Dalmatian towns [antikvár]

VIA CRUCIS ZADAR Like a stone ship in the middle of a lake, on a palm of red earth between a mastodon ridge of weather-beaten Velebit and a pleasant row of North Dalmatian islands, we find Zadar, one of the oldest settlements in this part of the country. Jader, Jadcra in ancient documents. Here is its curriculum vitae: In the fourth century before our era this was the central harbour of the Illyrian tribe of Liburnians, former allies of Rome, subjugated by Romans in 129 before our era. The architecture, the inscriptions, and the necropolis from those times tell us a great deal about the town which was surrounded by high walls and towers in the times of the Roman Empire. The Forum was the centre of the town (the platform of the »Golden Square«), it was encircled by porticoes, temples, and public buildings. A regular, almost geometrical plan of the town; the spacious Emporium (the town market and round St. Krsevan's) with arcades, arches, and monuments. It is impossible to reconstruct in detail this typical Roman town as it looked at the time when the Visigoths invaded it in the fourth century, as there is complete silence about Zadar between this onslaught and the ninth century. The Croats settled down in the vicinity of Zadar at the beginning of the seventh century, founding the first nuclei of their ecclesiastic and administrative organisations in this area. This was done in the area of Nin, Karin, Nadin, and Biograd, and these are considered to be the first steps in the setting up of the Croat state organisation, their bishopric, and their future capital. At that time Zadar was the centre of Byzantine Dalmatia. Since the times of the first invasion of Petar Orseolo in 998, in the days of repeated Venetian threats and invasions the Croats remained faithful allies of Zadar. Zadar asked the Croat king Stjepan Drzislav for aid and when in 1050 the Venetian doge Contareno conquered the town once more, the people of Zadar rose and a few years later recognised the Croat king Petar Kresimir IV sa their sovereign. A great deal of historical evidence such as Kresimir's presentations and authorisations, monasteries, monuments, etc, prove that this was a time of consolidation and sposperity. Ten years after Koloman's arrival in Zadar (In 1105 — he had the belfry of St. Mary's church built) the Venetians started another series of invasions. The doge himself (Falleri) was killed in front of the walls of Zadar. The rebellious commune demanded the setting up of its own archbishopric, Rome agreed, but placed it under the Venetian patriarchy a year later. Betrayed, the people of Zadar banished Morosini, the Prince of Venetian extraction, but in 1170 they had to accept the rule of the Venetian patriarchy. Only seven years later, in 1177, the clergy and the population of Zadar greeted pope Alexander III (who unexpectedly sought refuge in the town because of bad weather) with Croat songs (»canticis Illyricis«). Under Bela III, in 1180, Zadar was again made part of Croatia, but the cunning Venetian doge, blind Henrik Dándolo, who was forced to leave out of his title the »Dux Dalmatiae