Zadar - Cathedral of St. Anastasia

Zadar has a very long history - and after the Romans had left, Ostrogoths, Huns, Avars and Slavs had been here. It was part of the Byzantine Empire upto the early 9th century, when the Franks held it, but returned it to Byzantium after the Treaty of Aachen in 812.

In 1069 Zadar was under the rule of Croatian King Petar Krešimir IV. but already 1102 whole Dalmatia became Hungarian. Since the 12th century Zadar was a rival to Venice. The Venetians and the Crusaders conquered the town after a siege in 1202. Zadar changed hands a couple of times, but in 1409 Ladislaus of Naples, titular King of Hungary (and husband of Mary of Lusignan) sold Dalmatia to Venice for 100.000 ducats.

During the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s Zadar was under siege for about 2 years and shelled sporadically, what created a lot of damage. Attacks on the city continued until the end of the war in 1995.

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The Cathedral of St. Anastasia ("Katedrala sv. Stošije") is the seat of the archdiocese of Zadar, that existed already, when the first Bishop Felix attended the Council in Aquileia in 381.

That is, where the current cathedral roots on. Most important bishop was Donatus, who received the ashes of Saint Anastasia from Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I in the beginning of the 9th century. The ashes are still kept here.

During the siege of Zadar by the Venetians and Crusaders in 1202, the cathedral was heavily damaged. For the entire 13th century the building was under repair. It was reconsecrated in 1285, but was not completed before 1234, what explains the the Virgin in the center of the tympanum. The Gothic cathedral in Senlis has the first tympanum, where the Virgin replaced the traditional "Majestas Domini" - in 1170.