Split Tour: Under the Palace

Hanging out in Diocletian's Basement

The most interesting thing about Split, Croatia, is the fact that the core of the Old City is Diocletian's Palace, the estate built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian for his retirement years after his abdication in A.D. 305. It continuously has been part of the city since then, but not in a reverent "leave only footprints, take only pictures" sort of way. Building stones from the palace were taken to build other structures about town. Homes, shops, restaurants, churches, synagogues, have all been built into the walls of the palace. It's a living, functioning city. It's not a static museum. It's been that way for over 1700 years.

So today was the day to take a walking tour of the Old City, which meant a walking tour of Diocletian's Palace and the area outside the walls.

The walking tour of Split begins on the Riva, the waterfront pedestrian promenade. What does the Riva have to do with Diocletian? After all, that picture doesn't look very Roman.

The south gate into Diocletian's Palace was from the water. Thus, the promenade in front of the south walls is built on reclaimed land.

The southern entrance being from the sea was important strategically.

Below is the Split of today, with Diocletian's Palace occupying the area in the foreground.

And this is an artistic rendering of the old Diocletian's Palace:

It looked more palace-y back then. And while much of the core palace remains, much has been lost.

But the basement is relatively intact, so let's take a look-see.

I toured Diocletian's Palace when I visited Split in 2014. But I did not tour the palace's basement because it was closed to visitors back then,

They were using it to film "Game of Thrones."

We had a tour guide that was explaining the development of Split and why it was a strategic location. Although the palace was Emperor Diocletian's retirement home, he still cared about home security.

Into the basement.

Here is the tour guide explaining to us the history of the building. This room was for storage. Perhaps grain. Perhaps furniture that Diocletian replaced with newer, trendier stuff but couldn't throw away because it still was perfectly good. The true reason is lost to history.

I believe that this room was the room in Diocletian's Palace that the guide told us was used as the Dragon Room in "Game of Thrones." Not ever having watched "Game of Thrones" -- yes, I am the one -- I do not know what a Dragon Room is and if this particular elongated chamber could be used for such purposes. But let's call this the G-O-T Dragon Room.

Here is a sphinx carted back from Egypt.

Yes, that is too a Sphinx. Diocletian loved Egyptian artifacts because he made himself a name as a military leader from his Egyptian campaigns. So, yes, I am comfortable calling this chamber "the Sphinx Room."

Here are people taking a picture of a modern plaster bust based on an assumption of what Diocletian looked like.

They used coins from the era to make a guess.

Some of the basement is now exposed.

Looking back into the basement:

Cats in the basement:

Children on the balcony.

People in front of the Cathedral outside the entrance to the core palace:

Bored children being forced to draw something on the other side of the plaza. The cathedral? Diocletian himself? Maybe the d*mn dragon who lives in the Dragon Room.

I did not look over the shoulders of the djeca to see for certain,

And this is the cathedral they would have / should have been looking at:

Off to the north gate, the gate to which barbarian hordes would come looking for some pillaging.

This is the statue of Grgur Ninski, Gregory of Nin:

The statue is by noted Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, or, to use the local spelling, Ivan Meštrović. He, Mr. Nimski, not Mr. Mestrovic, was one of the ones who wanted to preach and say mass in the local vernicular and not Latin.

And there is a dog sleeping in the sun at Voćni Trg, or, in English, Fruit Square:

The tour ended and it was time for lunch. Lunch again was cevapcici.

Not nearly as good as the cevapcici in Montenegro. In fact, this cevapcici tasted a little like Jimmy Dean's. But it was all washed down with a good radler.

A radler because I was parched after all that walking. This particular radler was barely beer, with an alcohol content of 2%. Your body would process that before it would affect you.

Split Decision

The stray cat problem in Split, Croatia, is out of control.
Now the cats are manning (or "catting") the sales booths, selling boat tours to the tourists in town.

On the road again.

And the road was the 8, then the E65, from Dubrovnik to Split, just up Croatia's Dalmatian Coast

But there was time to stop by a roadside stand to buy some fresh fruit. And jam. And homemade booze. Apricot jam and mandarin orange flavored grappa. Because this was in the local mandarin orange growing region and I wanted to buy the local produce in a form that would last through the winter.

The drive was not long and soon we were within Splittin' distance of the Adriatic.

The old city in Split is pedestrian only. And the walk from the hotel, the Azur Palace, to the Riva -- the pedestrian promenade along the Adriatic -- was only a few blocks.  Fortunately, there was time to see a guy soaking his head in the stream coming from the fountain above his head.

Soon were reached the sea.

At the sea, there were birds.

And boats.

And people watching boats.

There was a Spanish galleon / pirate ship in the Split harbor, too. Just like Dubrovnik. Apparently this is now a thing. You probably already knew. I'm kind of slow on picking up trends.

And apparently another new thing that is a fashion trend among those cognizant of fashion trends would be young gentlemen is dressing as Roman Praetorian Guards. For we saw this in Old Town Split.

Actually, they dress that way, in front of the humongous palace of former Roman Emperor Diocletian (I use the word "former" just in case you think that he is the incumbent Roman Emperor), here in Old Town Split, to earn tips from the tourists who want their pictures taken with them. It's a living in a tourist town.

Next stop was the Saint Domnius Cathedral, or Katedrala Sv. Duje in the local tongue, right next door to Diocletian's Palace.

The Cathedral dates from the 4th Century A.D., the very early part of the 300s A.D., as the Cathedral was constructed on the site of the Mausoleum of Diocletian. Diocletian died in 312.

The interior most certainly does not date from the early 300s. But it is quite impressive.

