Split, Croatia
- Julie-Anne Justus
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
We're still on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, this time in the port of Split. Split is the biggest Croatian city on the coast, with a population around 200,000. It's the most visited town in Croatia and according to our local guide Dragan, the most historic region in the country.
I liked the early morning light on this Croatian ferry.
There seems to be a theme emerging with our morning tours along this coastline. First, we start off at a lovely little restaurant/historic site in the countryside for our early morning cheese, prosciutto and wine. Today we're at another picturesque water-mill restaurant called Mlinice Pantan.
Ken seems very happy with this double breakfast arrangement: once on the ship, once on shore. With local wine. At 9.15 am.
After our second breakfast, we visit the town of Trogir, about 30 km west of Split. Croatia has 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and yes, Trogir's historic Old Town is one of them.
Trogir is on an island. The city has an action-packed history (as has most of this region) — by now we're familiar with the familiar parade through time of the Ilyrians, Greeks, Romans, a pinch of Hungary, the Saracens. In the 1300s the Venetians bombed the city, then helped to rebuild and stayed until the 1800s.
The rebuilding included the walls around the Old Town. Built in the 1400s to protect against the Ottoman Turks in Bosnia-Herzogovinia, they also helped to protect the city in Split. When the Mongols attacked the city around the same time, their horses couldn't cross the water to the island. (Honestly, it's like a parade of world conquerors! Who knew that the Mongols/Tatars reached as far west as the Adriatic Sea?)
En avant to Napoleon and the French, who occupied Trogir in the 1800s. The city was plagued by, well, plague, and to air out the miasmic city, the French removed the walls. (In French style, gardens were built to be the lungs of the town, so that's a positive from occupation.) Only one rampart remains from the 1400s, and you can see it in the photos above.
We're becoming familiar with these Old Towns: alleys, arches, small windows, stone paths.
The Old Town is famous for having a mix of styles across 400 years: mainly both Romanesque and Gothic. Later, Venetian style was added, like these facades with the Venetian balcony below the Gothic windows.
The heart of the Old Town is the Cathedral of St Lawrence, started around 1200 and continuing to be built until the 1600s. Some years ago the walls of the cathedral were being cleaned, when this graffiti was revealed. Turns out that it was from the 1600s! Sailors left this artwork as a prayer to return safely from the sea.
Carvings around the front door of the cathedral show a multitude of Bible scenes, and are renowned for their artistry. All this work was paid for by local benefactors. At the base of the columns are different men bearing the load of the sculptures above. According to Dragan, these are portraits of real people — those too stingy to contribute to the church building fund!
I like the austerity of the Gothic church style. The high arched ceilings, the dark wood, the white walls, the gloomy paintings, the tombstone floors ... there's a solemnity and a wrath-of-God atmosphere that seems more awe-inspiring to me than the pretty Renaissance-Baroque churches. If I were a church goer, this would be the style of church I'd attend.
Both St Lawrence and St John of Trogir (known as the Blessed John — or Blessed Ivan, actually, since John is a translation) are patrons of Trogir. St Lawrence was a priest in early Rome who defied the emperor and was (in Dragan's words) tossed on a grill until he roasted to death. There's a statue of St Lawrence to the left of the altar in the last photo above. Whenever you see a depiction of St Lawrence, he's carrying a grill (or worse, lying on it), which seems to rub it in somewhat.
St John of Trogir (aka the Blessed Ivan Trogirski) was a bishop in the 1100s who helped save the city from an attack (of course he did) but also apparently walked on water to save a ship. His sarcophagus is in a chapel in the cathedral; his chapel was begun in the 1400s and completed 200 years later. That's a long time to build a tomb. I particularly like the person coming out of the ceiling upside down. I couldn't find out who he represents — is he God? The Blessed John himself? St Peter? Or a sinner who's headed to Hell?
Gosh, it's been at least an hour since we had something to eat or drink ... okay, time for a coffee. But that's not to say we weren't tempted to eat more. The Dalmatian breakfast with anchovies for breakfast sounds delicious. (The name of the Dalmatian Coast comes from the Dalmatae, an Ilyrian tribe who fought the Ancient Romans ... and lost. No, I haven't spotted an eponymous dog yet.)
Before we leave Trogir, we pass an interesting memorial next to the sea. The falling dominoes statue is dedicated to people who defended the town during various conflicts — but particularly the Croatian soldiers who died in the Yugoslav war (or the Croatian War of Independence, as it's called here) in 1991—1995. I wonder if it's a complicated process agreeing on memorials given the internecine nature of the war.
