The Church of Saint Dominic and the first university in Croatia

The only preserved part of the early Christian Church of Saint Plato is the lintel decorated with a cross, which is now located in the building of the University of Zadar.

The Church of Saint Dominic is a single-nave structure with a rectangular sanctuary. It was consecrated in 1280 and is a distinct example of Gothic monastic architecture in Dalmatia. The Church of Saint Francis, considered the first Gothic church in Dalmatia, was built somewhat earlier but was consecrated at the same time as the Church of Saint Dominic.

The sanctuary of the church is groin-vaulted, while the nave is covered with an open roof truss. The portal on the facade has a pointed Romanesque arch, and above it is a large rose window.

Within the monastery, the General Philosophical-Theological School of the Dominican Order was founded in 1396 as the oldest of the Croatian universities, or as the first university in the territory of present-day Croatia. It operated until 1807 when it was abolished by Napoleon’s rule.

The Dominicans belong to the mendicant orders. Unlike monastic orders, they were in direct contact with people. They lived by their own work, and if they did not have enough to live on, they would beg from door to door. The most important task of the Order – preaching the Gospel and combating heresy – imposed the need and obligation of education and study for the preachers, who from the beginning of the Order founded schools and universities and opened libraries necessary for study. Because high education was linked to preaching, they were called the intellectual order. Every monastery was also a school open to the public.

With the arrival of Napoleon’s army in Zadar, the monastery was dissolved, and the church was converted into a barracks. The French established the so-called Lyceum, with higher education in the fields of surgery, medicine, chemistry, and law, which operated in the premises of the Monastery of Saint Chrysogonus and within the civil hospital in the Cedulin Palace. Due to the poor financial situation in the French Empire, this study program was abolished in 1811.

Since then, various institutions of higher education have operated in Zadar, until the establishment of the renewed University of Zadar in 2002. The study program initiated by the Dominicans in Zadar in 1396 is considered the precursor of the University of Zadar and higher education in Zadar, which has continued with occasional interruptions for over 600 years.

The church and monastery premises were almost entirely destroyed in the bombing of Zadar in World War II. The building of the Zadar Puppet Theater was built on the site of the monastery, and the church today serves for cultural and artistic events.