Croatia Trip - Split and Trojir

Recently, some 46 CCI student accompanied by 8 faculty and staff travelled to visit Split and Trojir in Croatia.

We left CCI right after school ended on Friday afternoon and travelled on the CCI bus to Ancona boarding our ferry boat for the overnight journey to Split. It was a warm evening and the Adriatic Sea was calm giving us a smooth passage.

At 7:00 a.m. the next morning we disembarked in Split and walked to our hostel to drop off our luggage. The students were thrilled with the rooms. They didn’t care that they were clean and tidy. Rather, what excited them was the computer access in each room. It was a race to see who get on Facebook first!

There is a wonderful Saturday morning green market that occurs whereby farmers bring in their fresh produce for sale. The pastries were also a hit with everyone.

Morning tours were conducted of the Diocletian Palace. The Roman Emperor Diocletian returned to his birthplace in Salona near Split towards the end of his career and launched a ten year building programme of his fortified retirement home. When it was finished, around 305 AD the entire structure covered 31,000 sq. m. One can see from the photos that the streets, the imperial palace, military fortress and fortified town were built of the local limestone which looks and feels remarkably like marble. Attending to details, Diocletian imported marble columns from Italy and Greece as well as sphinxes from Egypt. Today, it is the most extant Roman ruin and remains an impressive site to tour.

Modern day Split surrounds the palace. The palace itself is a thriving commercial centre. Its narrow streets flow into and emerge out of a number of open courtyards housing many shops and outdoor cafes. There is a healthy mix of the modern and ancient worlds.

Following the tours, students went off for lunch before the afternoon tours. Many found their ways to the courtyard cafes or those along the waterfront adjacent to the western wall of the palace. This is a busy tourist area as well as a delightful place to eat and to people watch.  

In the afternoon, we toured the underground caverns, in essence the storage and workshop areas of Diocletian’s imperial palace. An ancient stone olive oil press still stands, seemingly ready for use. One could imagine the storage of grains, water, spices and other necessities in these massive chambers. We all found ourselves marvelling at the intricate brickwork evidenced in the walls themselves

Students were given time in the late afternoon for shopping and to go and enjoy dinner out with their classmates before retiring for the night.



The Waterfront at Split

Late Sunday morning, we took a local bus to and from Trojir some 40 minutes away. Like Diocletian’s Palace, this is another fortified town built of limestone on the coast. Both are a tangle of narrow curving streets that weave and seemingly wander through the town. Some are barely wider than one’s shoulders! Unlike the one massive church tower in Split, Trojir boasts a number of such bell towers.

Originally settled by the Greeks and followed by the Romans, Trojir was finally settled by the Coats in the 6^th C. Between the 10^th C and 14^th C, the Croats tried to fend off the Venetians until they finally fell to them. For the next four centuries, Trojir was occupied and inhabited by the Venetians until Napoleon dominated it. From then on it changed hands a few more times before it came back into the control of the Croats.

 

Trojir



Narrow Streets - wide enough for two

The fortress that guards the harbour

After spending an afternoon touring this town and its fort at the mouth of the harbour, we returned to Split in time to collect our luggage and board the ferry for our return overnight trip to Ancona.

 

It was a weary 54 people who disembarked on Monday morning. Strange as it may seem for having lived for only a month in Italy, but it felt like we were home.

The noise level on the bus during our return to Lanciano was minimal as almost half the students were asleep during the journey.

Cruel Head of School that I am, classes were scheduled for the students that afternoon.