Diocletian’s Palace

July 10, 2019

Today our tour guide took us around the old town of Split where Diocletian’s Palace is. The history of the palace was really interesting. They know this was Diocletian’s Palace, but there aren’t any pictures or original sculptures of him because when his palace got taken, his enemies destroyed all evidence of his existence. They even moved where he was buried so he couldn’t be traced.

The whole square and palace was made of limestone because Croatia has an abundance limestone and all the white buildings around the cities are mostly from the island of Bsar. You see a lot of limestone not only used for buildings, but it’s used for jewelry, candle holders, and basic products. I love the white buildings paired with terra-cotta shingled roofs.

Next we visited the cathedral. Before entering the cathedral we saw a small room where the baptismal font is. The font was a lot bigger then some of the ones you see today because back then so many adults were converting to Christianity that it had to be big enough for them. the Cathedral was pretty small but very pretty. They painted a lot of the wood gold to make it grander.

After the cathedral we walked to the top of a hill and saw some beautiful views of split.

After our tour we had lunch at a place the tour guide suggested. The waiter was the owner and the restaurant had been in his family for over 50 years. He gave us free drinks and bread, and everyone pretty much got the seafood risotto. I tried the black risotto with cuttlefish. Found out after I ordered it that cuttlefish can be extremely poisonous if it isn’t prepared properly, but I’m here to tell the tale so I guess they did a good job.

After lunch, we walked around the old town a little more, got ice cream, and then headed back to the hotel.