Day 15, 17th April

We spent the night in a huge free car park 5 miles south of Trogir and drove into the town in the morning. It is built on an island in a lagoon connected to the mainland by two bridges. It was founded in the 3rd century BC by Greeks from the island of Vis and the name comes from the Greek “tragos” (male goat). It was subsequently occupied by the Romans until the 9th century when it paid tribute to Croatian rulers and to the Byzantine empire. In the year 1000 the Republic of Venice received submission from the Trogir inhabitants and the city started since then to have commerce with the Italian peninsula enjoying cultural and economic improvements.
In 1123 Trogir was conquered and almost completely demolished by the Saracens. However, it recovered in a short period to enjoy great prosperity in the 12th and the 13th centuries based on the salt industry, with some autonomy under Venetian leadership. In 1242 King Béla IV of Hungary found refuge there as he fled the Mongols.

In 1420 the period of a long-term Venetian rule began and lasted nearly four centuries, when it was one of the best cities in the Balkans with a rich economy and plenty of Renaissance works of art and architecture. In about 1650, a manuscript of the ancient Roman author Petronius’ Satyricon was discovered in Trogir containing the ‘Cena Trimalchionis’ (‘Dinner of Trimalchio’) the longest surviving portion of the Satyricon, a major discovery for Roman literature.[6]
On the fall of Venice in 1797, Trogir became a part of the Habsburg Empire, which ruled over the city until 1918, with the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Frenchoccupation from 1806 to 1814 (when the city was part of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces ).

After World War I, Trogir, together with Croatia, became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and subsequently, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During this period Italian speakers, who until 1918 were the present in the city left for Italy. During World War II, Trogir was annexed by Italy and was part of the Italian Governorate of Dalmatia. Subsequently, Tito’s Partisans occupied it in 1944. After that it belonged to the second Yugoslavia, and since 1991 to Croatia.

Trogir has 2300 years of continuous urban tradition. Its culture was created under the influence of the ancient Greeks, and then the Romans, and Venetians. Trogir has a high concentration of palaces, churches, and towers, as well as a fortress on a small island, and in 1997 was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. “The orthogonal street plan of this island settlement dates back to the Hellenistic period and it was embellished by successive rulers with many fine public and domestic buildings and fortifications. Its beautiful Romanesquechurches are complemented by the outstanding Renaissance and Baroque buildings from the Venetian period”, says the UNESCO report.
Trogir is the best-preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex not only in the Adriatic, but in all of Central Europe. Trogir’s medieval core, surrounded by walls, comprises a preserved castle and tower and a series of dwellings and palaces from the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Trogir’s grandest building is the church of St. Lawrence, whose main west portal is a masterpiece by Radovan, and the most significant work of the Romanesque-Gothic style in Croatia.

Trogir from the mainland

We visited the Cathedral of St Ivan (John) Tragirski with its bell tower which can be seen from all over the city. It was built on the foundations of an Early Christian cathedral destroyed in the 12th century during the sack of the town by the Saracens in 1123. The building of the cathedral began in 1213 and finished during the 17th century. Like the older one, it is also dedicated to St. Lawrence (Sveti Lovro) but it is better known as St. John’s Cathedral (Sveti Ivan) after bishop John, who died in 1111 and stood out for his saintly lifestyle at a time when the Hungarian King Koloman had taken over Dalmatia and Croatia. Most of the work in the construction of the cathedral took place in the 13th century, being mostly completed in 1251. That means the building is mainly in Romanesque style, whilst the vault inside is gothic as it was built during the 15th century, in Mannerist style. Work on the bell tower began at the end of the 14th century, but it was not completed until the end of the 16th century.

Narrow street in Trogir showing the cathedral’s tower
Famous portal of the cathedral
Supposedly a lion at the entrance to the cathedral
Inside the cathedral
The cathedral tower

The St. Peter Church was part of the women’s Benedictine monastery which was, according to the legend, founded by the wife of king Bela IV of Hungary. The west front of the church is embellished by a Baroque portal decorated with a bust of St. Peter, the work of Niccolo di Giovanni Fiorentino. The interior was restored in a Baroque style in the second half of the 17th century. The wooden ceiling dating from that period is divided into oval, semioval and hexagon fields, framed by richly decorated borders. It was then that the two side-altars were added, dedicated to Mother Mary and St. Ignatius of Loyola. The high altar from the same period was made of wood, but only the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul have survived to the present day. Set into the pavement of the church one finds tombs of Trogir noble families Andreis and Cipiko.

