We ended up being in Split for two days and then at the end of our tour, we spent one more night there before our long airplane trip home.
Lets start in the dungeons of Diocletian’s Palace. He was one of the late Roman Emperors, and I guess he was born in Dalmatia and so built his palace here. We’re talking about 2000 years ago. Our tour took us down to the basement. Funny story, even in his days, trash was thrown through holes in the floor into the dungeons, so imagine 2000 years of that…
All that compacted garbage is what held the foundations together, and a whole city was built up on top, many different periods of course. At some point, in the 20th c. they cleaned out the garbage and fortified these foundations, although to be honest, the Romans knew how to build, as we saw earlier in Pula.
Once again, the Roman arch with the keystone. Yes, this is a doorway, but the arch as small as it is, is here for structural support, not because it is needed to look good.
I love the textures, the larger stones at the base of the walls, the smaller stones and bricks as we move up. A well as the textures seen through the arch. Btw, Game of Thrones, of which I only saw the first season, was filmed in Croatia, most of it in Dubrovnik, but some of the dungeon scenes, whatever they were – were filmed down here.
I am looking up at a domed ceiling, great architects with their ability to use bricks and concrete to build this. Yes, the Romans were the first to perfect the concrete so it is stable and lasts for millennia.
There was a whole palace above the foundations, much of it has been rebuilt over the years by other civilizations, and yet, Roman mosaics remain, they were probably covered for years and then dug up.
Diocletian was given, or maybe just took some Sphinx from Egypt, carved from that super hard strong black stone. The other one here lost his head, because some latter on probably thought it was being worshiped as an idol.
People still live here in the old city. Some have renovated their houses, but whoever lives in this house didn’t, at least not on the outside. I know from experience how hard it is to live in old cities. My parents lived in the old city of Jerusalem for years – they didn’t last. The echoing stone, the crowds of tourists, the issue of very old buildings and their problems. So kudos to those who can stay here. Many of the homes are now hotels or museums.
Going to Textures. and clearly we are looking at different periods. The columns might be Roman, I don’t think what is around them is.
More of the mishmash of styles, I think the arch might have been here first and later the lintel was added, but I may be wrong.
More columns and arches.
Me again, just capturing texture as well as a plant growing among the stones.
More plants and an interesting window. I’m going to say that the outer frame is old and the inner one is much newer. I like the look.
One of the many crowded alleyways. Oh, and we had a good pizza here and had a nice chat with a couple who were trying to escape grey York, only to find themselves in grey Split, after a few days the sun did come out.
Leah