CITY OF SPLIT CROATIA
THE EMPIRE CITY OF SPLIT – Historical overview
It is very hard to choose and start today the story of “The most beautiful city in the world”, when its history goes back almost 5000 years. It is also impossible to understand this city by itself unless we mention the ancient Salona or today’s Solin from which Split practically evolved. Eeven today with him and his beautiful river Jadro, which flows through Solin, Split practical depends on. The Jadro River has been supplying the city of Split with drinking water since three hundred and some years ago.
Roman legacy
Roman aqueduct was built when the Diocletian’s Palace (end of III – beginning of IV century) was built. Its purpose was to bring larger quantities of drinking water from the sources of the Jadro River to Diocletian’s Palace, and most probably the surrounding cities. From the source of the river Jadro to the Palace, the aqueduct was about 9 km long, and the height difference of the end points is 33 meters, giving an average slope of the canals that bring water by 0.37%. The average channel cross-section was 0.75 x 1.60 m, but varied as well. Diocletian’s aqueduct was ready to work as early as the middle of the 6th century, when it was damaged for the Gotha invasions. It was rebuilt for the Austro-Hungarians (1877 – 1880, for the management of Bayamonti).
Mainly the original route of the Roman aqueduct was retained and the ordered parts were rebuilt, but due to austerity, no complete reconstruction was required. In the above ground parts, the aqueduct is simplified, the number of arches (girders) is reduced, and in those parts of the aqueduct where the channel is and has crossed the earth’s surface or is buried, the ancient masonry vault has been replaced by simple flat stone slabs. From 1932, when the Kopilica pumping station was opened, the aqueduct no longer works, because then it laid new pipes for supplying water to the city of Split, and the old aqueduct only flowed higher water.
In 1948, after the typhoid outbreak, drinking water from the aqueduct was banned. Since 1979, the aqueduct has been completely interrupted (downstream of the intersection of today’s streets of the Homeland War and Stinice Road). The most impressive and beautiful part of Diocletian’s aqueduct that above ground near Dujmovača is 180 m long and 16.5 m high. It is currently being restored and should be one beautiful impressive monument at the entrance to Split.
city of split croatia – Ancient times
The very fact that the Roman emperor Diocletian, “god” on earth, chose this city for his retirement tells us much about the locality. He started the construction of the Palace in the 300’s on the porch of the Aspalathos or todays Split, from which he later developed into what it is today. It is a typical Mediterranean city created to enjoy it with all your senses throughout the whole year. Today’s Split successfully unites cultural heritage up to 2000 years old like Diocletian’s Palace with the modern and luxurious lifestyle required by modern tourism. So today in Split you can enjoy the beautiful beaches that have a blue flag for cleanliness and quality of the sea, just a short walk from one of the busiest passenger ports in the Mediterranean.
It also enjoys amenities such as transportation to and from the airport by boat from the city port in just 15 minutes, as well as by road and rail. There are also a handful of apartments, trips to the islands, high-class hotels, various sporting events as well as cultural events, but also meny boat tours, excursions and active hollidays offers. There is no need to talk very much about gastronomy, because everyone already knows. There is almost no world-famous public figure who did not boast of the delicacies of the gastronomic offer in Split and its nearby islands.
FIRST INHABITANTS
The city of Split was conceived when the inhabitants of Salona fled to the Palace before the onslaught of Avars and Slavs. Afterwards, many authorities, from the Croatian kings in the 10th century, through the Hungarian and Venetian administrations, to the French rulers and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, alternated in the city that grew outside the palace walls. Modern times and the 20th century Split was “moved” from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, through the tragic but also heroic days of the Italian and German occupation in World War II when Split was one of the centers of anti-fascist resistance, up to socialist Yugoslavia, and to this day living in a free and independent Croatia. It is today member of the European Union.
Unesco and sports
It is also important to point out that Split, or Diocletian’s Palace, was built in the 4th century and is a historic city center inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Agency (UNESCO). In the same year ( 1979), the Mediterranean Games were held in Split, and at that time the city received the Poljud Stadium with a capacity of about 50,000 people, where the most important sports football club still plays to the citizens of Split and to a wider audience, named Hajduk. A lot can be written about Hajduk and his fans called Torcida, but we will only point out on this occasion that it was founded back in 1911 and in a very short time became an indispensable symbol of Split and Dalmatia.
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