Daily Archives: October 21, 2017

On to Istria, North Western Croatia

October 21, 2017 – 11:54 pm

People’s Square is finally quiet early in the morning as we leave Splt for Rovinj.

At 7:30 on the 18th, we left the Judita Palace and took a taxi to the car rental agency, where we picked up or rental and began our drive all day trek to Rovinj.

Driving Northeast to the Plitvice Lakes Park, we passed through these mountains literally. there was a long tunnel that looked like these mountains on one side and completely different when we exited the other side.

 

 

 

The scenery when we reached the other side of the tunnel. Full autumn color.

With only one brief false start, we were underway and traveling northwesterly on Croatia’s excellent roadway system through varied terrain.   First it was rolling hills with scrub, like high desert.

Then we passed through very fertile fields of vegetables, and finally we climbed into and through mountains.  On the other side of the tunnels we were back to fertile fields or forests in fall color.

Our fist view of Plitvice Lakes National Park as we walked down to the lake level.

There are more elevated roadways and tunnels than you can imagine.  Then we were in forests of desiduous trees in full fall color.

Waterfalls and small lakes come into view around a bend in the path. This park became a UNISCO site in 1979.

It was magnificent to see so many trees in fall color with a few conifer in the mix.  At least I did not expect it.  After 2.5 hours of driving we finally arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park, another UNESCO site, known for being unspoiled.

These falls greeted us as we came around a corner on the boardwalk.

The lakes are known for their cascades and the ongoing biodynamic process of tufa, or travertine, formation that continues to change constantly.  With the travertine development, waterfalls are being created, while others are blocked.  This phenomenon creates the feeling that the lakes are never the same from one day to the next.

Close up of the Park’s largest falls. The Park was founded in 1949 and is the largest and oldest park in Croatia.

Well, the park was lovely and we would have really enjoyed taking our time walking and boating through it, except there were so many people moving in large groups that we could not get around them to have some space for ourselves.

A selfie in front of the falls.

We ended up walking very fast to stay ahead of them.  The park consisted of a chain of lakes, with waterfalls of different shapes and sizes, cascading into the lake below.  The water was very clear with lots of little fish.  After walking down a hill and around a lake via a series of boardwalks, we eventually come to a rest area where there was food and a boat ferry to take us through the next and largest lake.

A long shot of one of the lakes. The boardwalk full of people we just passed is on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A scenic view of falling water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lovely scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the boardwalk beside the falls. This was mostly the case. We could not get around people easily as the boardwalk was so narrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.  At the end of that lake you can either go on to more lakes or hike out of the area back to the parking lot.  As we still had 3.5 hours of driving ahead of us, and we had had enough of the crowds, we walked back to the car and headed for Rovinj.

 

The largest lake in the Park as seen from our ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another ferry passes us. There were several, all full of visitors.At the end of that lake we could either go on to more lakes and falls or hike out of the area and back to the parking lot.  As we still had 3.5 hours of driving ahead of us, and we had had enough of the crowds, we walked back to the car and headed for Rovinj.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road 42 between the Park and the highway. Beautiful scenery on a very narrow one lane road full of falling leaves and filtered light.

 

 

 

The GPS suggested a short cut, so we took it.  It proved to be a very narrow one lane road through dense forests of deciduous and conifer trees.

Another scene along road 42.

It was a most beautiful stretch of road, but Mark was not in the mood and just wanted to be back on the highway.  After an hour, we were and his mood improved.  The rest of the drive was very uneventful as we passed by towns and villages and a couple of cities.  We finally arrived at our hotel, Monte Mulini, in Ravinj at 6pm.

My mixed seafood dinner at our hotel, Monte Muline, in Rovinj. Very tasty.

At was nearly dark an we were too tired to care about going out for dinner, so we ate in the hotel restaurant and went to bed.  I really liked the day as we were on our own, outdoors and not having to learn anything.

October 19, 2017

Ground level view of the only Roman parts of the Amphitheater still intact – the exterior walls and the floor.

