šime Budinić, who wrote in the Croatian language. After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, Zadar briefly came under French administration as part of the Illyrian Provinces. From 1815 to 1918 it served as the capital of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire (and later Austria-Hungary). Throughout the 19th century, the city became one of the centres of the Illyrian movement amid the growing polarisation and politicisation of ethnic identities between Croats and Dalmatian Italians, the latter forming a majority of Zadar's citizens.
Under the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920, Zadar became part of the Kingdom of Italy. During World War II, it was bombed by the Allies and witnessed the evacuation of its ethnic Italian population. The Partisans captured the city on 1 November 1944, and in 1947 it officially became part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (a federal constituent republic of Yugoslavia). It was then repopulated by new settlers, mainly from the surrounding islands and from the hinterland. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, in 1991 Zadar became part of the Republic of Croatia.
Today, Zadar is a historical center of Dalmatia, Zadar County's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, educational, and transportation centre. Zadar is also the episcopal see of the Archdiocese of Zadar. Because of its rich history and cultural heritage, Zadar is today one of the most popular tourist destinations in Croatia, named the "entertainment center of the Adriatic" by The Times and "Croatia's new capital of cool" by The Guardian.
UNESCO's World Heritage Site list included the fortified city of Zadar as part of the Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th centuries: Stato da Terra – Western Stato da Mar in 2017.
The name of the city of Zadar emerged as Iadera and Iader in ancient times. It was most probably related to a hydrographical term, coined by an ancient Mediterranean people and their Pre-Indo-European language. They transmitted it to later settlers, the Liburnians. The name of the Liburnian settlement was first mentioned by a Greek inscription from Pharos (Stari Grad) on the island of Hvar in 384 BC, where the citizens of Zadar were noted as Ἰαδασινοί (Iadasinoi). According to the Greek source Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax the city was Ἴδασσα (Idassa), probably a Greek transcription of the original Liburnian expression.
During antiquity the name was often recorded in sources in Latin in two forms: Iader in the inscriptions and in the writings of classic writers, Iadera predominantly among the late Antiquity writers, while usual ethnonyms were Iadestines and Iadertines. The accent was on the first syllable in both Iader and Iadera forms, which influenced the early-Medieval Dalmatian forms Jadra, Jadera and Jadertina, where the accent kept its original place.
In Dalmatian, Jadra/Jadera was pronounced Zadra/Zadera, due to the phonetic transformation of j [j] to z [z]. That change was also reflected in the Croatian name Zadar (recorded as Zader in the 12th century), developed from masculine Zadъrъ. An ethnonym graphic Jaderani from the legend of Saint Chrysogonus in the 9th century, was identical to the initial old-Slavic form Zadъrane, or Renaissance Croatian Zadrani.
The Dalmatian names Jadra, Jadera were transferred to other languages; in Venetian Jatara (hyper-urbanism in the 9th century) and Zara, Hungarian Zára, Tuscan Giara, Latin Iadora and Diadora (Constantine VII in De Administrando Imperio, 10th century, probably an error in the transcription of di iadora), Old French Jadres (Geoffroy de Villehardouin in the chronicles of the Fourth Crusade in 1202), Arabic Jādhara (جاذَرة) and Jādara (جادَرة) (Al-Idrisi, 12th century), Iadora (Guido, 12th century), Catalan Jazara, Jara, Sarra (14th century) and the others.
Jadera became Zara when it fell under the authority of the Republic of Venice in the 15th century. Zara was later used by the Austrian Empire in the 19th century, but it was provisionally changed to Zadar/Zara from 1910 to 1920; from 1920 to 1947 the city became part of Italy as Zara, and finally was named Zadar in 1947.
Historical affiliations
- Liburnia (9th century BC – 59 BC)
- Roman Empire (59 BC – 476)
- Byzantine Empire (476–800)
- Carolingian Empire (800–812)
- Byzantine Empire (812 – 998)
- Republic of Venice (998–1050)
- Kingdom of Croatia (1050–1050)
- Republic of Venice (1050–1114)
- Kingdom of Hungary (1114–1118)
- Republic of Venice (1118–1183)
- Kingdom of Hungary (1183–1202)
- Republic of Venice (1202–1358)
- Kingdom of Hungary (1358–1409)
- Republic of Venice (1409–1797)
- Habsburg monarchy (1797–1804)
- Austrian Empire (1804–1805)
- Napoleonic Italy (1806–1809)
- Illyrian Provinces (1809–1813)
- Austrian Empire late Austria-Hungary (1813–1918)
- Kingdom of Italy (1918–1946)
- Italy (1946–1947)
- SFR Yugoslavia ( SR Croatia) (1947–1991)
- Croatia (1991–present)
The district of present-day Zadar has been populated since prehistoric times. The earliest evidence of human life comes from the Late Stone Age, while numerous settlements have been dated as early as the Neolithic. Before the Illyrians, the area was inhabited by an ancient Mediterranean people of a pre-Indo-European culture. They assimilated with the Indo-Europeans who settled between the 4th and 2nd millennium BC into a new ethnical unity, that of the Liburnians. Zadar was a Liburnian settlement, laid out in the 9th century BC, built on a small stone islet and embankments where the old city stands and tied to the mainland by the overflown narrow isthmus, which created a natural port in its northern strait.
The Liburnians, an Illyrian tribe, were known as great sailors and merchants, but also had a reputation for piracy in the later years. By the 7th century BC, Zadar had become an important centre for their trading activities with the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Ancient Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples. Its population at that time is estimated at 2,000. From the 9th to the 6th century there was certain cultural unity in the Adriatic Sea, with the general Liburninan seal, whose naval supremacy meant both political and economical authority through several centuries. Due to its geographical position, Zadar developed into a main seat of the Liburnian thalassocracy and took a leading role in the Liburnian tetradekapolis, an organization of 14 communes.
