As with our tour to Corfu I have to confess that I had no clue what we would be doing on this day other than we would be going to see some palace. Croatia is now an independent nation that was part of Yugoslavia for about forty years after World War II. Karen and I had actually been to Yugoslavia 38 years ago when it was controlled by the Communists. Split is a Mediterranean city in Croatia on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea about half way between Greece and Venice Italy. Croatia has lots of shore line and wraps around the entire north and east sides of Bosnia and Herzegnovina, touching Montenegro on the the south, Hungary and Slovenia on the north, and Serbia on the east. It's a pretty weird shaped country. Split is the second largest city in Croatia and is one of the oldest cities in the area. It is considered 1700 years old dating back to 305 AD when Diocletian had his palace built there. There is archaeological evidence that there was a Greek colony there dating back to the 6th century BC. More later.
This series of photos was taken as we left the ship anchored in the bay and headed to the harbor/dock at the city center. The photo above is of a high point that later in the day provided a great set of views.
Our first good shot of the city looked like it was at the foot of a mountain range. As it turned out the mountains in the background are quite a ways back and there is an narrow bay on the back side of the city and between the city and the mountains beyond.
The closer we got the more detail we could see of the water front of the old part of the city. The structure behind the trees is Diocletian's palace. The City of split is more or less build around the Palace and spreads out to the south, east and north.
Like many European cities the building materials and color seem to have been maintained to give the whole thing a unity or cohesion that is rarely seen in American Cities. We seem to want all our buildings to be be unique and stand out from among the rest of the building in the city skyline.
The photo above is a view of the place. The taller building in the center is the middle of the palace the two taller structures to the right and the left are the corners of the western side (sea side) of the palace. The area with the trees and white horizontal line (actually a canopy) was all added in recent times. Today that area is a plaza in the past it was just the sea lapping up against the foundation of the palace.
As you can see most of the building that have been constructed around the palace are of a similar style to that of the exterior of the palace. The interior and the other other exterior facades are more ancient in their style which tells me that someone modernized or at least spruced up this side.
Here we are with our guide for the tour of Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian had the Palace built in preparation of this retirement. Originally the palace was right on the water front (four pictures below) the quarters for the Emperor being on the sea side of the palace had to be higher in elevation to the land side so none of the servants were above Diocletian. Since the structure was large and on land that sloped down to the sea, there were huge vaulted foundation structures built on the shore line and the palace was build on top of that. These vaulted rooms and passage ways were filled in from above by generations of later residents using the space as a dump. Think of the idea of cutting a hole in the floor of you house and discarding anything you didn't want into the basement for several hundred years. Archaeologist had a great time digging through the layers of historical trash.
Our tour started in the lowest level in the "catacombs" and we were shown some displays (below) that illustrated the location of the palace on a topographical map. The palace is the black star looking thing. The water (blue) at the top of the map in the inlet that I mentioned above. The harbor is the inlet out in front of the star and the bay is the blue at the bottom of the map. Later in the day we were up on the ridge to the left of the star looking out into the bay and over the city to the south.
We were told that the city and especially Diocletian's palace is perhaps the best example of ancient buildings in Europe. Diocletian was a Roman emperor starting in about 285 AD. The history that we were given is that he was not actually Roman, he was from the region of Croatia. He was a military man rising through the ranks and ultimately became a trusted bodyguard of the the Roman Emperor. He supposedly killed his long time friend Aper when it was discovered that Aper had assassinated the Emperor. Diocletian was made emperor after that and started on a reform campaign to restore the structure of the economy, social and military elements of the Roman culture. One of his reforms resulted in the persecution of Christians and was one of the cruelest rulers toward the Christians and was responsible to the killing of Christians in the Coliseum and burning at the stake. Inadvertently this caused Christianity to spread to the far reaches of the empire (Christians trying to escape persecution).
Diocletian abdicated this throne and went to live the remainder of his life in his place in Split Croatia and died there in 316 AD. Interestingly his descendant Constantine reversed his fathers position on the Christians and made Christianity the State religion. The central headquarters of Diocletian's palace ended up as a Catholic church.
The Roman Empire collapsed about 100 years later and the palace was abandoned for several centuries. In the 7th century local residence occupied the walled palace seeking escape from invading barbarian. Since that time until modern times the palace is mainly occupied by people who live in the original housing on the upper levels and have shops and restaurants on the main level.
In the photo above is an example of the water pipes that were used by the Romans to distribute water all over the city. The blocks were placed face to face creating long tubes/pipes through which water was carried from reservoirs up on the high ground.