The 19th we looked out the window to realize we are back on the Adriatic Sea.

A close up of a wall section. The top part where the square windows are, were the cheap seats made of wood.

After breakfast, we walked around our hotel, which turns out to be a resort with lots of activities and a spa.   Mark made an appointment to get a pedicure and we went back to the room to get warm.

A panoramic shot of the Amphitheater. the section that has been cleaned is visible. I am glad they did not clean the whole theater.

The air is foggy, damp and chilly, like June gloom.  This place is for summer activities not late fall.  Our guide, Marija, and driver, Renata, met us at 10am.  First, we discussed our need to slow down and do less.  So today we are going to Pula to see some things on the agendas, but skip others.  Same with tomorrow, so we have the afternoons to ourselves at the hotel.

The entire amphitheater from the outside. Had to look awhile to find this shot and could not get rid of the bus.

Then we were off to Pula, a town on the southern tip of Istria.  It was only a 40-minute drive through small villages and flat countryside full of olive trees.

A small section of the walls that really really shows the beauty of Roman construction.

Marija told us the population of Pula is 60,000 and that the whole region of Istria has 200,000.  As Istria is so close to Italy, Italian, along with Croatian, are both  official languages of the region.  70% of the population in the region speak Italian as well as Croatian and 25% declare themselves Italian.

A three dimensional bronze map of Pula. The theater is in the right rear.

However, English is the 2nd language spoken by almost everyone.   Olive Oil is the main product of the region and is considered by many to be the best olive oil in the world.  It is hard for me to say as it all tends to taste the same to me and I use the stuff sparingly.

In this country, olive oil is used in large quantities on nearly everything.  The other important products of the region are wine and truffles, which are pretty exclusive to Istria.

Once in Pula, which was established as the main administrative center of the colony by Augustus in the 1st century AD,  we left the car and walked to our primary objective, the Roman amphitheater built in the 1st century AD by Augustus.

It is the sixth largest such theater in existence in the world and is considered the most complete of all of them.  It was very nice to be inside the theater and see the whole oval exterior wall intact.  I did not know that the Romans got the idea to create the amphitheater from the Greek theater.  They put two Greek theaters together to create the oval amphitheater.  This one held 20,000 spectators and was used mainly for gladiator fights.

Aside from the exterior walls, the floor and a few large blocks of stone still in place, everything else we saw has been done using smaller stones in two different stages.  First, during the Austro Hungarian period  of 1814 to 1918, the Austrians did a lot of building and improving.  Later, in the 1980’s, the current reconstruction was completed.  In the last few years, a section of the walls was cleaned to show how the amphitheater would have looked when it was new.  Nothing more is planned.   Currently there is seating for 6,000 and musical performances take place several times during the summer.   The floor is gravel and at the same level, just as it was in Roman times.  Under the floor is a T shaped passage for the gladiators and animals to move around without being seen by spectators.  It was quite a large space, maybe 20 feet wide and 10 feet high and it ran the full length of the floor above.  Mark and I have seen the colosseum in Rome and the one in Tunisia.   I must say I liked this one the best of the three because of its completeness.  The one in Rome has become iconic, but is not as inviting in my perspective.  Even the view is better in Pula.   The VIP seats would have had a view of the Adriatic Sea while watching a performance.

The Golden Door or Main Gate into Old Pula was built near the end of the 1st century BC.

After leaving the amphitheater, we strolled through the Old Town of Pula and stopped at the Golden Gate, or main entrance; built at the end of the 1st century BC; and the Hercules Gate, built in 48BC.  The Hercules Gate is interesting in that Hercules was the protector of Soldiers and Pula was a military town, not just when it was new, but all through the ages.

City Hall and the 1st century AD Temple of Augustas.

The powers of the day used the city and port as a military base, including the Austrians and the Yugoslavians.   I looked inside the small Temple of Augustus, built in the same time period and containing a broken statue of the Emperor.   Two of the walls are mostly original, but, sadly, the temple was bombed during WWII and repairs have barely restored the place.  Mark skipped it.  Definitely not worth the trouble.

