The Sea Organ is a 230-foot “instrument” that plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of seven large marble stairs. Croatian architect Nikola Bašić created the stunning architectural in 2005 at Zadar, Croatia to repair the devastation suffered in the Second World War.
Visitors call the Sea Organ “Original and surprisingly memorable” and “A very calm and slightly transcendental experience. You sit on the steps with the sea lapping and the movement of the waves creates very soothing musical notes. Lovely!”
The sea organ won the 2006 European Prize for Urban Public Space which stated: “The steps are made up of seven parallel flights, each one ten metres wide. The seven flights are juxtaposed in such a way that at each change of flight there is a difference of one step; that means that the steps both at the junction with the parade and at the water’s edge the flights present a staggered silhouette…A series of polyethylene tubes of different diameters run along the inside surface of each flight of steps, connecting the submerged part with a gallery that runs along beneath the parade. With the variable force of the waves, the water penetrates the lower end of the tubes and is carried into the subterranean gallery, which collects it and returns it to the sea. In this process the air of the interior of the conduits is pushed to orifices that connect the gallery with the surface of the parade, generating sound vibrations which, given the variations in the diameter and length of the tubes, cover a broad range of musical tones.”
