Dubrovnik, Croatia

I woke this morning to the view below and enjoyed my cup of tea on the balcony.

The city of Dubrovnik is both ancient and alive at the same time. It even has a pharamacy that was opened in 1317 and has been in continuous use for the last 700 years to sell ancient remedies as well as modern medicines.  The people of the city are proud and pleasant; happy to share their history with visitors.

There has been a settlement along with a port for longer than there are records. When the Greeks came to create a colony during the Hellenistic Age, the Illyrians had been living here and were a challenge to control.  Like in Split, the Greeks made the mistake of requesting assistance from the Romans.  After the fall of Rome, Dubrovnik managed to remain free despite its attractive location. 

Mockingly called the "City of Seven Flags", the medieval city-state paid tribute to many powerful countries like the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Spain as well as directly to the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.  These tributes (basically, bribes) made Dubrovnik the Switzerland of the medival world.  Their more than 180 large trade ships were welcome in ports both in the east and west and made the city a place of spies and one of the only places where goods could be sold between Christians of the west and Muslims of the east.  

Their motto is, "freedom cannot be sold for all the gold in the world."  I guess they thought of the tributes as buying freedom rather than selling it, but either way, it worked!  The Dubrovnik Republic was able to maintain independence when other cities were being swallowed by empires.  It was also the first state to recognize the independence of the United States from Great Britain!

Dubrovnik was a republic, so it did not have a lord of the manor in the way that many areas of Medieval Europe functioned.  It was a port city, but it used some of the same defenses found in medieval castles.  First among them were fortified walls.  The original wall was expanded in the 16th century to protect against cannons.  The rounded and thicker walls made direct hits from cannons more difficult and limited damage to the rest of the wall.

However, Dubrovnik managed to remain free from invasions and siege throughout the Middle Ages.  It came close to being invaded once, but the network of spies were effective and the plan for conquering the city became known.  They knew that the ships would come in from the east, so they quickly began building a fort (below on the right) and finished one wall within three months. The wall was built in such a way that it appeared to the incoming ships that an entire fort had been built, so they turned around before getting close enough to be hit by possible cannons!  It took ten years to actually complete the rest of the fort.

The photo above may appear familiar. That is because the city is the location for exterior filming of Kings Landing on Game of Thrones.  

The west gate into the fortified city (below) is called Vrata od Pila.  It was built as part of the expansion in 1537.  To reach the inside, you have to cross a bridge over what used to be a moat filled from the Adriatic Sea.  Today, it has been filled in and is a park and recreation space.  

The bridge would be raised each night and all of the foreigners had to leave the city before dark and once the dawn arrived, the bridge would be lowered again and the foreigners could return to the city.  Above the entry of the gate are two protectors of the city.  The first is a statue of St. Blaise, the patron saint of the city.  And the second is a cannon....because the people had always been pragmatic and were sure to cover every contingency.

Split, Croatia

Split, Croatia is has changed names many times but the various names come from a shrub that is common in the area called the Spinybroom. With each conquering of the area, the name was shortened and altered. The Dalmation Coast - yes that is where the dogs originated - has been under the control of many cultures. The Greeks colonized it more than 2000 years ago. According to my guide, when they had trouble maintaining control of the region, they brought in the Romans to help only to lose it to the Romans!  After the fall of Rome, they were able to rule themselves until the Venetians took over in the 17th century with harsh taxes and colonial rule. Then the Austrians gained control in the 19th century.  It was part of Yugoslavia in the 20th century, and finally regained Croatian independence in 1991.  The city was not greatly damaged in these times of turmoil and was not often the site of fighting possibly due to the surrounding geography.  It was struck by Allied bombs during World War II, but very infrequently.

Split is the second largest city in Croatia with approximately 400,000 inhabitants.  The European Union does not consider their economy strong enought to use the Euro as its official currency, so while in Croatia, I had to spend the Kuna. The Kuna is named after a weasel whose fur was often traded in the region and pelts were often used as a form of currency.  

We docked the ship just inside the small bay port which has been in use even before Diocletian built his palace fortress.

Today, there was an international boat show going on in the harbor and many sailboats were docked in port.  It was a short walk to the city center from the ship which was visible from most of the city.

Below is the view on my walk from the ship.

This is the view from the top deck of the ship. You can see the surrounding moutains which provided a great deal of protection to the city throughout its history.

The tower in the center is the bell tower of the church built inside of what was once Diocletian's Palace.  The wall in front of it is part of the original walled palace.

