Split - Croatia

Split started life as a retirement villa for a retired Roman Emperor -- and ended

up as the Dalmatian coast's largest city . Diokletian’s palace

Split's master builder: Diocletian is now consigned to the basement --

a location that survived intact only because it was filled with trash.

Fortress Split The old general Diocletian's

rectangle resembled a Roman

military camp (castellum) which

was laid out precisely the same

way. In camp, a soldier's tent was

always in the same spot no matter

where the battilion moved or what

the terrain was. Diocletian's walls

were high with a gallery at the top.

Each wall had a gate at its center,

including the sea gate at right.

These gates led into two cross

streets, again just like that of an

army camp. Note that these grand

avenues have colonnades on either

side.

The soldiers lived on the northern

land half of the complex, and the

emperor and his religious regalia

on the sea side. The green

designates the gardens which he

loved. The projecting octagon is

where he was laid to rest -- until

the Christians took over and made

it a cathedral honoring one of his

prominent victims.

Today

The East Gate

Area

The rectangular walls of

this fortress are crowned

by the colonnade we

see above. Inside are

two long cross streets

which themselves have

elaborate colonnades on

each side as we see at

lower center through the

east gate.

The peristyle

The Peristyle was the public

center of the palace, equivalent

to the forum of a Roman town.

Here Diocletian would make

his public appearances. Behind

the central open arch is the

domed vestibule where visitors

would be ushered into

Diocletian's living quarters. If

they came by land, they would

enter through the elaborate

North gate and directly

approach this building after

walking through the wide

colonnaded street. To the left

rose Diocletian's tomb (now the

cathedral) and at right were

three temples -- one of which

survived as a baptistery.

The Vestibule

The vestibule contains a

magnificent dome crowned by

the open oculus which reminds

travelers of the Pantheon in

Rome.

This appears to have been

originally covered by a cupola

and the walls were long ago

covered by mosaics, making

this a quite elegant place to

wait until the former emperor

decided to grant you an

audience.

Klapa

Dalmatia has a popular a cappella

tradition called "Klapa." Although it

seems a bit like traditional folk singing,

it first appeared here in the 1960s.

When the group is male, we get two

tenors plus a baritone and bass.The

Vestibule makes an ideal space for

performances during festivals. At other

times, a cappella groups perform here

and sell their CDs to tourists.

Who is buried in

Diocletian's

Tomb?

This colonnade-enwrapped

octagon at center is 1700 years

old and was built as the

emperor Diocletian's tomb.

This most vilified Roman

emperor's mausoleum still

stands because it was

converted to a cathedral

honoring an early bishop

Domnius (or Duje) who was

martyred in the Roman's last

great campaign to stamp out

Christianity. It's known as the

Diocletianic or Great

Persecution since it happened

on his watch at the beginning

of the 4th century.

Diocletian's

Tomb

This man who tried to further

deify the emperor ended up

on the wrong side of history;

his successor and adopted

son Constantine would make

Christianity the state religion

a generation later. But the

boxcutters of the September

11 terrorists killed nearly as

many Christians as did

Diocletian's swords: around

3,000. In Diocletian's day,

Christians numbered about 6

million, about 10% of the

population. A lot of lions

went to bed hungry. The bell

tower was built much later.

Basement

One of the few areas that is

free of residents is the

basement -- which was a

1700 year old garbage dump

until excavations removed

the rubble. Their footprint

suggests the layout of

Diocletian's private

apartments above which

have been hopelessly

partitioned. Today this space

is often used for concerts

Living palace

Common folk have been

living inside the palace

since the Slavs invaded.

Today, the citizens of

Split consider this to be

a living city, not a

museum.

The North

("Gold") Gate

Let's end our palace visitwhere it would have begunin Roman times as we wouldenter from land through thenorth gate. To impressvisitors, this would be amagnificent entry, mostprobably bedecked bystatues and bristling withsoldiers and the trappings ofempire. Unfortunately, it waswalled in during the middleages, severely restricting theflow along the palace'sperpendicular axes.

This Golden Gate greetedland visitors and usheredthem down the north-southaxis road called the Cardo tothe vestibule, temples, andemperor's apartments. Onceit was perhaps the grandestgate in Dalmatia.

A great

Gregory

One of Ivan Meštrović’s most

impressive sculptures. This

depicts the 10th century bishop

Gregory of Nin.

Long before in 926, Bishop

Gregory battled popes to win the

right for his fellow Croats worship

in their own language -- and won.

For a millenium before Vatican II,

Croats prayed in Croat while the

rest of the Roman Catholic world

prayed in Latin.

This liturgical use of Croatian

helped keep the country staunchly

Catholic even while all sorts of

other nations were running it --

and it helped keep alive Croatian

language and culture.