It brings in the tourist hordes.

Of which I was one.

So not to sound all superior and all.

The admission ticket also bought admission to the Temple of Jupiter, which was re-purposed after the decline of paganism to being the Baptistry.

Dinner at the restaurant Lučac was beyond incredible. I had, actually everybody at the table had except for the one person eating the wild boar stew, the beef ‘pasticada’ with gnocchi, described on the menu in English as "beef fricandeau, dried plums, wine, home-made marmalade, gnocchi, vinegar, decoration creams, spices." It was the pot roast that they serve in heaven. But you'll have to take my word for it. No pictures. I left the camera back at the hotel.

Split Day Two: The Palace

Is that a Roman arch? Why yes. Yes, it is.

The big thing to see and do in Split is tour Diocletian's Palace. Our group, now a fivesome as we were joined by a married couple friends of the Sister, hired a tour guide and toured, guided, the Palace.

Diocletian was Roman emperor from 284 AD until 305 AD. He was not a Roman; he was an Illyrian, the indigenous people of the Balkans during Roman times (and whose presence in Dalmatia pre-dated the Slavs). Diocletian is notable for splitting the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern halves. (That is NOT why the name of this city is Split, incidentally.) He is also noted for abdicating the Roman throne, which is highly unusual as Roman emperor's reign typically ended with death (often induced).

The narrow streets of the Palace section of Split

Diocletian's Palace is not some castle set off by itself, impenetrable unless the proper admission fee is paid. It is a working, living, breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping and shopping hive of activity that dominates Old Town Split.

And some streets are narrower than others

Within the palace walls are restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, apartments, a cathedral and the core of the old palace built in the late 200's A.D. There's a lot to see, so we got us a guide to show it all to us.

Lucy the tour guide

Meet Lucy. Our tour guide.

Lucy teaching us a lesson on Diocletian and his palace

So let's tour the palace.

The courtyard area in front of what is now a cathedral  

Roman arches

The buildings were made of the local limestone. No mortar was used. The Roman buildings are doing quite well 1800-ish years later, despite the fact that this is earthquake country.

The scaffolding is to stop one building from leaning into the other

Our tour group

Behind the cathedral

Faux Roman guards from the Diocletian Era. They're actually modern day Croats in costume.

The main rooms of the palace have been converted into ... guess. Shockingly, given that this is a very Catholic country, it was transmogrified into a cathedral. This is the Bell Tower. It's a new addition. It dates only to 1100 A.D.

Cathedral bell tower

You can walk up to the top of the Bell Tower for a 15 kuna ticket, which is about 90 cents. A lot of the stairwell is exterior. And the parts that are not are very tight and low (designed better for 12th Century bodies than a 21st Century Spretnak). So the question would be were I to walk it: which would get me first: the altophobia or the claustrophobia? I will never know.

Yes, narrow streets in the palace complex

Bell Tower and Diocletian's Mausoleum

Inside the Mausoleum.

By the way, Diocletian is gone. And not just in the obvious way. His sarcophagus was looted and his body taken out, likely thrown into the Adriatic as a big "thank you" -- well, some two-word phrase ending in "you" -- for being such a murderous thug to the Christians of Rome. Lucy said about half of the Christian martyrs got their martrydom on order of Diocletian. So, yeah, no "rest in peace" for you. 

Viewing the Bell Tower through the hole in the top of Diocletian's Dining Room
(which, incidentally, would make a GREAT name for a bar-restaurant within the Palace complex)

Living space within the Palace complex (from the modern era, not Diocletian's)

Bell Tower and Mausoleum plus another cool Roman ruin-building in the foreground

The narrowest street in the Palace complex
(NOTE: I am quite nervous about the prospect of getting stuck between the narrow walls)

Not only is the Palace complex full of history, it is full of faux history:

This photograph is legally not allowed to exist

For example, here's a photo I took before being told I couldn't photograph this. What is this? It's part of the palace that is being used in the filming of the TV series "Game of Thrones." Which I've never seen. So I don't know, for example, why the plot includes draping black fabric on ancient stone.

The southern wall was along the sea. Literally. It was right up against the Adriatic. See.

See the sea, And a big ol' date palm.

The rusted iron bars are not Roman. They're from the modern era. If they were Roman they would not have rusted.

There is a reason for that last comment. As told to us by Lucy:

Here's Lucy

The Romans invented cement. And they invented a high grade of cement that cannot be replicated in modern times. We lost the secret formula. Damn Visigoths.

The tour ended just in time to view the noon-hour ceremonial "changing of the guard." Basically, its shift change for the young men who dress up in faux Roman costumes to be the faux palace guard. But us tourists lap it up like ice water on a 115-degree Las Vegas afternoon.

Packed in elbow to elbow

Tourists can't get enough of anything labelled "changing of the guard." A faux Diocletian then comes out.

Faux Diocletian surrounded by his faux guards (but at the real palace)

He then orders the beheading of a couple of faux Christians!

No. Actually, he just says some words in Latin and it's all over in a few minutes. Then the the tourists can put down those iPads that they're holding up in the air to video the faux-ness.

But you want to know what wasn't faux? Lunch!

Salmon (lox), herring and an artistic balsamic drizzle for an appetizer
(And, yes, I did eat the tomato)

Sea bass over a bed of vegetables for main course
(I did not photograph the tiramisu dessert, seeing as it was too delicious. Best. Tiramisu. EVER.)

And then after a big lunch washed down with copious amount of wines, I was all like this:

Taking a cat nap in Diocletian's Palace
(Yes. I went there.)