Split Decision – Not Worth the Calories

“Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.”

-Gary Allan

Sites covered in this post:
• Old Town – Split
• Klis Fortress
• Lunch in Rogoznica

Go-Date: Day 100 – 101, Thursday & Friday, May 2 to 3

Lesson Learned: Along the Croatian coast there is a castle (Kastle) in every village. Some of them look sort of like a deer blind made out of stone but with smaller windows, but they are there. The castles probably did more to prevent the royals’ daughters from sneaking out for a fling with the local prince than it did to deter invading armies. If someone thought this would be a great place for a Tisak, there must be a castle near by. Klis Fortress (which I found very impressive) held out for about 25 years against an Ottoman siege, but some of these little waterfront castles probably surrendered if it was high tide and the warden was out of beer.

Regrets: Maybe I should get a tattoo. Maybe, not.

See the town and then Split

Split is the second-largest city of Croatia and the largest city in the region of Dalmatia, with about 200,000 people. We knew it was big when we pulled into our apartment in the bedroom community of Solin. At night Split spreads out along the coast as a blanket of captivating lights that you can sit on the balcony and gaze at for hours (as long as you have something good to drink). To me, that was the peak moment for the city. Generally, Split is known for its beaches, the fortress-like Roman complex at its center, the 4th century Diocletian’s Palace, its white stone walls, courtyards, cathedrals, shops, bars, cafes, hotels, ferries, docks, oh and there are a lot of houses, too.

Like all the other coastal cities in Croatia, this place is old, historic, and very pretty along the harbor. The highlight of the sights in Split is the Diocletian’s Palace (UNESCO World Heritage site). Supposedly, it’s one of the best-preserved monuments of Roman architecture in the world. Well, maybe. But the city should be ashamed in the way it’s presented to the public.

First, this place is crowded. Split is already a mid-sized city, and somewhat difficult to drive to and find parking close to the city center (centar on the signs). But, then once you arrive in the old city it’s packed. Keep in mind that hundreds of tour busses and a few cruise lines are constantly disgorging passengers on the quay during all hours of the day and these folks only have a few hours to see all the sights, and there aren’t that many in Split.

The harbor is beautiful. Palm trees, wide promenade, pretty little boats docked everywhere, big ships, hundreds of kiosks with vendors hawking their wares, and dozens, if not hundreds of cafés. And thousands of people. We are here in the “Shoulder Season” so I can imagine what its like in June, July and August.

Now back to the palace. If I didn’t have Google Maps working when we tried to find the palace we would have walked right by it without notice. It’s a cave-like opening into a dungeon (beautiful rough stone work) that if you didn’t know better you’d just walk down and then up the stair on the far side of the sub-terranean plaza and out into the courtyard beyond. So, you wade (literally) through the tour groups to find a desk in the middle of a room (no signage) that you purchase tickets (45 kuna, $6.78). They give you a useless little map (make sure its in the correct language) that vaguely shows you where to go and now you are on your own. Six minutes later you are done.

We’ve seen dozens of historical sights in the past 3 months and this one is definitely the worst public presentation we’ve seen for any major attraction. It must be a major attraction based on how many people were crammed in there. You wander in and out of rooms, wondering if this is where you are supposed to go, since there are no markers, no signs, and no information on any of the palace contents (OK, there are a couple of info boards across from the ticket desk, but you can’t get close enough to read them). Groups of 30 to 40 tourists are parked around every corner (just look for the numbers on selfie sticks, raised umbrellas, coordinated T-shirts of red, pink, green or electric blue, or someone speaking into a wireless headset) and you just wonder what you are looking at as you wander about.

To make it worse (yes, it does get worse) they (people associated with the florist world) were setting up for a flower show and you had to dodge all this activity and stacks of boxes of irises, roses, and baby’s breath while looking for obscured artifacts in poorly lit chambers. Its sort of like the Philadelphia Flower Show if you have ever visited that event.

Once you leave the dungeon, you’ll find yourself in a Roman-era courtyard (forum) bordered by a cathedral that charges another fee to see the church, and another to see the catacombs below (it looks like a stone basement in a Baltimore row house). So, save yourself some money and skip all this. The Forum is interesting, but you can see as much for free on the streets in Athens.

This could be, and should be better done by the administrators of this site. Or they could just put a sign in front of the door that says “Tourists, please leave us $20 bucks in the box and move along. Let’s be quick about it, there are lots more suckers visitors behind you!” As you can tell, I was not a fan.

We sat on a bench and enjoyed the day, had an average lunch at a pretty nice café (the service was superior at the Olive Tree), and tried to avoid the mobs. The only reason we’ll return to old town is if we decide to catch a ferry or boat to one of the islands.

Klis Fortress – the City of Meereen

Not only could you see down to Split from our balcony in Solin, if you craned your neck and leaned really far out to the left side you could just see stone ramparts on a hill just a couple miles east of our location. This is the medieval Fortress Klis built into a rocky ridge of the highest hill which gave the defenders an incredible birds eye view of the entire Split valley, Adriatic Sea and surrounding islands. Today, most people know it as the city of Meereen from the Game of Thrones.

The fortress has a long and colorful (mostly red) history of more than 2000 years, beginning with the Illyrian tribe before it was taken by the Romans. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the site became a seat for several Croatian kings.
Later, the Klis Fortress was pivotal in defending the Balkans against the siege of the Mongols, then the Ottoman invasion of Europe in the early 16th century. The Croatians held the fortress against a Turkish invasion and siege that lasted for more than two and a half decades. Eventually, the defenders were defeated and the Turks occupied the fortress from 1537 to 1669.

Strangely enough, Klis Fortress isn’t a big tourist attraction. Only 15,000 people visit it every year, though I expect the numbers are growing after GOT fame. You won’t be fighting the crowds to get through the castle corridors, I think there may have been 60 or 70 there when we visited. If you go during the off season, you might even get lonely.
Klis Fortress first makes an appearance as Meereen in Season 4 when Daenarys and her army conquer the city of Meereen. The location features prominently in Season 6, Episode 1 when Tyrion and Varys make the long walk through the streets of Meereen dressed as peasants. We found it one of those cool locations that feels somewhat undiscovered by your average tourist. You definitely won’t bump into people off cruise ships.

Lunch in Rogoznica

We stopped in this beautiful little village named Rogoznica for lunch. It was more marina than town, but it was lovely. It was still a bit sleepy since season doesn’t launch until around June 1, but we had a nice meal and watched the sail boats cruise in and out of the harbor. How can that be bad? I didn’t take very many pictures, but hey, I was eating.