After our visit to the falls, the bus transported us to Split where our ship was waiting for us. We had lunch on the ship before meeting our guide for a tour of Split. As I mentioned before, the ship has two restaurants. Deck 6 is always a buffet and Deck 2 has a buffet for lunch as well as an a la carte menu.
We usually have the buffet lunch on Deck 6 because there is also outside seating. Today was a seafood buffet to die for. I had fresh shrimp, mussels, and oysters. I was in heaven!
Split is the second largest city in Croatia, and sits in the heart of the Dalmatian coast. The old town has a palm-lined harbor promenade, and Diocletian's Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Roman emperor Diocletian (AD 245-313), noted for his persecution of early Christians, had his retirement palace built here from to 295 to 305. After his death the great stone palace continued to be used as a retreat by Roman rulers. When the nearby colony of Salona was abandoned n the 7th century, many of the Romanized inhabitants fled to Split and barricade themselves behind the high
palace walls, where their descendants live to this day. What makes the old town unique is that it is inhabited and filled with shops and restaurants so it is very much alive today.
Diocletian's Palace is one of the most imposing ruins in existence. There are 220 buildings within the place walls which today house about 3,000 people. The Palace was built from white stone from Brac. Diocletian imported marble from Italy and Greece and columns and sphinxes from Egypt.
Split promenade
In the newly excavated basement of Diocletian's Palace
Palace basement
Palace basement
Diocletian
Palace courtyard
Sphinx
Palace courtyard
In Jupiter's Palace - a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas
St. Thomas' tomb
Within the palace walls
Within the walls
Narrow street
After touring the palace we visited the Ivan Mestrovic Gallery, which was amazing. Mestrovic is Croatia's greatest 20th century sculptor, and the gallery was his private residence from 1931 to 1939. After befriending and studying with Augustus Rodin early in his career, Mestrovic left Yugoslavia after WWII and accepted a professorship at Syracuse University. He became a U.S. citizen in 1954 and in 1955 became Professor of Sculpture at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. His works can be found throughout Croatia, England, and the United States.
Ivan Mestrovic Gallery
The Pieta depicting Mestrovic and his son who committed suicide
Job
Beautiful view from the gallery
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