Another Pula street that was pretty tight for cars, but we managed.

In the center of the old town shopping district, we, unexpectedly, came upon a statue of James Joyce, sitting in front of an old building where he taught the Austrian soldiers English in the early 1900’s.

 

 

 

THe Hercules Gate, built in 48BC as protection for the military soldiers who dominated the City. Another entrance into the Old CIty

 

 

 

 

James Joyce (1882-1941) decked out for a visit with friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crowded boat harbor in Rovinj, taken from the cafe where we had a late lunch after being dropped off by our driver.

The two hours we spent in Pula was enough for us and Marija and Renata dropped us at the Rovinj harbor by 1:30pm.  There we walked along the promenade and stopped for lunch at a seaside café, where we both had mussels again.   Then we walked 20 minutes back to our hotel.  Mark had his pedicure and I wrote.  Not feeling like more walking, we taxied back to old town Rovinj for dinner, at a place called Puntulina.  As we were in the heart of truffle country we both opted for dishes with truffles.  Mark had ravioli with truffles and I had sea bass with truffles.  Both dishes were good, but I do not understand why people make such a big deal about truffles.

The Puntulina Restaurant full of happy, local patrons. It was nice to be amid locals for a change.  We had fish and pasta with truffles. Was pretty good. It was too dark to see what was probably a great view from the cliff edge, patio where we sat.  This group was inside a cozy room next to the patio.

 

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2017 (3) Sept-Oct: Czech Republic / Poland / Slovenia / Hungary / Romania / Macedonia / Bulgaria / Albania / Kosovo / Bosnia / Montenegro / Croatia / Slovakia, Adventures | Comments (2)

Split

October 21, 2017 – 12:05 am

October 17, 2017

The courtyard of Judita Palace and the stairs to our room.

On the 17th of October, we woke up in the Old Town of Split in the cute 11 room B&B walk up we found ourselves checked into the night before.

A public building fronting on the Peoples’ Square.

We have had all sorts of accommodations from over the top luxurious to a boat hotel, to cramped and unappealing.  Most have been good or better.  This place, the Judita Palace is small, but workable.  The location is perfect, except we face onto the square, which is noisy all night so we cannot open the windows.

A house in the People’s Square, opposite the Judita Palace Hotel, where governors of the Austrian Empire resided.

With the first step outside the entrance, we entered and became part of an ancient urban wonderland.  Residents act like it is normal to live surrounded by antiquity, and I suppose it is, unless you grew up like I did, in a world where the oldest buildings were less than 200 years and where it is easier to tear things down than to restore them.

An alley that incorporates the old palace and newer construction.

Our guide for the day, Lana, sat us down at an outdoor coffee bar and gave us a 30-minute lecture before taking even one step into the city.  It was great for me as I could take notes, hear everything she said and confirm information I already had.  For starters, the name Split comes from the name Spilantium, which is the Latin name of a plant that grows prolifically in the region.  We know it as scotch broom.

A model of how the palace probably liked when it was built.

Back in the 4th century BC, the whole region was occupied by Illyrian tribes, who fought with the Romans in 5AD centuries and had disappeared by the 5th century when the Roman Empire collapsed.

 

 

Sculpture of Emperor Diocletian 3rd-4th centuries AD.

The main story here begins with Diocletian, who had been born into an Illyrian family in Saloma, the capital of Dalmatia during Roman times with a population of 68,000.

Lana showing us where Salome, Diocetian’s birth place, was in relation to Split. and how the Romans got water from the river upstream.

It was a town not far from the tiny settlement of Spilantium.   He was very smart and managed to become a soldier in the Roman Army.

The basement level in the southern third of the palace. A bride is having photographs taken at the end of the hall.

He worked his way up until he was eventually chosen by the Senate to be Emperor.  Two years later he declared himself Son of Jupiter, who was the main Roman god.  He persecuted many Christians for believing in Jesus rather than him.  Many people became martyrs during his rule.

Down in the basement, admiring the skill required to make the stones fit perfectly.