On our way back to Split, we pass the old city of Salona. At one time it was one of the biggest cities in the Roman Empire. Today it's the largest archaeological park in Croatia. A little further is the last functional aqueduct in Europe, in use until the1930s.
Dragan makes the point that, while tourism accounts for nearly 20% of Croatia's GDP, there is industry as well. We pass a cement quarry, cement factories and a pipeline, one of the major employers in this region. There are also a lot of cement apartment blocks that were built post-WW2, when the government created industrial zones and people moved from rural areas to work. Part of their salary package included the mortgage on a flat. Communist architecture it may be, but perhaps this contributes to the enviable fact that today more than 90% of Croatians own their home? Croatia has one of the highest home ownership rates in the EU.
Back in the city of Split itself ... and the Palace of Diocletian.
Fiction or fact first?
Fact. The Roman emperor Diocletian, famed for his persecution of early Christians, had his retirement palace built here about 300 CE.
Fiction (but true). In Games of Thrones, Diocletian's Palace is the city of Meereen where Daenerys Targaryen ruled and kept her dragons. The substructures, or underground cellars, were the dragon lair and slave quarters.
Actually, the substructures are pretty interesting, dragons or not. According to Dragan (with an a), the substructures were built to form a level foundation for the palace against the hill where the palace was built. Around 10,000 Roman slaves took 10 years to build them. Over the next 1500 years, as the buildings above them decayed or were destroyed and rebuilt, the substructures filled up with rubble. Nobody remembered they even existed. Then, in December 1944, the RAF bombed the palace. It took archaeologists 45 years to clear the rubble from 1700 years, but when they did so, they discovered the best preserved substructures in Europe.
Inside the palace walls, there's a typical Ancient Roman square with columns ...
... and sphinxes, looted by the Romans from Egypt. The Roman emperors always admired the Egyptian pharaohs, whose people worshipped them as gods. (Those plebeians knew their place.) Diocletian wanted to be elevated like the Pharaoh — hence the substructures that elevated his palace.
But Diocletian has a bit of a split reputation (sorry). On the one hand, he saved the Roman Empire at a time when it was in crisis from wars and corruption. His solution was to divide the sprawling empire into four and to give power to three other Roman generals as co-rulers, effectively creating a bureaucracy that worked for a while because a divided empire was easier to govern and to defend. On the other hand, he was responsible for the worst, bloodiest persecution of the Christians— and to no avail, since Christianity just kept on going. (The next emperor was Constantine, who negotiated with the Christians. As Dragan said, Constantine is seen as a saviour, Diocletian as a villain.)
Nevertheless Diocletian ruled for 21 years, retired to Split to grow vegetables (cabbages actually), and died a natural death. Quite a feat in those times.
The Christians had their revenge, though. (A most un-Christian sentiment.) After Diocletian's death, the Christians sacked the palace and stole his corpse. The mausoleum of Diocletian (the hexagonal structure below) became the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, today the oldest cathedral in the world still using its original structure. Another temple built by Diocletian, the Temple to Jupiter, became John the Baptist Baptismal Church, so you could say that Big D's persecution of the Christians was a bit of a failure.
Across the square from the mausoleum/cathedral is an old Venetian building (balconies!), which is leaning so much it has to be wedged open by these wooden frames.
A bit of a wander through the palace precinct ...
... and then we come to this little courtyard at the one end. Two interesting features: (1) the three windows above the arch are in the smallest chapel in Europe (yes, that's a chapel in that tiny space), and (2) this courtyard was a death trap. Raiders who tried to get into the palace were trapped in this space when doors at either end closed, then boiling tar was poured over them from the arrow slits/windows above. The Latin inscription is from the 1800s; it seems to be a memorial to the person who restored this wall. How's your Latin?
Did I mention that this is another UNESCO World Heritage site?
Outside this end of the palace, this glorious statue. I thought it was a GoT prop (or a Middle Earth wizard) but no, it's actually a medieval bishop, Gregory of Nin, who defied the pope and conducted church services in Croatian languages.
Running along the length of the palace and the yacht marina is the Riva, like the St Tropez promenade. It's the site of restaurants, markets and festivals.
We ducked around the back of the palace and found this more local marketplace and local shops.
Spinach and cheese burek, and almond and peach gelato, and I was happy.
Well, it's time to split, man. (Awful, I know. Couldn't resist.) A view of Split as we leave port, and the moon over the ocean from our cabin later that night.
Next stop: Koper, Slovenia
This really looks better on a bigger screen, www.julie-anne.online
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