The vaulted rooms below the palace have been emptied and are use to wow tourists.
The coin above was actually a large shield on the wall to illustrate what Roman coins might have looked like.
The wooden beam on display is perhaps is perhaps 1500 years old. You can still see the growth rings on the end.
Some of the rooms in the space below the palace were pretty large spaces.
I suppose I was wondering how many boats or cars or hay could be stored in here
On our way out we went past several shops like the art gallery above.
We headed out of the catacombs and into the daylight again.
Out in the courtyard there was this tower.
We wandered through several other narrow passageways
There were some interesting structural components in the building of the palace. This octagonal structure was Diocletian's headquarters
Inside was this altar that was installed by the church after Diocletian quit using the space.
The Sphinx is evidence that Diocletian's travels and or collecting activities extended pretty far, including Egypt.
More architectural details. In the photo below you can see some of the modern "improvements" that were made to some of the palace structures.
As you can see some of the craftsmanship was quite precise and detailed.
When you consider that this structure is 1700 years old I'd say its holding up pretty well, especially compared to the Coliseum in Rome that would have been in about the same age bracket.
There were large vaulted areas that were now used for local vocal groups to sing lovely close harmony Croatian songs and sell CD's. I never did hear what its original purpose.
Next we headed into the temple of Jupiter with an altar that had some interesting classic patterns and images.
The room had a vaulted ceiling that had interesting patterns and a face in the center of each panel.
Back outside we passed by several narrow passageways leading out from the courtyard.
Back in the sphinx courtyard I finally got to a point where I could get a wide angle shot.
We went by several shops that were in the palace structure
More narrow passageways some with interesting views
We headed out the far side of the palace (east side) though a couple of arches.
On the far side of the palace (the side away from the sea) and towards the city of Split. This side of the palace was not fixed up as much as the the sea side facade. You can see that some masonry repairs have been made. The match was not all that good as it could have been.
There was this bell tower out a ways from the east entrance.
This huge bronze statue is of of Gregory of Nin, a 10th century bishop who was strongly opposed by the Pope and the catholic hierarchy. He introduced the Croatian language in the religious services (instead of Latin). Rubbing his toe supposedly brings good luck. The toe is worn smooth by luck seekers.
We headed north along the wall of the palace, still needing masonry repair.
We headed out and around the one of the lookout towers and would be heading to the north wall.
Some of the stone details were quite interesting.
Around on the north wall we observed that the the city was built up close to the palace creating the narrow streets.
Occasionally the street would open into a courtyard surrounded by many very nice old buildings.
Now this isn't something you wouldn't expect to see in the middle of an ancient Croatian City, an Australian didgeridoo player. Oh well you never know about some things.
Back to the old city and the medieval buildings surrounding the palace
I thought it was interesting to see stone arches and lintels stretching across streets.
There were several towers some like this one was a clock tower and had a belfry as well.
The figure above in stone has a fairly dramatic looking because of the staining of the stone. The shop in the photo below had the original palace exterior wall as its interior wall.
The tower above was more of a watch tower typical of several that were spaced along the perimeter. The statue in the photo below is of Marko Maruli'c the father of Croatian Literature.
We are heading around the final turns on our way back to the starting point past some nice older stone and tile buildings.
Out in front of the palace on the plaza again we are turned loose to wander the city on our own. In the photo above behind the center palm tree is the hill that we will climb later in the day.
Above is the northwest corner of the palace. Below looking out to the north across a part of the bay in front of the palace.
Here are a couple of shots of the sea (west) side of the palace, you can see that this side was better maintained than the east side. Also of note is that the plaza in the photo below would not have been there originally. This would have be sea water right up to the base of the Palace.
Here we are just before we split from Jon and Clarice to see Split. Notice that I am dry.
We headed to the north of the palace and turned east into an interesting walk way. Eventually we came to this fish market.
This is about the first time we encountered an open fish market on this trip. Later on we would see an even bigger fish market in Venice, but this one was pretty nice and had quite a variety of fish.
Enough with the fish already she said so Karen and I moved on.
We wandered down streets and past interesting buildings
Open courtyards.
Arched doorways
narrow streets that seemed to be able to double as restaurant seating.
Towers
Next we headed to the south side of the palace, going back though the courtyard.
The south wall of the palace was in about the worst shape and actually had the look of a ruin.
There were interesting stairways leading into the residential sections of the palace. Several artist had set up shop just inside the palace wall. We ended up with a couple of small pastels.
