Church of St Anselm

Why it is worth your time

The church of St Anselm is Nin's parish church and the heir of its cathedral: it stands on the site of an early Christian basilica from the time when Nin received its first bishop, and by tradition that first bishop was Anselm himself, a disciple of the apostles, after whom the church is named. The present building is more modest than its history, rebuilt through the centuries, but inside it keeps what places Nin among Croatia's treasuries: beside the church works the treasury with the gold and silver of Nin, reliquaries, crosses and monstrances from the ninth century onward, among them the reliquary of St Anselm and pieces tied to Nin's bishops.

Here too is the Gothic statue of Our Lady of Zečevo, centre of Nin's greatest devotion: the May procession carries the Madonna by boats toward the islet of Zečevo, a spectacle of faith and sea rarely seen. The church is a living parish, so sightseeing follows the masses; the treasury has its terms, check them at the entrance. Ten minutes here join the town's spiritual spine: a bishop's seat, a royal capital, a small church that remembers both.