Zadar sphinx

Did you know that there is a sphinx in the city of Zadar? We do not have to go to Egypt any longer to see with our own eyes this mystical being trapped in a stone. Giovanni Smirić is a man to whom we owe an unforgettable opportunity to meet a part of exotic culture on Croatian soil. The story of the sphinx in Zadar begins in 1901, when Smirić, an art historian and restorer, lost his wife. The desperate husband raises a sphinx as a reminder of love with a deceased companion in the garden of his mansion in Maestral Bay. The mansion, ie Villa Attilija, the park and the sphinx are romanticism and classicism monuments of the period when exotic cultures were replicated all over Europe. Numerous legends are associated with the Zadar sphinx, such as the one according to which the sphinx is hidding a treasure and a tomb, but our sphinx silently guards the riddle. Many believe the statue actually fulfills love desires! However, even if we do not solve its riddle, we will not be disappointed in Zadar, the city with the largest number of monuments and the longest waterfront in Croatia. If we have rented an apartment, room or holiday house in Zadar, lets get to know this city of wonderful history through its monuments and entrust our love wish with the sphinx. Who knows, maybe it will be filled with the little help of this imposing sculpture of a lions body and the face of a woman with a mysterious look - the largest sphinx in this part of Europe.