University of Zadar
I have just returned from the Text Encoding Initiative Annual Conference held at the University of Zadar, the oldest university in Croatia, situated in a gorgeous location on the seafront overlooking the Zadar Strait. Due to the spectacular displays of the sun setting over the nearby islands it was very difficult, at times, to concentrate on the speakers, but being so conscientious this was not a problem! Alfred Hitchcock declared that he had witnessed the most beautiful sunset in the world from his room at the neighbouring Hotel Zagreb in May 1964, and I must agree with him!
Land Gate
TEI is a standard for encoding electronic texts, widely used by libraries, museums, publishers, and scholars to present texts for online research, teaching, and preservation. The annual conference offers an opportunity to meet with colleagues, learn about new projects, share research, and find out about new developments in the TEI. Here at the National Library we use the TEI Standard to encode our texts, mainly the Welsh Biography Online and the Welsh Journals Online.
I also took the opportunity of spending a few extra days to look around Zadar, an ancient, historical and cultural town, no bigger than Aberystwyth, located on the Croatian coast.
St Donats Church
The old town is surrounded by defensive walls that protect the city on three sides, first built by the Venetians in the 16th century as a defence against the Turks. A magnificent 16th century Port Gate, where the Venetian lion – the symbol of Venice, still guards the entrance.
There are a plethora of religious buildings in Zadar, one of the most spectacular being the 9th century Church of Saint Donat, a monumental round building often used as a symbol of the city. Being located at the centre of such a small town, it seemed that all roads led to St Donats! Another spectacular building was the 11th century church and monastery of St. Mary, and more especially the amazing exhibition of religious works of art called “The Gold and Silver of Zadar”, a dazzling display of the riches of the city, so dazzling in fact that my eyes hurt as I walked around the exhibition. Another memorable monument was the ‘Pillar of Shame’, in the ruins of the Roman forum, where evil-doers were once chained and humiliated – I didn’t hang around there for long!
Morske Orgulje
Zadar is also famous for its new attractions – the Morske Orgulje (Sea Organ) and the Spomenik Suncu (Greeting to the Sun). The Morske Orgulje looks like a stairway into the sea, but is also a pipe organ powered by waves, which creates a series of melancholy chords that emerge through whistles in the perforated stone stairs. You have to hear it to believe it!
The Spomenik Suncu is a very large glass circle that you can walk on, which contains three hundred multi layered glass solar panels with over 10,000 tiny light bulbs controlled by a computer that provides a multi coloured light show after dark. I have a childlike fascination of coloured lights, and I was spellbound as I walked around this marvellous spectacle, watching the patterns changing underfoot.
Spomenik Suncu
Spending my Kunas was an experience! As £1 is approximately 9 kunas, I felt like a millionairess, spending hundreds of kunas daily, but in reality spending almost nothing. Being sporadically ‘mathematically dyslexic’, my friend had created a ‘currency calculator’, which I can assure you was well worn before the end of an informative week, in a wonderful location!
You can see the pictures that I took of Zadar old town on Flickr.