Monument to the Sun

Feel the ground beneath your feet. It is smooth and slightly slick, like a pane of dark glass laid flat on the stone. Behind you, the sea moves against the steps of the waterfront, and somewhere nearby a low, uneven chord rises out of the water. You are standing at the very tip of Zadar's old peninsula. Here the city runs out of land and the Adriatic begins. Under your shoes is a circle that drinks in sunlight all day and gives it back after dark.

This is the Monument to the Sun. In Croatian, people call it Pozdrav Suncu, which means Greeting to the Sun. It is a large disc set flush into the promenade, made of many layered glass plates. Beneath the glass sit solar panels. Through the day they collect energy from the sun. When evening comes, that stored energy feeds a ring of lights that switch on and play across the surface in shifting patterns of colour.

The monument is the work of the Croatian architect Nikola Bašić. It opened in 2008. A few years earlier, Bašić had designed the installation you can probably hear right now — the Sea Organ. That is the line of marble steps just along the waterfront. Under the steps, pipes and channels let the waves push air through openings in the stone. The result is a constant, unpredictable music, played by the sea itself.

The two works were planned as companions. One answers to the water. The other answers to the sky. Together they turned a tired stretch of concrete into a place where people now come simply to sit. Here is the surprise many visitors miss. This edge of the city was not always welcoming. After damage in the Second World War, the waterfront was rebuilt in a plain, practical style. For years many locals found it dull and empty.

Bašić's two installations changed that. Today, as the light fades, you will see families, couples, students and fishermen spread along the steps and around the glass circle. Some lie down on the disc itself. Children run across it, chasing the colours as they ripple outward. It is one of the few monuments in the world that people are invited to walk on, sit on, and treat almost like a dance floor.

Look at the edge of the circle. Around the glass disc runs a wider ring set into the stone. It carries names and markings linked to the calendar — the saints honoured through the year, and lines connected to the path of the sun across the seasons. The design ties the monument to time itself. You are standing on a kind of solar calendar, laid out at the scale of a public square.

Now turn your attention to the promenade around you. Set into the pavement along the waterfront, you may find further metal markers representing the planets of our solar system. In this idea, the glass circle stands for the sun at the centre. The planets lie outward from it at intervals. It is easy to walk straight past them. Once you notice one, though, you start hunting for the rest.

The real performance belongs to sunset. Zadar faces west across open water, toward a scatter of low islands on the horizon. On clear evenings the sun drops behind them, and the whole sky turns orange, pink and then deep violet. A famous line is often attributed to the film director Alfred Hitchcock. He is said to have called the sunset here the most beautiful in the world. Locals repeat the story with real pride.

Whatever Hitchcock really said, the sunset is the reason most people gather here. Watch how the crowd behaves. As the sun touches the islands, conversation drops. Phones go up. Then, a little later, the glass beneath everyone's feet begins to glow. The monument picks up the story exactly where the sky leaves off. The day's light, stored in the panels, comes back as a quiet electric show.

The patterns are worth watching for a while. The lights do not simply switch on and stay still. They pulse, spin and sweep across the circle in waves of blue, green, red and white. Some people say the rhythm seems to answer the sound of the Sea Organ. It is a pleasant thought. Either way, the two installations together make the waterfront feel alive long after the sun has gone.

There is also a practical idea behind the art. The monument was designed to show how sunlight could be turned into usable energy in a public space. It is a working solar installation as well as a gathering place. Bašić took a technical object, the solar panel, and placed it where everyone could see it and touch it. Few people think about energy while they stand here. That is part of its quiet success.

Behind you is the old town of Zadar. It is a compact peninsula of pale limestone streets, Roman remains, and bell towers. The city has been settled for a very long time, and layers of Roman, medieval and Venetian history sit almost on top of one another. A short walk inland leads you to the old Roman forum and the round church of Saint Donatus. The monument, by contrast, belongs to the twenty-first century. Old and new meet at this very spot.

Before you leave, take a moment to stand still in the middle of the circle. Feel the faint warmth the glass may still hold from the afternoon. Listen to the Sea Organ breathing behind you, and to the voices of people around you in many languages. Look west, to the islands now dark against the sky. As you walk back toward the old town, glance over your shoulder. The circle will still be glowing, keeping the sun's light a little longer.