“I think crime pays. The hours are good, you travel a lot.”
-Woody Allen
Sites covered in this post:
• Ancient Trogir
• Kastilac Fortress
Go-Date: Day 106, Wednesday, May 8
Lesson Learned: Kairos was an Ancient Greek word meaning ‘the right, critical, or opportune moment’. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos, and kairos. The former refers to chronological or sequential time, while the latter signifies a proper or opportune time for action. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. Kairos is a term, idea, and practice that has been applied in several fields including classical rhetoric, modern rhetoric, digital media, Christian theology, and science.
According to ancient Greek mythology, the god Kairos represents Greek comprehension of the “fleeting moment”, a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man. This favorable moment must be grasped, otherwise the moment flies away without return and cannot be caught again. Etymological origins of the word traces its primary root back to the ancient Greek association with both archery and weaving. In archery, kairos denotes the moment in which an arrow may be fired with sufficient force to penetrate a target. In weaving, kairos denotes the moment in which the shuttle could be passed through threads on the loom.
In the literature of the classical period, writers and orators used kairos to specify moments when the opportune action was made, often through metaphors involving archery and one’s ability to aim and fire at the exact right time on-target.
So, why all this discussion about Kairos? Well, because an ancient relief of Karios exists in Trogir. The Kairos relief is kept in the Benedictine nunnery with the church of St. Nicolas. It is discovered in Spring 1928 in an abandoned house of Stanosevic family.
Regrets: I wish we had booked a few nights in Trogir. Also, down the coast about 10 km is the village of Kaštilac in which Ellen and I both agree you could buy one of the run down houses right next to the castle, fix it up, dock your boat and have an amazing summer place with a million dollar view.
Trogir, Don’t Overlook This Place
Trogir is a city, port and a well-known Dalmatian resort that nobody outside of Croatia or Germany knows about, is 25 km north of Split. It sits on a small islet in the narrow sea passage between the mainland and the island of Čiovo. It’s an absolutely charming little town with the flavor of a Venetian settlement without the crowds you find in Zadar and Split. It’s very small (I mean smaller than an Ikea store), and easy to walk and see in a single afternoon. The islet itself is just 500 m long and 250 m wide. In the summer, its packed, but in May during the week days its pleasant and low key. Trogir has around 13,000 permanent residents, but the town swells to well over double that during the peak season (if you count the population of Čiovo).
Trogir’s old city center has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s also an impressive marina that attracts pleasure boaters from all over Europe. The Trogir archipelago includes a lot of islands and islets (so go count) which simply take your breath away. Get here quick though, judging by the number of construction cranes and cement trucks rumbling over the bridge to Čiovo this place will be completely developed in a few years and it will become a Split II. It’s close to the Split airport and you really don’t need a car if this is your final destination. But, its easy access means a car could be your gateway to the rest of the Dalmatian coast with Trogir as your home base. Trogir is sometimes called a city-museum because of its rich cultural heritage and the amount of intact authentic architecture lets you experience remnants of ancient times without needing to go indoors.
Trogir is one of my favorite towns in Croatia.
Things to see in Trogir:
• The City Cathedral – The Cathedral of St. Lawrence. The cathedral, called St. John among local citizens (which having 3 names is rather confusing), is the most distinctive building in the old town. Its probably the largest structure, but everything in this village is so close together its really hard to its mass from street level. Construction of the cathedral started in 1193 and was finally completed around 1500. The artwork found inside is really unrivaled in most other churches outside of Italy, France, Germany or England. It’s a small cathedral, but it packs a punch with things to see.
• The City Cathedral Portal – The grand entrance to the cathedral done by the Master Radovan. The Portal of Radovan is the most valuable monument in Trogir from Romanesque times and is one of the most important monuments of this art period. The portal was finished in 1240 and is 50% work of Radovan and 50% work of his students. The portal presents different scenes from actual life, different seasons of the year and scenes from the Bible.
• Fortress Kamerlengo and the tower of St. Marco from the 15th century;
• The Ćipko Palace, 15th century; Cipiko Palace, in the Town Square across from the main entrance of Trogir Cathedral, was the home of the Cipiko family, one of the region’s most prominent families during the 15th-century.
• Duke’s Court, from the 13th century;
• Municipal Loggia, a city court;
• Clock Tower, was once part of the church of St. Sebastian. Located on John Paul II Square next to the Loggia,
• South City Gate, 16th century;
• North City Gate, with the statue of St. John, the patron saint, guarding the city entrance.
• The Benedictine Nunnery of St. Nicholas, Built in 1066, the building’s most impressive feature is its splendid interior, completely rebuilt in Baroque style in the 1700s. In addition to fine inscriptions carved in honor of the city’s leading figures, the building boasts a number of precious artworks, including the Kairos relief.
• Chapel of St. Ivan
• The Kastilac Fortress (Nun’s Fort) is a few kilometers south
There are types of physical workouts described as “Low-Impact”, Trogir is a low-impact antiquity UNESCO vacation visit. It is small, walkable, interesting, charming and enjoyable. This is not hiking up to Machu Pichu in August, but more like sitting on a cabana lounge chair in the shade in Sadona, AZ waiting for the sun to go down. All you need to do is enjoy yourself.