On Monday, 3 November 2015, a conference was held in the Rector’s Palace to mark the beginning of the project “Reconstruction and tourist valorisation of cultural and historical complex of the Rector's Palace”.

The project coordinator is City of Zadar, and the partners are National Museum of Zadar, Zadar Tourist Board, ZADRAnova – Development Agency of Zadar County and the University of Zadar. All the project activities were presented at the conference and the partnership agreement was signed. The Rector´s Palace was recorded in historic sources as early as the 13th century. The wall structure reveals Romanesque and Gothic layers from the Middle Ages. It was completely restored in the 16th century and later in the 19th century, according to the designs of the classicist architect, Frano Zavore. The courtyard is the oldest example of Classicism in Zadar. In the 19th century, the Rector´s Palace was joined to the Proveditor´s Palace (17th century), the two together forming a joint Viceregency, the government headquarters for Dalmatia within the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy.

“For a number of years, it was an important factor in the cultural life of Zadar with multiple functions – the city library, music and ballet school and concert hall and such. It was affected by the enemy grenades of large caliber during the Croatian War of Independence, which seriously damaged and undermined the statics. The first phase of the post-war reconstruction began in 1999. In 2011 with the help of the City of Zadar and the Conservation Department in Zadar, the National Museum Zadar launched a campaign of temporary rearrangement of several halls for exhibition purposes. The time has come to renew the Rector’s Palace for the fourth time. Through the project “Reconstruction and tourist valorisation of cultural and historical complex of the Rector's Palace”, 37.799.651,00 HRK are provided from the EU Structural funds. From 144 nominated projects, Zadar’s project is among the selected 15 ones! A huge job is waiting for us in a very short time. Let the Rector’s Palace shines in its full glory by the end of 2016 on pride to all of us!” – said Bozidar Kalmeta.

The implementation of this project, approved for funding from the tender for development of business infrastructure (RCOP 2007-2013), started on 2 October 2014. The total value of the project is 37.799.651,00 HRK, with 96% co-financing. The project is to be implemented within 24 months.

The project aims to create recognition of the new integrated cultural tourism product in Zadar through reconstruction and tourist valorisation of the Rector’s palace. The project resolves long-term needs for cultural presentation of the city, county and institutions in culture and tourism in a modern, innovative and attractive way. This will increase competitiveness of the new cultural tourism product, which is a direct incentive to entrepreneurship as an overall city tourist offer extension. The reconstruction of the Rector’s Palace will turn this part of the city into a new social, cultural and tourist center.

The Rector’s palace reconstruction project is of great importance for the city of Zadar, since it is the first Structural Funds’ grant for infrastructure interventions in Croatia. Except for infrastructure projects and the reconstruction of the Rector’s palace, the grant will be used for management capacity building, the International Summer School of cultural tourism, marketing plan and overall identity of the Rector’s palace.