Exploring historic Split

I spent today exploring some of the sights of Split with my VT friends.

Breakfast buffet at the Azur Palace

After a very good breakfast at our hotel we walked the short distance into the old centre of the city, built on Roman remains. These were evident everywhere we looked, as were Renaissance palaces and more modest but still very old buildings. Our first real look at some of these came in Narodni trg, the ‘People’s Square’.

Our steps led us in due course to the small square in front of the cathedral. A ticket office here offered a variety of combined tickets. We chose the 10 euro option, giving us entry to four sites.

St Domnius Cathedral

We started with the cathedral, dedicated to Saint Domnius, the patron saint of the city. He was a Bishop of Salona (today's Solin) around the year 300 and was martyred in the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian (on and around whose palace remains Split developed).

According to Wikipedia:

The Cathedral of Saint Domnius, consecrated at the turn of the 7th century AD, is regarded as the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that remains in use in its original structure, without near-complete renovation at a later date (though the bell tower dates from the 12th century). The structure itself, built in AD 305 as the Mausoleum of Diocletian, is the second oldest structure used by any Christian Cathedral.

The doors are particularly noteworthy. They were carved by the medieval Croatian sculptor Andrija Buvina around 1214 and contain fourteen scenes from the life of Christ.

Inside are several ancient, and some newer, altars. Two are dedicated to St Domnius, one dating from 1427 and a later one from 1770.

Another old one (1448) is that of St Anastasius, who is depicted with a millstone tied around his neck symbolising his death (Diocletian had him drowned).

The main altar dates from the 17th century and is in the Baroque style with polychrome marble. It is no doubt impressive but I preferred the worn carvings of the older ones.

We realised we had to walk outside and back in again to reach the choir behind the main altar. Wikipedia describes this as a 17th century addition to the original mausoleum, but the leaflet we were given with our tickets dates the carvings on the choir stalls to the 13th century. I was thrilled to find a tiny elephant among the decorations!

Beneath the cathedral is the crypt of St Lucy, also included in our ticket, but there was less to see there.

The Baptistry

We had a break for a cold drink in a quiet courtyard before heading to our third site, the Baptistry. This is in the former Temple to Jupiter which was converted to Christian use in the Middle Ages. The original Roman carvings around the entrance and on the ceiling remain.

In addition to some ancient sarcophagi it has an impressive modern (1960) bronze sculpture of John the Baptist, the work of a Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović.

Taking a break

By now our thoughts had turned to lunch and we found a lovely restaurant with shady seating outside in another pretty courtyard. We all had salads and sat for quite a while chatting over our meal.

As a change from all that history we decided to head down to the water and seek out ice creams for dessert! We had a pleasant walk by the water's edge first, then enjoyed our ices on a bench with a view of all the boats.

The Treasury

Heading back to the centre we visited the final site on our tickets, the Treasury, which had some beautiful old religious paintings, reliquaries etc.

We then walked through some of the ruins of Diocletian's Palace and some quaint side streets before ending up back in Narodni trg where we treated ourselves to another cold drink (I had a delicious strawberry mocktail!) at a café with a view of all the activity.

By the time we'd finished the afternoon was getting on, so we strolled back to the hotel to relax and freshen up for the evening.

Evening by the water's edge

Later we took a bus to the Marjan area further along the waterfront to the Adriatic bar and restaurant where we enjoyed excellent views, food and company with a wider group of VT friends including Norwegian member Marit who had planned several of our outings around Split.

It took a while to get back to the centre of town as the first bus we went for didn't come - and they only run half-hourly! But it was a pleasant mild evening and we were in good company, so waiting wasn’t too much of a pain, and luckily the next one came on time. Soon we were back at the hotel, and I had time for a nice chat with Chris and to catch up on messages before going to bed.