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Special Venues: Providur’s Palace Zadar

Jan 11, 2025

Zadar’s historic cultural living room

Providur’s Palace is a monumental edifice dominating the eastern part of the historical core of the city of Zadar. Throughout history, it housed the institutions of the city government. Together with the neighbouring Duke’s Palace, this building is one of the rare parts of the city that did not perish during the bombing of Zadar in the Second World War. With the recent revamp, the formerly dilapidated complex now forms a new institution – the Two Palaces – a contemporary intervention within the renovated historical landmarks. This newborn nexus of art and culture stretches ten thousand square meters.

The complex has been envisioned as a cultural living room for the city of Zadar, as well as a significant hub of art and culture. Most of the interior of Providur’s Palace is dedicated to gallery spaces. Along with exhibition and educational activities, the building also hosts a branch of the Zadar City Library, adjoining two concert halls. The concert hall and multifunctional event room will provide space for medium-sized events for up to 500 attendees. This exceptional new architectural gem will thus render Zadar a sought-after event destination for mid-sized events.

During the last few decades, Providur’s Palace hosted various city institutions, civil associations, clubs, and other small groups. This patchwork of spaces now has a unified image. The overall task for the architects was to create a new and multifaceted interior within the historical compound. The extremely heterogeneous conditions had to be transformed to welcome the different purposes: the Zadar National Museum, a concert hall, a multifunctional hall, the Zadar Concert Office, and the city library.

The large atrium of the Providur’s Palace, a former open space, has become a covered passage, a central zone connecting the two buildings. The spacious multilevel volume of the atrium is the most monumental part of the complex and has taken over the crucial function of being the main entrance and exit as well as the space from which a visitor can approach every section of the Two Palaces. Here, meeting planners can now host welcome receptions or accompanying exhibitions.

Two bridges cross the open space of the atrium, one newly constructed and one found on-site in the process of renovation. One of the two bridges, a former balcony, is accentuated by its bright red colour, which has become a kind of trademark of the Palace.

Symbiosis of two palaces

This ancient steel framework was discovered during the renovation process under layers of plaster. An engineering gem, the bearing structure is a design particular to 19th-century architecture in Dalmatia. The conceptual background of the project is a fresh, professional, and daring perspective on the renovation of centuries-old buildings, which are provided with new infrastructure and adjusted for previously unintended usage inside protected historical urban spaces. This new space will also attract event organisers aiming to combine contemporary with historic.