Blogs from Split, Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 26

After leaving Venice, we cruised across the top of Italy’s boot to what used to be Yugoslavia, which is now split into several small countries -- Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, etc. (“the Balkans”). Croatia is a little country of five million that grabbed most of the lovely coastline on the Adriatic Sea away from the other Balkan countries. Its majority ethnic group is Roman Catholic. It’s said to be more “Italian” than the other Balkans, which tend to have Orthodox and Muslim populations. There is tension between Croatians and their minority ethnic group, the Serbs. Our destination in Croatia was Split, an ancient city founded back in Greek and Roman times. Our ship docked alongside a magnificent old Roman palace that dominates the downtown wharf area. The Roman emperor Diocletian’s mother was from this area, ... read more

Split was once known a Spalato and was a Venetian city from 1699 to 1797. The name stuck until World War I. The principal attraction in Split is Diocletian's Palace. The residence and garrison was built for Roman Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century when the city was known as Spalatum. Some of the building material was later used to construct Split. In some parts, the city had seemingly grown into the ruins and become a part of them. The ruins of the palace were still under excavation in 1975. I recall walking through an underground chamber and seeing a full wall, floor to ceiling, of unexcavated mud ahead. The underground chambers had been trash pits and sludge receptacles in the Medieval and Renaissance eras, so archaeologists apparently had a task ahead of them. The Historical ... read more