The people of Zadar, Iadasinoi, were first mentioned in 384 BC as the allies of the natives of Hvar and the leaders of an eastern Adriatic coast coalition in the fight against the Greek colonizers. An expedition of 10,000 men in 300 ships sailed out from Zadar and laid siege to the Greek colony Pharos in the island of Hvar, but the Syracusan fleet of Dionysus was alerted and attacked the siege fleet. The naval victory went to the Greeks which allowed them relatively safer further colonization in the southern Adriatic.
The archaeological remains have shown that the main centres of Liburnian territorial units or municipalities were already urbanized in the last centuries of the BC era. Before the Roman conquest, in the 2nd century BC, Zadar held a territory of more than 600 km2 (230 sq mi).
In the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Romans began to gradually invade the region. Although being first Roman enemies in the Adriatic Sea, the Liburnians, mostly stood aside in more than 230 years of Roman wars with the Illyrians, to protect their naval and trade connections in the sea. In 59 BC, Illyricum was assigned as a provincia (zone of responsibility) to Julius Caesar and Liburnian Iadera became a Roman municipium.
The Liburnian naval force was dragged into the Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey in 49 BC, partially by force, partially because of the local interests of the participants, the Liburnian cities. Caesar was supported by the urban Liburnian centres, like Iader (Zadar), Aenona (Nin) and Curicum (Krk), while the city of Issa (Vis) and the rest of the Liburnians gave their support to Pompey. In 49 BC near the island of Krk, the "Navy of Zadar", equipped by the fleets of a few Liburnian cities and supported by some Roman ships, lost an important naval battle against Pompey supporting the "Liburnian navy". The civil war was prolonged until the end of 48 BC, when Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian Iader and Dalmatian Salona, by giving the status of the Roman colonies to their communities. Thus the city was granted the title colonia Iulia Iader, after its founder, and in the next period some of the Roman colonists (mostly legionary veterans) settled there.
The real establishment of the Roman province of Illyricum occurred not earlier than 33 BC and Octavian's military campaign in Illyria and Liburnia, when the Liburnians finally lost their naval independence and their galleys and sailors were incorporated into the Roman naval fleets.
From the early days of Roman rule, Zadar gained its Roman urban character and developed into one of the most flourishing centres on the eastern Adriatic coast, a state of affairs which lasted for several hundred years. The town was organised according to the typical Roman street system with a rectangular street plan, a forum, thermae, a sewage and water supply system that came from lake Vrana, by way of a 40 kilometres (25 miles) long aqueduct. It did not play a significant role in the Roman administration of Dalmatia, although the archaeological finds tell us about a significant growth of economy and culture.
Christianity did not bypass the Roman province of Dalmatia. Already by the end of the 3rd century Zadar had its own bishop and founding of its Christian community took place; a new religious centre was built north of the forum together with a basilica and a baptistery, as well as other ecclesiastical buildings. According to some estimates, in the 4th century it had probably around ten thousand citizens, including the population from its ager, the nearby islands and hinterland, an admixture of the indigenous Liburnians and Roman colonists.
During the Migration Period and the Barbarian invasions, Zadar was one of the remaining Dalmatian city-states, but it stagnated. In 441 and 447 Dalmatia was ravaged by the Huns, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in 481 Dalmatia became part of the Ostrogothic kingdom, which, besides Italy, already included the more northerly parts of Illyricum, i.e. Pannonia and Noricum.
In the 5th century, under the rule of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Zadar became poor with many civic buildings ruined due to its advanced age. About the same time (6th century) it was hit by an earthquake, which destroyed entire complexes of monumental Roman architecture, whose parts would later serve as material for building houses. This caused a loss of population and created demographic changes in the city, then gradually repopulated by the inhabitants from its hinterland. However, during six decades of Gothic rule, the Goths saved those old Roman Municipal institutions that were still in function, while religious life in Dalmatia even intensified in the last years, so that there was a need for the foundation of additional bishoprics.
In 536, the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great started a military campaign to reconquer the territories of the former Western Empire (see Gothic War) and in 553 Zadar passed to the Byzantine Empire. In 568, Dalmatia was devastated by an Avar invasion. Although further waves of attacks by Avar and Slav tribes kept up the pressure, it was the only city which survived due to its protective belt of inland plains. The Dalmatian capital Salona was captured and destroyed in the 640s, so Zadar became the new seat of the Byzantine archonty of Dalmatia, territorially reduced to a few coastal cities with their agers and municipal lands at the coast and the islands nearby. The prior of Zadar had jurisdiction over all Byzantine Dalmatia, so Zadar enjoyed metropolitan status at the eastern Adriatic coast. At this time rebuilding began to take place in the city.
At the beginning of the 9th century the Zadar bishop Donatus and the city duke Paul mediated in the dispute between the Holy Roman empire under Pepin and the Byzantine Empire. The Franks held Zadar for a short time, but the city was returned to Byzantium by a decision of the 812 Treaty of Aachen.
Zadar's economy revolved around the sea, fishing and sea trade in the first centuries of the Middle Ages. Thanks to saved Antique ager, adjusted municipal structure and a new strategic position, it became the most important city between the Kvarner islands and Kaštela Bay. Byzantine Dalmatia was not territorially unified, but an alliance of city municipalities headed by Zadar, and the large degree of city autonomy allowed the development of Dalmatian cities as free communes. Forced to turn their attention seawards, the inhabitants of Zadar focused on shipping, and the city became a naval power to rival Venice. The citizens were Dalmatian speakers, but from the 7th century Croatian started to spread in the region, becoming predominant in the inland and the islands to the end of the 9th century.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Zadar”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.