In 294 he began construction on a palace for himself on the sea near the settlement of Split and not far from where he had been born.  He was about 60 when he moved into the palace in 305.

A ceiling view from inside the basement.  The beautiful brick work is just visible.

Interestingly, he abdicated on May 1, 3005 about the time he moved into the palace.  However, he did not give up the title Son of Jupiter.  He lived in the palace for about 10 years before he died and was buried in the mausoleum he had built for himself.

Main North-South walk way between the two entrances,

 

A side bar to the above is that Emperor Constantine the Great, who followed Diocletian, reversed the order against Christians in 313.

Another factoid relates to the name “Dalmatian” Coast.  Dalmatia comes from the Illyrian sheep herders tribe called Dalmata.

In the 3rd century, Rome divided their domain into provinces and much of what is now Croatia was called the Dalmatian coast.  Today the area runs from Dubrovnik in the south to Split and Zadar in the northwest and east to Bosnia.

The 7th century Cathedral to the Assumption of Mary and the 13th century Bell Tower.

 

Now about the palace.  Lana is determined to uncover the palace for us as it has been so completely altered since the emperor died.

 

Even though it is barely recognizable, it is the heart of the old town of Split, which did not become a city until the 13th century.   Rectangular in shape it covered 300,000 square feet of area.  Some family house!

A panorama inside the Cathedral. Workers are regrouping parts of the floor.

I’ve attaching a photo of the original plan of the palace to help you as Lana did us.  It was 180 meters wide and 240 meters long.

 

The beautiful ceiling inside the Cathedral. Look closely at the scaloped detail.

 

the baroque high altar from the back side. Equally beautiful and easier to photograph.

The top or north 3rd of the palace was for soldiers and servants.  The middle third was for his octagonal Mausoleum, the Temple of Jupiter and other ritual activities.  The southern 3rd was where Diocletian and his family lived.  It was at the sea and had a pier at that entrance.  The whole palace sloped uphill from there.

Statue of Jesus crucified on the Tree of Life.

However, since the Emperor could not be lower than his subjects, he had a lower lever built at the south end that brought the living level to the height of the north wall.

Above the palace were gardens for flowers and food.  There were 4 gates, with 1 in the middle of each wall.  South was the Sea Gate and North the Main gate.  There were 16 guard towers, of which 3 remain.

The columns that formed part of the Peristyle next to the cathedral. They are each different materials with some marble, others black or pink granite.

 

Our hotel is just west of the west gate.

The 3,500 year old, black granite Sphinx with the head of a female and the hands of a human.

The square where our hotel sits is called the People’s Square and a gothic building across the way from our hotel was the house of the governor during Venetian times.  All that and we have not walked a step.  Once we start walking, it becomes apparent that one really has to look hard to find vestiges of the original palace.  So much has happened over so many centuries that it is mind boggling to get a handle on what has happened.

The view looking skyward from inside the vestibule.

At one point the Venetians built a castle inside the palace, using some of the materials.  There are 0ver 300 churches.   The Assumption of Mary and St Dujam (the Patron Saint of Split) Cathedral, which was constructed from Diocletian’s mausoleum in 641, has a clock tower next to it that was built in the 13th century.

Acapella singers in the vestibule of the Palace

Inside the small, but very decorated and interesting Cathedral are a baroque high altar that is finished so it can be seen on all sides, a result of the octagonal shape of the space, and a very appealing Statue of Christ on the Tree of Life.  Diocletian would be turning over in his grave, except his remains were removed some 330 years after he died.  Now there are relics of saints in the Cathedral.  Some transition.  Adding insult to injury for the old atheistic emperor, his Temple to Jupiter was converted into a Baptistery.  Two items of interest in the baptistery are a sculpture by the renowned sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic and a stone carving in front of the baptistery that depicts the 11th century crowning of the Croatian King Krasimir IV.  Lana said it is the earliest known depiction of a European king being crowned.