Just outside the palace wall were merchants in booths and tents. We bought a scarf from the lady above and a piece of lace work from another booth.
Further out from the palace wall things opened up into a large plaza area where vendors had a farm market. There were lots of different vendors and for the most part the produce looked like it was of really good quality. My guess is that at this time of year they were right at the peak of their harvests.
We spent quite a bit of time at the farm market wishing we had a salad bowl. Actually that was my thoughts, I think Karen wanted to go back to the fish market. (just kidding).
Some vendors specialized in herbs.
There as even a nice flower market areas on one side.
Above are jars of honey with various kinds of nuts.
Heading back to and through the palace we came across this interesting wall. My guess is that they were just trying to stabilize the wall with a rubble fill.
We headed west around the south side of the palace and planned to move out to the east and north of the palace compound.
One more last shot of the palace interior, the back side of the headquarters converted to a church.
Then off through more narrow streets in search of wild adventure or maybe something to drink.
We came across this interesting restaurant and had a beverage and a rest.
Then we were off out again. We eventually popped out into the modern part of Split. this doesn't look much different than any city street in the USA.
You can see that we are right on the edge of the transition between old and new.
This was an interesting site. This crane operator was trying to work his was back along this wall between two buildings to a construction site. The clearance was a just a couple of inches on each side and he was trying to drive up this temporary loose gravel ramp to get up and across a wall into the site. I wanted to stay an watch him take out the side of the building, but better heads prevailed and Karen said it was time to move on.
We started heading to the north and a bit east. I kind of enjoyed seeing the coke truck.
We finally got back into the older and perhaps poorer section of the city north of where we had been on the tour.
Some of the streets and alleys revealed a wide variety of building materials and styles all layered on top of one another.
There was some interesting pave and masonry work.
Evidence that someone had trench in a utility and repaired the road.
We spotted this building that looked like a small church.
As we headed to the south we were gradually gaining height in elevation. Stairs leading up to one side of a building and the other side of the building would be at grade.
Above our heads were interesting roof lines flowers and light fixtures.
The picture above is looking south toward the palace area and the one below to the north heading toward the base of the hill I had mentioned earlier.
Every so often there would be an interesting small entry way or courtyard that would open up to the street.
After a while the street/walk started to have steps show up to help gain elevation faster and not be too steep to walk.
More little side streets and entry ways.
Part way up the hill we got a view back toward the old city.
As we climbed we would get another interesting view back to the city and the bay.
The walk got a little steeper. Up at the end of this section we turned to the left (west) and came out to this small church.
Here we could look out into the bay and catch a glimpse of our ship.
We could also see the harbor and marina on the north shore of the bay.
We took a few minute break and enjoyed the view.
We left the church and headed up this steep drive. When we got to the top of this Karen decided to wait on a bench while I headed on up a set of steps to the left. You can see the steps to the right of the flag.
When I finally got up to the flag site the view was pretty cool.
I took some quick shots to the southwest and west. That's our ship
Here's a shot to the south (above) and to the east (below) you can see in this shot that there is quite an extensive urban sprawl and a couple of athletic venues.
The Flag was at one end of this large flat courtyard at the top of the hill, but it was time to scurry back down the hill.
Along the way I passed by this small outdoor amphitheatre. I met up with Karen again who was quite perturbed with me for being gone so long and most importantly leaving her in the middle of Croatia without any ID or tickets. They were in my back pack. Oops!
We went by the back side of the small church we had seen on the way up and got an official picture. At least she is smiling again. Note that I am not dry. It was quite a hike. We really enjoyed Split.
We headed back to the transport shuttle boat and back to the ship. Since this would be the last night we would be on the ship I decided to throw these photos in here. The whole time were were on the cruise we had dinner in this dining room most nights dress was casual, occasionally there was a formal night and we were expected to wear coat and tie. The two waiters were the ones that had served our table for a couple of weeks. We had great service and a lot of fun with them. Therefore, we wanted to get picture with them.
The food on the cruise was really great. I don't recall anything that was not of the best quality and you could have as much as you wanted. It was not uncommon to have several extra deserts come at the end of the meal. Most deserts were really fancy. We really enjoyed the evening dinners it was a good time to talk about what we had seen each day, since we were often on different tours. Sometimes we would go a the theatre for a show, singer, comedian, or something else.
This was the last evening we would be on the ship with time to enjoy it. The next day we would we would be sailing into the harbor of Venice was would leave the ship and go into Venice and spent the night in a hotel and a couple of day walking and boating around and through that city.
No comments:
Post a Comment