It is located on the Adriatic Sea coast, overlooking the island of Pašman, on the road from Zadar and Sukošan towards Vodice and Šibenik.

The name Biograd means 'white city' and semantically corresponds to several other Slavic toponyms, including Beograd (Belgrade), Belgorod, Białogard, and Belogradchik.

[5] The city was first mentioned as Biogradon in the mid-10th-century chronicle De Administrando Imperio as one of the populated towns in "christened Croatia".

[6] During this time the Biograd na Moru was mentioned as a castle, and its citizens subsequently swore an oath of fealty to the Doge, who installed Vitale Michiel as a governor.

King Peter Krešimir IV founded the monasteries of St. John the Evangelist and St. Thomas in 1059 and 1066, both of them being three-naved basilicas.

During the succession crisis in 1096, the Norman princess Felicia of Sicily disembarked in the port of the city to marry the Hungarian king Coloman.

According to the Historia Ducum Veneticorum, only the citizens of Biograd na Moru "... dared resist the doge and his army ...", during his reconquest of Dalmatia but "... their city was razed to its foundations.

[8] A 15th-century drawing that depicts the ruins of Biograd also attest the bishop's palace beside the cathedral, as well as stone buildings and residences.

It was another capital of most Croatian regnants such as Stephen Držislav and Peter Krešimir IV, as well as an important religious place.

[citation needed] In recent history, the Yugoslavian forces inflicted considerable damage by long-range bombardment in the period 1991-1993 during the Croatian War of Independence.