Greeting to the Sun Zadar

The Greeting to the Sun is a large circle of solar panels set into the pavement at the end of Zadar’s waterfront promenade, next to the Sea Organ, and after dark it lights up in a programmed show of colour generated from the daylight it has stored. It was designed, like the Sea Organ, by the architect Nikola Bašić and opened in 2008.

The installation consists of 300 glass panels, set level with the stone of the promenade, that by day charge in the sun and by night play a light show whose patterns are based on the rhythm of the waves and the orbits of the planets. It sits right next to the Sea Organ, the set of tuned pipes in the waterfront steps that plays music from the waves, and the two together have turned the western tip of the Zadar peninsula into one of the most-loved public spaces in the country.

The Greeting to the Sun is free and open at all hours, and the obvious time to see it is the hour after sunset, when the light show starts and the Sea Organ is playing, with the sun going down behind the islands of the Zadar archipelago.

For photographers, the long exposure of the light show against the silhouetted crowd is the shot, and sunset over the Sea Organ beside it is the classic Zadar image. It is busy in summer, so arrive early for a spot at the rail.

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