Between the island and the mountain: a note on the orientation of Roman Iader

Sa？etak Featuring prominently in the abundant Roman heritage of the present-day Zadar is the still recognizable orthogonal grid of its streets. The symmetrical grid indicates not only thorough urban planning of Roman Iader, but also complex religious procedures based on observation of nature and its aspects – or divine actions – as perceived through the spectrum of the natural phenomena visible to man. Discussing the orientation of Roman Iader, this paper concludes that the direction of Zadar’s main streets was primarily determined by – among other things – the dominant elements of the landscape surrounding Zadar Peninsula