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| Split - a city
with a 1700-year old tradition, a variety of archaeological,
historical and cultural monuments, among which the well-known Palace
of Diocletian, inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List,
certainly occupies a special position, and the warmth and offer of a
modern Mediterranean city. Split is second biggest town in Croatia; it is also a business, administrative and cultural centre of Dalmatia with population of around 200,000. Situated on a peninsula between the eastern part of the Gulf of Kastela and the Split Channel. A hill, Marjan, rises in the western part of the peninsula. Split has the Mediterranean climate: hot dry summers and mild, humid winters. Vegetation is of the evergreen Mediterranean type, and subtropical flora (palm-trees, cacti) grows in the city and its surroundings. Probably on ancient Greek settlement Aspalathos emperor Diocletian constructed there around AD 300 a luxurious palace in which he risided until his death and where he was buried. When the Avars and slaves conquered Salona, its citizens fled to find shelter within the walls of Diocletian's Palace. Split acknowledged the supremacy of the Byzantine emperors from AD 812 to 1069 when it was annexed to Croatia. In 1105 the city acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of Hungarian-Croatian kings, having preserved its autonomy based on its ancient municipal rights. In the 16th century Split was threatened by the Ottoman Turks, On the fall of Venice in 1797, it fell together with the remaining Dalmatia under the power of Austria. The 1882 elections in Split introduced Croatian administration. Between the two World Wars the city expanded over the southern slopes of Marjan and to the eastern part Bacvice, where a modern part of the city was constructed. During the Second World War Split was heavily bombed, particularly the coastal part southeast of the Palace of Diocletian (today's park). Split UNESCO heritage The Roman Emperor Diocletian spent his declining years in an enormous palace that he had built near his birthplace, Aspalthos, in Dalmatia. With the passing centuries the original architecture of the palace has been altered, but the people of the city, later called Spalato, and then Split, were to use the structure of the palace, damaging it as little as possible, under Byzantine, and Austro-Hungarian rule. Thus, a harmonious city came into being within the Roman walls. The Peristyle of the palace, Diocletian's mausoleum, Jupiter's temple, the colonnades along the streets, Early Croatian churches, Romanesque have remained in a good state. |
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10/3/08 |
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