Zadar and the Sea Organ

 No, not that type of organ- a pipe organ played by the sea.

But we’ll get to that. 

Zadar, another city which we never heard of, is known in Croatia as the place having the best work life balance.  Of course this tour guide was from Zadar.

He also mentioned that it’s the only place on the East Coast of the Adriatic where a city is flat. There’s about 30 to 40 miles of flatland to the north south and east and at the far end of the east side, there is a range of high mountains. This keeps the cold winter winds and the accompanying snow from coming to the coast. Now there’s a tunnel that goes through the mountain so if you want to ski you drive 40 miles go through the tunnel and you’re in winter.

The beach was considered the soul of the city. Having been called the Montecarlo of the Adriatic the city was very popular but repeatedly destroyed. The last time 16 of the 18 building in the area were destroyed.  The community decided to take advantage of the natural beauty of the place and rebuild it as a park: after all, Alfred Hitchcock claim this spot had the most beautiful sunset in the world, better than those of Key West. 

Of course this shot is of Sunrise as we missed sunset.  

Now these are not just steps going into the sea. The genius of this idea was to bury organ pipes up to 16 feet long under the steps and as the waves played upon the steps these various pipes would be triggered.  Thus the “Sea Organ”. 

Take a listen: 

And next to these steps are  9 solar panels built into the plaza: replicating the 9 planets. These each  absorb sunlight all day and at night become a colorful display. And this display is controlled by the music generated by the Sea Organ.  Unfortunately we were too high up on the ship for you to be able to hear it  with the display. (And the sea was pretty calm so no huge color spikes. 

When the Roman were here it was a city of  100000. Now there are 1000 in the old city and 74000 in the new town. 

The guide described his people as stubborn. Their mascot being the donkey. Every generation since the 7th century has had a war until the 2000.  

The guide like to joke about the contrast between the styles - including the “social realist concrete style” 

If you are thinking of coming to Zadar I can recommend this guy. 

And here is the column of shame. If you we been found guilty of a civil crime you’d be chained face out to the public to feel your shame  

Where these folks are standing shows the original base of the city. 

You can see below how they recycled building material on the old foundations. 

They’ve avoided turning the waterfront into a hotel zone. The guide attributes it to a natural resistance to capitalism and to a love of nature. 

Upon return to the ship I took a tour of the bridge. 

Me thinks the ships wheel is a bit  small for a 48 ton vessel.