Tower of Love

The "Tower of Love" is not in the city of Zadar itself. It stands on the small, car-free island of Silba, part of the Zadar archipelago and reachable by passenger ferry from Zadar's harbor. Locally it is called Toreta, or Marinić's Tower, after the family that built it.

It is a round stone tower about 15 meters high, built in 1872 by a sailor named Petar Marinić, with an external spiral staircase leading up to a lookout platform. According to the legend that gives the tower its name, Marinić promised his sweetheart Antonija Mauro that he would build her a house with a tower to watch for his ship, then left on a long voyage. She eventually gave up waiting and married someone else; when Marinić returned roughly two decades later, he found her daughter Domenika instead, and the two married and had a large family. A plaque at the site records that the tower was built "as a sign of love and faithfulness."

Because Silba bans cars, the walk up to the tower is quiet, and the platform at the top opens onto a view over the island and the surrounding sea — the main reason the site draws hikers as well as anyone curious about the legend.

For travelers based in Zadar, Silba is usually a day trip rather than a main stop, and many combine it with a gulet cruise along the Croatia coast that calls at the smaller islands north of the city.