Split, Croatia: For our large ship, Split is a tender port. “Tender” in this case has nothing to do with not being tough. Rather it means we anchor offshore and take people ashore using the ship’s tenders or lifeboats.
As a small but busy harbor Split is mostly occupied with large ferries and some small ships. When we were here last ours was a small ship and she tied up inside the harbor.
Our tenders are dropping our passengers off near Diocletian’s Palace, which faces the harbor. This palace of a Roman emperor has an interesting story.
Diocletian was an emperor during the declining days of empire. He did for Rome what Putin is doing for Russia; that is, holding things together for a few more decades. He was responsible for dividing the empire into eastern and western units.
Born near Split, he built his retirement home here in the form of a Roman military encampment with nice quarters for himself and his retainers. A rarity among emperors, he didn’t die in office but actually retired and spent his last few years living near his birthplace.
When he died his encampment/palace became a fortified town into which the neighbors retreated to fight off the invading barbarians. Today that fortress is the skeleton, if you will, of the old town. Apartments, shops, a church, etc. have been built right into the old walls – Diocletian’s Palace is worth seeing.
There are a number of architectural features of interest, including material from Egypt. A substantially later addition is a statue that looks almost exactly as we imagine Professor Albus Dumbledore looks.
Croatia is one piece of the former Yugoslavia, a piece that fought a civil war to get apart from Serbia. In this part of the world the Slovenes and Croats relate to the Germanic peoples to their north, in Austria and beyond. The Serbs, on the other hand, relate to the Russians to the east.
You can tell who relates to whom by seeing what alphabet they use: Russians and their friends use Cyrillic while Germans and their friends use the Roman. It is also the case that the Serbs and Russians are Orthodox while the Croats, Slovenes, and Austrians are Roman Catholic. Wars get fought around issues like these.
