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SPLIT

The City
Most of Split's attractions are concentrated in the compact old centre behind the waterfront, largely made up of the remains of Diocletian's Palace. The palace was begun in AD 295 and finished ten years later, when the emperor came back to his native Dalmatia to escape the cares of the empire, cure his rheumatism and grow cabbages. However Diocletian continued to maintain an elaborate court here, in a building that mixed luxurious palatial apartments with the infrastructure of a Roman garrison. The best place to start a tour of the palace area is on the seaward side, through the Bronze Gate (Mjedena vrata), a functional gateway giving access to the sea that once came right up to the palace itself. Inside, you find yourself in a vaulted hall, from which imposing steps lead through the now domeless vestibule to the Peristil. Little remains of the imperial apartments to the left, but you can get some idea of their grandeur and floor-plan by visiting the subterranean halls (Podrum; daily: July & Aug 8am-8pm; Sept-June 8am-noon & 4-7pm; 6kn) beneath the houses which now stand on the site; the entrance is to the left of the Mjedena vrata. Through the vaulted hall, which is usually full of stalls selling arts and crafts, and up the steps, is the Peristyle (Peristil), once the central courtyard of the palace complex. These days it serves as the main town square, crowded with cafés and surrounded by remnants of the stately arches that framed the square. At the southern end, steps lead up to the vestibule , a round, formerly domed building that is the only part of the imperial apartment area of the palace that's anything like complete. It was here that subjects would wait in apprehension before being admitted to Diocletian himself.

On the east side of the Peristyle stands one of two black granite Egyptian sphinxes, dating from around 15 BC, which originally flanked the entrance to Diocletian's mausoleum, an octagonal building surrounded by an arcade of Corinthian columns that's since been converted into Split's Cathedral (Katedrala; Mon-Sat 7am-noon & 4-7pm). Diocletian's body is known to have rested here for 170 years until one day it disappeared - no one knows why or where. On the right of the entrance is the campanile (same hours; 5kn), a Romanesque structure much restored in the late nineteenth century. The haul up is worth the effort for the panoramic view over the city and beyond. As for the cathedral itself, its most immediate feature is the walnut and oak main doorway , carved with an inspired comic strip showing scenes from the life of Christ - the work of local artist Andrija Buvina in 1214. Inside the cathedral is an odd hotchpotch of styles, the dome ringed by two series of decorative Corinthian columns and a frieze which contains portraits of Diocletian and his wife. The pulpit is a beautifully proportioned example of Romanesque art, sitting on capitals tangled with snakes, strange beasts and foliage. But the church's finest feature is the Altar of St Anastasius, on which a cruelly realistic Flagellation of Christ - completed by local artist Juraj Dalmatinac in 1448 - shows Jesus pawed and brutalized by some peculiarly oafish persecutors.

Opposite the cathedral, a narrow alley runs from a gap in the arched arcade down to the Baptistry (opening times vary, check at the cathedral). Another pre-Christian edifice, variously attributed to the cults of Janus and Jupiter, this is an attractive building with a richly coffered ceiling and well-preserved figures of Hercules and Apollo on the eastern portal. Later Christian additions include a skinny John the Baptist by Mestrovic (a late work of 1954), and, more famously, an eleventh-century baptismal font with a relief popularly believed to be a grovelling subject paying homage to a Croatian king.

A block north of the cathedral on Papaliceva, the flowery Gothic Papalic Palace now houses the City Museum (Gradski muzej; June-Sept Tues-Fri 9am-noon & 5-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-noon; Oct-May Tues-Fri 9am-2pm, Sat & Sun 10am-noon; 10kn), which displays city documents, weaponry and fragments of sculpture. Just north of here, reached by following Dioklecijanova, is the grandest and best preserved of the palace gates, the Golden Gate or Zlatna vrata. Just outside there's another Mestrovic, a gigantic statue of the fourth-century Bishop Grgur Ninski . Ninski is an important historical character for the Croats since he fought Rome for the right of his people to use their own language in the liturgy.

Fifteen minutes' walk northwest of here, the Archeological Museum at Zrinsko Frankopanska 25 (Arheoloski muzej; June-Sept Tues-Fri 9am-1pm & 5-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-noon; Oct-May Tues-Fri 9am-2pm, Sat & Sun 10am-1pm; 10kn) contains comprehensive displays of Illyrian, Greek, medieval and Roman artefacts that conjure up a picture of life for the average noble of the time. Outside, the arcaded courtyard is crammed with a wonderful array of Greek, Roman and early Christian gravestones, sarcophagi and decorative sculpture.

Crisscrossed by footpaths and minor roads, the woods of the Marjan peninsula west of the old town are the best place to head for if you want to exchange central Split's turmoil for some peace and quiet. On foot, the peninsula is accessible from Obala hrvatskog narodnog preporoda via Sperun and then Senjska, which cuts up through the slopes of the Varos district. Most of Marjan's visitors stick to the road around the edge of the promontory with its infrequent, tiny rocky beaches ; the Bene beach, on the far northern side, is especially popular. From the road, tracks lead up into the heart of the Marjan Park, which is thickly wooded with pines, rising to its peak at 175m. The main historical attractions of Marjan are on the lower, southern edge, along Setaliste Ivana Mestrovica. First of these is the Museum of Croatian Archeological Monuments (Muzej Hrvatskih arheoloskih spomenika; Tues-Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 9am-noon; 20kn), fifteen minutes' walk west of the centre or bus #12 from the seafront, an oversized modern pavilion housing a disappointing collection of jewellery, weapons and fragmentary reconstructions of chancel screens and ciboria from ninth- and tenth-century Croat churches. A couple of minutes' walk away, the Mestrovic Gallery , Ivana Mestrovica 46 (Galerija Ivana Mestrovica; Tues-Sat 10am-4/6pm, Sun 10am-2/3pm; 15kn), is another Croatian shrine, housed in the ostentatious Neoclassical building that was built - and lived in - by Croatia's most famous twentieth-century artist, Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962). The gallery displays many of his smaller statues - boldly fashioned bodies curled into elegant poses and greatly influenced by Croatian folk art. Mestrovic's former workshop, Kastelet , (check at the Mestrovic Gallery first) is 300m up the same road, and contains a chapel decorated with one of the sculptor's most important set-piece works, a series of wood-carved reliefs showing scenes from the Stations of the Cross.

 

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