I was pleasantly surprised to find that Croatian shares many words with Ukrainian and Polish.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2023
Split
is in a region of Croatia called Dalmatia.
In 10 AD, the Romans took over this region. Split was then a Roman town called
Spalatum. Diocletian, the Roman Emperor from 284 until
305 built a huge palace in Split.
Diocletian had been born to an insignificant family in
Dalmatia but rose through the military.
He died in Split and his mausoleum (now a cathedral) is “one of the
best-preserved ancient Roman buildings still standing today”.
From the Riva (Split’s
waterfront promenade) you can see the original arches and columns of the palace
wall.
the Cathedral
of St. Domnius (formerly Diocletian’s mausoleum)
Looking inside at intricate
stonework. Images of the emperor and his
wife still appear on a frieze high on the walls.
Scenes from Christ’s life on a magnificent wooden
inner door were carved in the 13th century.
The master carving on
the altar of St. Anastasius (not the main altar) is of The Flagellation of
Christ.
The black granite
Egyptian sphinx outside the Temple of Jupiter dates from the 15th
century BC was imported by Diocletian.
The Temple of Jupiter
became the cathedral’s baptistery.
The heart of the Roman
palace is a courtyard or peristyle.
At the southern end
of the peristyle is the vestibule that was once the entrance to Diocletian’s
apartments.
In the substructure
of the palace are chambers that housed Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons in GAME OF
THRONES.
Wine and cheese in a
Gothic house in the north end of the palace: Marcvs Marvlvs Spalatensis Wine
Bar.
*********
History comes vividly to life in historical fiction. Diocletian, a character in this book, viciously burns his wife along with many other Christians. Did remorse motivate his abdication?
.******************************************************************************
BRYAN'S JOURNAL
Sunday, October 8, 2023
By 8:00 am the Quest had arrived in the port of Split, Croatia’s second largest city.
Fortunately, we would not have to take one of the ship’s tenders as anticipated. After
breakfast in the Discovery Restaurant we were able to walk off the ship and proceed for
about a kilometre to reach the entrance to the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace, now
designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It took ten years to build this fortress
and residence which became the Emperor’s retirement home in 305 CE. The palace is
so vast that it became part of the Old Town whose streets were its hallways.
We walked through an open-air market along the eastern wall of the palace and passed
through the Silver Gate to arrive at the Peristil, a colonnaded Roman courtyard around
which are stores and cafés. A pair of young men dressed as Roman legionaries posed
for pictures. Sitting between the columns there is a black-granite sphinx that was one of
several imported from Egypt when the palace was being built. After we purchased
tickets to visit the cathedral, baptistery, and cellars, we took the stairs down into
Diocletian’s Cellars. This palace substructure is lined with souvenir shops and had two
chambers at one end which were mostly empty. We then took the stairs up to the
vestibule which was once the formal entrance to the imperial apartments. In this
cavernous, domed room, open to the sky, a cappella singers regularly perform
traditional Dalmation klapa songs. They are quite impressive.
On one side of the Peristil is the octagonal Cathedral of St. Domnius, one of the best
–preserved ancient Roman buildings still standing today. Originally built to be the
mausoleum of Emperor Diocletian, one of the fiercest persecutors of early Christians. In
the 5 th century, the emperor’s sarcophagus was destroyed and his tome was converted
into a church dedicated to one of his victims.
The wooden doors of the cathedral were made by the medieval Croatian
sculptor and painter Andrija Buvina around 1214. Below the Cathedral there is a crypt
dedicated to St Lucy, the martyr of Syracuse and the patron saint of the blind. The
church sacristy contains relics of Saint Domnius, which were brought to the cathedral
after his death, as well as religious art works, such as the Romanesque The Madonna
and Child panel painting from the 13th century, objects such as chalices and reliquaries
by goldsmiths from the 13th to the 19th century, mass vestments from the 14th until
19th century, and rare texts such as the Book of gospels (Splitski Evandelistar) from the
6th century, the Supetar cartulary (Kartularium from Sumpetar) from the 11th century,
and the Historia Salonitana (The History of the people of Salona) by Thomas the
Archdeacon from Split in the 13th century.
The Temple of Jupiter was an ancient Roman temple that was converted into the
cathedral’s baptistery dedicated to St John the Baptist, sometime during the sixth
century.
One can climb the 186 steps up the adjoining tall Romanesque bell tower for a fee. We
old folks decided to pass on what is supposed to be a grand view.
Instead, we walked along the Krešimirova through the Iron Gate of the west wall to
Narodni trg where we enjoyed a pleasant coffee at the Kavana Central Restaurant in
the public square.
We returned to our ship and, after lunch and a short nap, we wondered back out to
explore the streets around the palace. Outside the north Golden Gate, we discovered
Ivan Meštrović’s larger-than-life sculpture of Grgur Ninski (Gregorius of Nin), the 10 th
century Croatian champion of commoners. People like to rub his left toe for good luck.
We then spent some time in the nearby Strassmayerov Park before finally walking along
a promenade called the Riva to the ship.
It was hot that day so we had decided against travelling up to Klis Fortress which
overlooks the valley leading into Split.
Parts of the HBO’s series, Game of Thrones, were filmed in Split. Klis Fortress is
Meereen, the place where Daenerys Targaryen had the slave-masters crucified in
season 4. One of the chambers in the palace substructure was the place where Daenerys Targaryen housed her dragons.
