Crates playful game of lights activated by the sunlight saluting “The most beautiful sunset in the world”

Greeting to the Sun

The solar cells absorb the Sun’s energy from sunrise to sunset, and convert this energy into electricity.

The installation Greeting to the Sun (Sun Salutation) consist of three hundred multi-layered glass plates arranged in a circle, encasing solar cells that absorb sunlight during the day.

The installation covers an area of a circle 22 meters in diameter surrounded by a metal ring that bears the engraved names of Zadar’s saints along with the date of their feast days, the declination of the Sun from the north or the south of the Equator, and the altitude of the Sun’s meridian on the date of that saint’s day, making the whole installation a kind of calendar.

The solar cells absorb the Sun’s energy from sunrise to sunset, and convert this energy into electricity. At sunset, the installation switches and the glass plates produce a brilliant animated light show of a series bright colourful lights powered by the energy absorbed during the day. The motion of the lights is dependent on the solar energy collected throughout the day as well as the power of the waves, and is supposed to represent the motion of the solar system.

All eight planets are represented by proportionally sized solar lights placed at their proportional distances from the sun. The electricity produced is useed also to light the entire waterfront at night. It is estimated that the display generates about 46,500 kWh of electricity a year.

Both Sea Organ and Greeting to the Sun were created by noted Croatian architect Nikola Bašić.

According to the famous Alfred Hitchcock, this part of the Zadar quay provides a view of the most beautiful sunset in the world. The Greetings to the Sun crates playful game of lights activated by the sunlight saluting “The most beautiful sunset in the world”.