Split and Beyond

Note:  The cruise is finished and I am now in Athens.  I should have pretty good WiFi for the rest of my trip so I will endeavour to get caught up and post more often.  Thank you for your patience!

We sailed overnight from Ancona to Split, our next port.  The city is on the eastern shore of the Adriatic and is centred on the Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian.  It is the second largest city of Croatia, and the largest of the Dalmatian cities.  Spread over a central peninsula and its surroundings, Split’s greater area includes the neighbouring seaside towns.  Split is one of the oldest cities in the area.  While it is traditionally considered just over 1700 years old, counting from the construction of Diocletian’s Palace in 305 AD, research relating to the original founding of the city as the Greek colony of Aspalathos in the 4^th century BC, establishes the urban history of the area as being several centuries older. 

Old Split town lies inside Diocletian’s Palace and is a medieval maze of back streets filled with shops, cafes and bars.  There is no charge to enter the palace independently.  In addition to the medieval town, there is a wide and long promenade lined with palm trees between the old city walls and the seafront.  There are numerous cafes and restaurants along it to choose from.  The harbour is teeming with yachts, ferries and cruise ships. 

The palace itself was built by Emperor Diocletian during the 4^th century and was intended to be his retirement home.  Although it is commonly called a palace, it is perhaps better described as a fortress – half used as the Emperor’s personal home, the other half for military purposes.  We explored the mausoleum and the palace cellars.  In later centuries, a medieval town began to grow around the palace ruins and after the Venetians fortified the city and developed it further, it became a key port in the Venetian Republic.  During the 7^th century, Diocletian’s mausoleum, the resting place of the once persecutor of the Christians, came to a somewhat ironic fate when the enormous octagonal edifice was converted into the Cathedral of St. Domnius. 

We also saw the Peristyle Square and went through the cellars which today are mainly filled with shops.  

Our visit also included a visit to the Split City Museum where one can see Diocletian’s dining table, the only artifact remaining from that time.  I am not sure I "get" artifacts - but many people on the tour thought this was amazing!

Our afternoon excursion, the only one on the cruise for which you had to pay extra ($35USD, visited two nearby places:  Salona and Trogir.  Salona was first settled by the Illyrians and was conquered by the Romans in 78BC.  It became a Roman colony around 33BC under Octavian.  As the Romans conquered the rest of the region, Salona became its capital.  While we were there, we saw basically what was a former cemetery filled with ancient sarcophagi and then walked down the hill to where you can look across what was formerly the old city.  There is apparently a theatre you can see but we didn’t get there.  It was the consensus of the people I was with that it was basically just one more site with Roman ruins.  I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are a serious student of Roman archaeology. 

Next up, and a short drive further along the coast, was the medieval town of Trogir.  Unlike Salona, in my opinion, it was a gem.  It is situated on a small island and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The justification for the designation is (from the WHS web page):

Trogir is considered an excellent example of a medieval town built on and conforming with the layout of a Hellenistic and Roman city that has conserved its urban fabric to an exceptional degree and with the minimum of modern interventions, in which the trajectory of social and cultural development is clearly visible in every aspect of the townscape.

It was a major port until the Roman period when Salona’s prosperity caused Trogir’s importance to decline.  The village has narrow medieval streets and alleyways with cobble-stoned streets and a lovely cathedral.  The seafront is charming with a wide promenade filled with cafes and market stalls.  

While we were in Trogir, our guide told us the legend of Kairos, a Greek god represented as a flying creature always in a hurry.  According to ancient Greek's comprehension of this god of the "fleeting moment", Kairos presents a someone with favorable opportunity.  This favorable moment must be grasped (i. e. the winged, permanent running Kairos by his tuft of hair), otherwise the moment flies away without return and cannot be caught any more.  Basically, I guess, it is the philosophy of carpe diem or seize the day but represented as a Greek god instead.

So, the bottom line was that I could easily skipped the Roman ruins of Salona but I would highly recommend the side trip from Split to Trogir.  It is delightful - and the ice cream there was delicious!