The Cathedral of St Anastasia
The Cathedral of St Anastasia is one of the narrated stops on the self-guided Zadar audio walking tour in Gingerguide. Plan about ~30 min here. Press play at the spot for its two to three minute story, or ask the AI guide anything about it.
- Type religious
- Suggested visit ~30 min
- Zadar Zadar guide
About The Cathedral of St Anastasia
Dalmatia's largest church, a long Romanesque basilica with a banded facade and twin rose windows, holding the saint's stone coffin. Its tall free-standing bell tower rewards the climb with the best view in Zadar.
The Cathedral of St Anastasia, Sveta Stošija, is the largest church in all of Dalmatia. It grew from an early Christian basilica and took its present three-nave Romanesque form in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The long facade is layered with blind arcading and set with a great Romanesque rose window and a smaller Gothic one. In the apse rests the marble sarcophagus of St Anastasia, whose relics reached Zadar in the ninth century.
Beside it rises the free-standing bell tower, its lower stage dating from the fifteenth century and its upper floors finished in the 1890s to a design by the English architect Thomas Graham Jackson, topped by a wind-turned angel. Visitors can climb the roughly two hundred steps for a sweeping view. The hexagonal baptistery alongside, destroyed by bombing in 1943, was later rebuilt.
Did you know? The Cathedral of St Anastasia is the largest church in Dalmatia, a Romanesque basilica of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with a banded facade, a great rose window and a smaller Gothic one.
How long should you spend at The Cathedral of St Anastasia?
Plan about ~30 min at The Cathedral of St Anastasia. That is enough to take it in and hear its narrated story; stay longer if it grabs you. The tour is self-guided, so there is no rush.
Is The Cathedral of St Anastasia worth visiting?
The Cathedral of St Anastasia is one of the 13 sights the Gingerguide team researched and narrated in Zadar, so it earns a place on a self-guided walk. Its story explains why it matters, and you can ask the AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Nearby stops in Zadar
Day 2 of the Zadar in 2 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of The Cathedral of St Anastasia
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