We walked round Kamerlengo Castle. It was built in the mid-15th century by Marin Radoj as part of an expansion of the Veriga Tower, built on the site in the late 14th century.

Kamerlengo Castle

The St. Peter Church was part of the women’s Benedictine monastery which was, according to the legend, founded by the wife of king Bela IV of Hungary. The west front of the church is embellished by a Baroque portal decorated with a bust of St. Peter, the work of Niccolo di Giovanni Fiorentino. The interior was restored in a Baroque style in the second half of the 17th century. The wooden ceiling dating from that period is divided into oval, semioval and hexagon fields, framed by richly decorated borders. It was then that the two side-altars were added, dedicated to Mother Mary and St. Ignatius of Loyola. The high altar from the same period was made of wood, but only the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul have survived to the present day. Set into the pavement of the church one finds tombs of Trogir noble families Andreis and Cipiko.

St Peters Church

We also visited a very beautiful monastery.

Monastery
Inside the monastery

Trogir has also been used as a location for several television productions; it notably featured in two 2010 episodes of the British TV series Doctor Who. Due to its Venetian architecture, it served as a double for 16th-century Venice in The Vampires of Venice, and as a double for 19th-century Provence in Vincent and the Doctor. It also doubled for 19th century Venice in the 2015 BBC miniseries Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,[7] and was used for scenes set in the city of Qarth in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Split isthe second-largest city of Croatia and the largest city of the region of Dalmatia.

Split harbour

Home to Diocletian’s Palace, built for the Roman emperor in 305 AD, the city was founded as the Greek colony of Aspálathos in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. It became a prominent settlement around 650 AD when it succeeded the ancient capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, Salona. After the Sack of Salona by the Avars and Slavs, the fortified Palace of Diocletian was settled by the Roman refugees. Split became a Byzantine city, to later gradually drift into the sphere of the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Croatia, with the Byzantines retaining nominal suzerainty. For much of the High and Late Middle Ages, Split enjoyed autonomy as a free city, caught in the middle of a struggle between Venice and the King of Hungary for control over the Dalmatian cities.

Venice eventually prevailed and during the early modern period Split remained a Venetian city, a heavily fortified outpost surrounded by Ottoman territory. Its hinterland was won from the Ottomans in the Morean War of 1699, and in 1797, as Venice fell to Napoleon, the Treaty of Campo Formio rendered the city to the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1805, the Peace of Pressburg added it to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and in 1806 it was included in the French Empire, becoming part of the Illyrian Provinces in 1809. After being occupied in 1813, it was eventually granted to the Austrian Empire following the Congress of Vienna, where the city remained a part of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia until the fall of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and the formation of Yugoslavia. In World War II, the city was annexed by Italy, then liberated by the Partisans after the Italian capitulation in 1943. It was then re-occupied by Germany, which granted it to its puppet Independent State of Croatia. The city was liberated again by the Partisans in 1944, and was included in the post-war Federal Yugoslavia, as part of its republic of Croatia. In 1991, Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia amid the Croatian War of Independence.

Diocletian’s Palace  is an ancient palace built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, that today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. While it is referred to as a “palace” because of its intended use as the retirement residence of Diocletian, the term can be misleading as the structure is massive and more resembles a large fortress: about half of it was for Diocletian’s personal use, and the rest housed the military garrison.
After the Romans abandoned the site, the Palace remained empty for several centuries. In the 7th century, nearby residents fled to the walled palace in an effort to escape invading Croats. Since then the palace has been occupied, with residents making their homes and businesses within the palace basement and directly in its walls.[1] Today many restaurants and shops, and some homes, can still be found within the walls.

Inside Diocletians Palace, now a cathedral
Cathedral altar
Cathedral crypt
Cathedral baptistry
Sphinx acquired by Diocletion from Egypt, now outside cathedral

I climbed the Bell Tower which gives stunning views of the city and the Adriatic.

I climbed the Bell Tower
Split from the Bell Tower

We managed to see the Split amphitheatre before a dramatic cloudburst sent rivers of water flowing down the roads. Built by Diocletian, it held 17,000 spectators. There is a hole in the middle of the site down which the bodies of the dead gladiators were dropped. Gladiatorial battles stopped after Diocletian abdicated, but battles with animals continued for some time during the Christian era.

Split amphitheatre

The amphitheatre was demolished during the war between the Venetians and the Saracens.

We then drove on to Mostar in Bosnia Herzogovina and slept off a small road leading into the city.

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