Day 8 - Pirates, Romans and a Noseless Sphynx
- SElliott
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
It was wet this morning. We had breakfast whilst watching the rain hammer down before we congregated in the restaurant/indoor lounge to wait for the coach to arrive. When the coach arrived it was a hurried scurry over to it – just like being back in Vietnam!
The coach took us up the coast road to Omiš. Omis is a town at the mouth of the river Cetina, dating as far back as 2,000 years. A big part of Omis’s history involves pirates! Argh!! In the 12th and 13th centuries, the much-feared Omis pirates ruled the waters all the way down to Dubrovnik with ships from there, Split, Kotor and even Venice attacked over the years. Although almost all of the area surrounding Omis fell to the Venetian empire in 1420, the town of Omis defended itself until 1444 when it was finally brought under Venetian rule.
From Omis we boarded shallow draft boats to travel up the river Cetina to the 18th Century Radman’s Mills. It was interesting to see a bit more of the interior of Croatia having been mainly on the coastal part. As we started out we passed between two towering mountains. At Radman’s Mills we had coffee and cake whilst waiting for the coach to pick us up to continue our journey to Split. As the coast road was closed, we had to take the inland road so we got to see a different side of Croatia. It was very rugged and dry with low lying shrubs and bushes – very different from our native Britain.
River Cetina
We arrived in Split to another rain storm or maybe this was the same one as this morning which had followed us...who knows. We had lunch and then waited for the rain to stop for our walking tour.
Split is the largest city in Dalmatia. It originated as a Greek colony called Aspálathos but was catapulted to significance in 305CE when it became the site of the Retirement Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who had abdicated the crown and moved here with his wife and daughter. To prepare for his arrival a huge 40,000m2 palace was built. The town was further pushed to prominence around 650CE when it became the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia.
We started our walk along the Riva Harbor promenade before entering through the unadorned Bronze Gate. This was originally Porta Meridionalis, the “southern gate”, and used to serve as an emergency exit to the sea in case of an attack from the land. The path from this gate leads into the cellars of the Diocletian’s Palace. The stonework was really well preserved, partially due to the cellars’ use as a waste dumping site during the 7th century. At that time the previous capital of Dalmatia, Salona, was destroyed by barbarians and a lot of refugees came to Split. The increasing population resulted in more waste and the cellars were a convenient place to put it. Thankfully all the waste has been cleared and the cellars washed down since then!
We emerged from the cellars and passed through several narrow streets. The narrowest, by the Temple of Jupiter, is aptly named the “Let Me Pass Street” or Pusti Me Proć and is just wide enough for one person to pass through.
The Temple of Jupiter is the only fully preserved Roman temple inside the palace, although it is now the Baptistery of Saint John the Baptist. In front of the temple is a headless sphynx. There are many sphynx statues in Split brought over by Diocletian’s love of all things Egyptian. But why headless? This is due to a purge of paganism by the Christian Church. A sphynx was seen to be pagan and had to be neutralised. The best way to neutralise it was to cut off its head - most things won’t survive that!
From the Temple of Jupiter we continued to wind through the streets until we reached the main square, where both the Diocletian’s Palace and the Cathedral of St. Domnius are located.
The palace was built at the start of the 4th century and provided not only a private retirement home for the ex-emperor, but also quarters for an armed garrison. When Diocletian died in 312, the palace complex remained a property of the Imperial Roman Court and was used as a residence and refuge for out of favour imperial family members.
The Cathedral of St. Domnius was originally the mausoleum of Diocletian. This is somewhat ironic as Diocletian was one of the architects of the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. This was known as the Diocletianic, or Great Persecution. The Cathedral was consecrated by the 7th century and is centred around the mausoleum of Diocletian, now dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In front of the Cathedral is another big sphynx but this one has a head but no nose! Why? Well, the sphynx’s mouth is shut, so if you cut off her nose as well she can no longer breathe and is thus neutralised! It is logical.
This square marks the cross-roads of the major roads through the Roman-era town of Split. The road to the North was to Salona and passes through the North Gate. The road to the East, through the Silver Gate went to the Roman town of Epetia, now Stobrec. The road heading West went through the Military Gate and is still in use today.
Our next stop was at the North, or Golden, Gate. Outside of this gate is the statue of Grigur Ninski who was the Bishop of Nin in the 10th century. He was a dangerous radical (according to Rome) who wanted to preach in the language of the people. How daring! This 8-metre statue is a symbol of the struggle for equality and a guardian of the Croatian language and culture. He looks a bit like a wizard with a pointed hat and if you rub his big toe you may get good fortune. No promises though.
We re-entered the old town and walked around the periphery to the Iron Gate on the West side which we passed through to our last stop on the walk – Fruit’s Square. This is where one would go to buy or sell fruit. On one side is an octagonal Venetian tower, a relic of the town’s 15th century fortifications. From there we emerged back onto the Splitska Riva promenade by the harbour. We walked along this to Republic Square before returning to the yacht.
Fruit's Square and Republic Square
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