Diocletian's Palace

Diocletian was a Roman Emperor in the late 3rd century. He followed a series of bad emperors who were often killed within a few years. He did not want that to happen to him, so he set up the government into two sections and split the empire into the east and west in the process.  He took over the Eastern Roman Empire and from there worked to improve the infrastucture. However, he never planned to die as emperor, so he began planning his retirement and in 293 began construction of a walled palace in Split.  It took 10 years to build and he only lived in the palace for 11 years before he died at the age of 71.

As many of the Roman emperors, Diocletian considered himself the son of the Roman god, Jupiter.  Because of that, he was treated as a god in his palace. He was carried around by servants and often went out to the Peristil (below) to "allow" the slaves in the palace to worship him by lying on the ground and not looking him in the eyes in case his "divine beauty" would be too much for them to handle.

The substructure of the palace was flooded for more than a thousand years and was not discovered until an Allied bomb was dropped on top of the palace during World War II. It opened the area that had been lost to history.  The ceiling of the substructure had been broken in the time of the Romans and the Middle Ages for use as a sewer. The filled holes can be seen in the ceiling.  There are several layers of waste that provided archaeologists with details about life in the palace.  Once discovered, it took more than 30 years to clean.  Even then, I did not touch the walls as I walked through!

The entrance to the Peristil was a rounded room with arches and an open air dome "skylight" that created perfect acoustics.  Below, you can see the open ceiling and the doorway where the emperor stood to be worshipped.

When Diocletian died, he had a mausoleum built for his burial.  It was an octogonal structure in the center of the palace.  It included marble arches across the front that served no purposed other than decoration and he included sphinxes that had been taken from Luxor, Egypt.  However, once he died, the palace was abandoned as it had no strategic value to the Romans.  

Hundreds of years later, the barbarians invaded the area north of Split.  The barbarians did not know about the palace, but those who had been Romans did and they used it to their advantage!  They migrated south and inhabited the palace. Many of the buildings were demolished and new buildings were built in their place until the palace became a medieval city.  

The people in this time had mostly become Christians.  Diocletian was widely know to oppose (often with death and torture) the Christian religion.  So, when they took over his palace, they had no trouble removing Diocletian's body and building the oldest continuously used cathedral using the mausoleum as the beginning of the structure.

Below is the bell tower of the cathedral, the decorative arches, and a sphinx from the exterior of the cathedral.

Bonus: Remember the substructure of the palace?

In season 4 of Game of Thrones, this same room was used in the scene when the dragons were locked beneath the city because they had become a danger! (Below)

Image is copyrighted by HBO

Plazza San Marco, Venice

Known as the city center or the heart of the city, St. Mark's Square is the home to many fabulous buildings.  The Palace of the Doge is at the entrance of the square from the lagoon.  This palace was the home of the doge (an elected duke), the meeting place for the Senate, and the place of judgement when a crime was committed when Venice was its own city-state.  Venice was a republic for hundreds of years until Napoleon oconquered it in 1798.

Below is the entrance to the palace from St. Mark's Square known as Porta Della Carta, meaning port of the paper.  The name is based on the use of the entrance when it was built in the 12th century.  Government decrees were posted here for public notice and the professional scribes guild had scribes available for public use here as well.

Connected to the Palace of the Doge on the opposite side of the Square, the city's prison was located next to the palace.  This allowed for the secure transportation of prisoners to the palace for the judgement of their crimes.  Below is the Bridge of Sighs.  Built over the Rio di Palazzo between the 16th-17th centuries, the closed bridge was given its name by 19th century writers who imagined that those who cross that bridge must sigh. In anticipation of judgement or in beginning a lengthy imprisonment.

The Basilica of San Marco (St. Mark) is a Byzantine Gothic style church which was once the Ducal Chapel.  It is a State Church and not connected to the Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox religions that are most commonly practiced in Venice.  It is run by Procurators of San Marco rather than clergy.  These men were from noble families and chosen by the elected doge.  The five entrances each have an arched mosaic that illustrate a story from the life of St. Mark.

 Located behind the Palace of the Doge, it is in the center of the city and is also the lowest point of the city.  It is the only large structure built with marble.  The marble of various colors and designs is only the facade, but even that is enough that the basilica is sinking into the ground due to the weight.  At high tide, the square is often  the first placed to flood - not from the canals, but from beneath as water will seep in from between the stones if the square.