The Peristyle in front of the Cathedral. People gathered for spontaneous musical events

 

Lana took us down into the unchanged huge basement area the Emperor had built to raise the level of his living area.  We were impressed to see such a huge space with large Roman arches.

An typical alley in the Old Town.

Lana said this is what the upstairs was like when Diocletian lived here.  The reason it was not altered was that it became a dump for all the people using the spaces above for over 800 years.  When it was uncovered several years ago, it was like an archeological dig.

Now that the area has been cleared out the space is a museum.  While we were there, we saw a bride posing playfully for photos in the distance.  The place was empty except for us for about 10 minutes.

The Temple of Jupiter, now the Baptistry, on the opposite side of the Palace from the Mausoleum. The statue is made by Ivan Mestrovic.

 

Back up in the daylight, we stopped in the large, round open vestibule that was supposedly the emperor’s dining room.  While there a group of male a capella singers walked in and belted out a couple of tunes.  Down a flight of stairs was the Peristal Square in front of the Cathedral entrance.

The Baptistry in the old Temple of Jupiter. The frieze on the Baptistry panel is of the first sculpture of a European King being crowned.

It was decorated with a few of the 200, 3,000-year old columns and 1 of 4, 3,500-year old sphinxes and the Emperor had acquired, or just taken, from Egypt.  The sphinx was made from black granite and had a female head and human hands holding a bowl.  It was quite unusual.

The north entrance or Main Gate into the Palace. Statues would have been in the niches on the wall. Young men dressed as Roman soldiers stand guards, pose for photos.

We looked at many more details with Lana, but I just can’t remember it all.  There were hundreds of tourists in the old town as well as the palace.  Many of them were Asians and Germans.  Very few from the U.S.   We were glad to finally get away from the crowds and go to the last item on our agenda for the day, the sculpture Gallery of Ivan Mestrovic.

A sculpture of Gregory of Nin by Ivan Mestrovic that stands near the main entrance to Diocletians’s palace.  Non was a Croatian Bishop who translated the Bible from Latin into Croatian, making Christianity much stronger in Croatia.

 

The director of the Museum met us at the entrance and gave us a detailed tour of the museum.  Sadly, some of the best sculptures were on loan to a gallery in Krakow.  She did tell us about Mestrovic’s life and great success as an artist and teacher.  He was born into a very poor family in a small impoverished village in Croatia in 1883.  Early on his talent attracted attention and his whole village raised money to send him to school in Split.

 

 

 

 

Ivan Mestrovic’s home and later gallery. He designed the house and had it built for his family.

There he developed his skills and won many prizes as a sculptor.  As he became known and his work started selling, he became wealthy.

Mestrovic’s dining room as he designed it and left it when he fled the country in 1941.

He sold one piece for $300,000 and with that built the house (1931-1939) he lived in a very short time (1939-1941) and eventually gave to the City of Split for the Gallery.

A stone carving of a mother and children.

In 1941 he left Croatia, because of the war, and never returned.  He went to the US in 1947 and remained there until his death in 1962.  He taught at Syracuse University and Notre Dame.  He made over 2000 sculptures in wood, bronze and stone – mostly Carrera marble.  I took photos of 2 of Mestrovic’s pieces in the Old City as well as some in the gallery.

One of Mestrvic’s wood carvings

A self portrait of Ivan Mestrovic as a young man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of the pieta in plaster by Mestrovic. It was very nice to be able to get up close and walk around the pieces to get a better look.

A side view of Mestrovic’s Pieta. This is a plaster sculpture.  Very touching to see up close.

After the tour, we said good bye to Lana and collapsed.  In a restaurant just inside the palace walls, we had dinner at a pasta place called Macaron.   Mark had pasta and I had a super meal of fresh, whole squid.  I am really enjoying all the very fresh fish we are able to get on the Dalmatian Coast.

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2017 (3) Sept-Oct: Czech Republic / Poland / Slovenia / Hungary / Romania / Macedonia / Bulgaria / Albania / Kosovo / Bosnia / Montenegro / Croatia / Slovakia, Adventures | Comments (8)