Adventures with Julia

October 17, 2017

On the 17^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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 3^rd 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.

 

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 13^th century.   Rectangular in shape it covered 300,000 square feet of area.  Some family house!

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 top or north 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.

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.

 

Our hotel is just west of the west gate.

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.

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 13^th century.

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 11^th century crowning of the Croatian King Krasimir IV.  Lana said it is the earliest known depiction of a European king being crowned.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.