Located to the right of the basilica on St. Mark's Square is the clock Tower (Torre dell' Orologio) that was built between 1496 and 1499.  The clock has several parts. At the top, there are two men - one young, one old - that use the hammers on the bell at the top of each hour. I caught video of that and I will post it when I return.  The clock portion on the face of the building tells the time in multiple ways. There is are two blocks that use Roman Numerals.  The center of the round clock shows the phases if the moon that help determine the tides. And the arms on the clock show the time of day.

Canals of Venice

Travel in Venice requires access to boats in many cases.  There are over 400 walking bridges throughout the city, but some islands are still separated. St. George's Island (in the background below) is the home of a church and a monastery.  The island also protects the rest of the city by blocking the power of the Adriatic Sea and allows a lagoon to form with brackish water and the relatively calm waters of the many canals.  Wherever I looked, there were boats delivering people and goods. Most notably, the gondolas were available throughout the city.

I never quite understood how Venice was built. I always tried to figure out if the canals or land were formed first! Over hundreds of years, the desire if the Venetians to connect with each other lead to the filling in of land, the building of bridges, and a way of life where no cars are needed, walking streets are so narrow that there are rules for walking to the right as hand carts deliver goods, and cutting down a tree requires permits because removing the logs is not an easy process.

A view from the lagoon of the Church of Santa Maria Della Salute (left with the dome) to the Place of the Doge (right of the tower).  The Grand Canal entrance is between the two.  This is not a continuous skyline. It overlaps with the canal hidden behind the church.

I am enjoying the view of the Venetian skyline as our ship makes its way through the lagoon on the way out of the city.

Venetian Palazzo

I arrived in Venice, Italy late in the afternoon and was able to get comfortable on my ship.  In the evening, I took a short walk through the narrow streets to an area along the Grand Canal. My group was given a private tour of the Palazzo Nani Bernardo by the owner who happens to be a countess.

We started in the garden where we saw a 200 year old wisteria (below) that has grown over the small courtyard entrance to the garden. We had to duck down under a particularly stubborn branch that now blocks the entry of the garden.

Below is the view of the garden from one of the drawing room windows in the palazzo. At the center is the largest palm tree in Venice, which is fitting since this is the largest garden in Venice.  Palazzi were large homes built by the wealthy who had once been part of the Roman patricians and later became the medieval nobles. This palazzo is owned by a countess, who gave us a personal tour of the garden and house.  The palazzo was built more than 600 years ago and the garden was the result of her family buying several properties behind the palazzo 200 years ago and demolishing them to create the space.  Land is rare in Venice, so gardens are especially rare.  Gardens were a sign of wealth, so to keep them from the poor of the city, the nobles had walls built around their gardens.

Inside one of the drawing rooms is a Carnival dress from the time 18th century. It is in front of a painting of a woman wearing the same style as she prepares to go to the annual festival. The dress is embroidered with actual threads of silver.

The Palazzo Nani Bernardo is located on the Grand Canal along with many other palazzi that have become hotels and museums because of the high cost to maintain the buildings.  We rode in a water taxi along the canal and back to the ship.  Below is a view of the Grand Canal from the balcony of the drawing room.

Let's Try This Once More!

They say you should get right back on the horse....and so after my last (aborted) cruise, I have headed back to the Mediterranean Sea!  This time, I will start in Venice and end in Barcelona.  The map below shows my route.

Due to the experience of the last cruise I also benefited from an upgrade! I have a room with a view from the side and front of the ship along with a nice, comfy chair on which to enjoy my morning tea!

The ship is called the Viking Sky and it has eight decks with more than 900 passenger! The entire population of our school could fill this ship!  All of the places that I will visit on this trip were either part of or influenced by the Roman Empire. Our first stop is Venice, Italy.  To get to the city, we have to take water taxis and shuttle boats.

Venice was not a major city during the Roman Empire. The land that now makes up the city, was a close collection of 118 islands with soft land that was not good for building and was mostly inhabited by fishermen.  When the barbarians attacked the region in the 5th century, this group of islands became the ideal place for the fishermen to settle their families because navigating the shallow areas was difficult and this kept the people safe from invasion.  Over time, many of the islands were filled in with dirt, wooden supports were pressed deep enough in the ground to pertify into the strength of stone, and more than 400 bridges were built to connect the islands.  Today, there are only 18 distinct islands in Venice.

If you look below at the front of the ship, you can easily locate my stateroom. It is the first room on the third level where the first level of balconies is located. I can see from large windows facing the front of the ship and a balcony from the side.  More pictures will be shared when I return!