From Slovenia Toto drove into Croatia, another country that was part of the former Yugoslavia. Croatia has a long history, as you can see from this photo of a coliseum, which was built by the Romans over 2000 years ago. If you've ever seen photos of the Coliseum in Rome, Italy, you might recognize this coliseum from Pula, Croatia. It was amazing to see an old stadium where gladiators used to fight lions, still standing in the middle of a modern city. Today they still use it for concerts and operas, so long as it's not raining.
Much of Croatia is a coast called the Dalmatian Coast. As you might guess from their name, Dalmatian dogs are originally from this area, although I did not see even one while I was on the Dalmatian Coast. Maybe Disney hired all of them all for 101 Dalmatians!
The coast is beautiful and full of history. Look on a map and you'll see that the Croatian coast is just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, which is why Croatian coastal cities share a lot of Italian history and influence. The architecture is similar to what you'd see in Venice, Italy. Also, I couldn't walk 100 meters without seeing a gelato stand. Gelato is Italian ice cream, but it tastes different from American ice cream because it has less fat and less air in it. That's right, air! American ice cream has air whipped into it while it's being made, but gelato doesn't have much air in it at all. So it tastes creamier and thicker than the ice cream that we usually eat, even though it has less fat. It's hard not to eat ice cream twice a day when you're on vacation in the sun and walk past a gelato stand every few minutes.
My first stop on the coast was a town called Split. How's that for a town name? In fact, I almost missed the split in the road for Split. The amazing thing about Split is that it has been a town for 1701 years making it one of the oldest continually inhabited towns in Europe. "Continually inhabited" means that people have been living there constantly ever since Split began. Can you figure out what year it must have been founded? (The answer is the year 305 AD.) The walls of the old palace are still standing after all these years, even though the citizens have built houses and modern banks inside. Can you see the old walls and new buildings in this photo?
The reason for the town's existance comes from the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was from this part of Croatia. You might not know that Croatia was part of the Roman empire, which once reached from Africa all the way to England, and included many European countries. Diocletian knew that he wanted to retire eventually from the hard job of being emperor and move back to where he grew up. So he ordered his 6000 slaves to build a huge palace for him, which was really hard work for them. For example, they moved the very heavy granite columns, which you can see in this photo, all the way from Egypt (which was part of his empire at the time). Back then, they didn't have construction vehicles and cranes, so the poor slaves had to move them all by hand or row them in ships. It was a lot of work, and the same columns are still standing there 1701 years later, so they clearly did a really good job.
Diocletian was the last Roman emperor who wasn't a Christian. Like many Romans of his time, Diocletian believed there were many gods, and he thought as emperor he was the son of the Roman god, Jupiter, which is why he built a temple dedicated to Jupiter in his palace. Jupiter was the head of all the Roman gods, and it's where we got the name for the planet, because it's the largest in our solar system. This temple also contained Diocletian's tomb, which is where they buried him after he died. Here is a picture of his tomb still standing in the middle of the old city. The next emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity. The citizens of Split later converted Diocletian's tomb into a Catholic church, which it still is today. Since Diocletian was not very nice to Christians during his reign, I imagine he would be rolling over in his sarcophagus that his tomb is now a Christian church. (A sarcophagus is a stone coffin in which the Romans burried their emperors.)
I decided to split from Split and take the ferry to a couple other towns. I stopped in Hvar, which you can see is a pretty walled town on the water with a fortress on top of the hill.
I also passed by Korchula, which is where the Croatians believe Marco Polo was born. I don't think there's any way to prove whether or not that's true, but it seemed like the city hadn't changed in many ways since Marco Polo's time. Both Split and Korchula are beautiful cities on the ocean. I was lucky that each day I was in Croatia was sunny, as that's the best way to see these old ocean towns. Most of them have walls and fortresses as the cities were constantly being attacked by various empires fighting for control of the Croatian coast during the centuries. Fortunately, the only invaders today are tourists!
The water in the ocean was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom, and count all the fish I saw. An interesting thing about the Dalmatian coast is that most beaches are stone rather than sand. At first I thought it was weird, but then I actually liked it because I didn't get sand all over myself when I lay down on the beach. Since the rocks on the beach were all weathered from the surf, they were rounded and fairly comfortable to walk or lie on.
My last stop in Croatia was in Dubrovnik, a world-famous old walled city. I really enjoyed walking around the city walls, which you can see in this photo. Some of the walls facing the ocean are twenty feet thick! The city still maintains its layout, even after a 1667 earthquake destroyed all but two buildings inside the walls. Of course the walls did not get damaged as they were so thick. There are no cars within the walled city, just walking streets and narrow streets with stairs. During the day it was very crowded with tourists, because the city is so beautiful.
Here is a picture I took of a reconstruction of an old ship pulling into the Dubrovnik harbor. I imagined this is what the ships looked like many years ago when they arrived into Dubrovnik.
Croatian Travel Questions:
- What is the name of the Croatian coast?
- Who built the coliseum in Pula, Croatia?
- When was the city of Split founded?
- What does "continually inhabited" mean?
- Which Roman god did Emperor Diocletian believe he was the son of?
- What did later generations convert Diocletian's tomb into?
- Define the word "sarcophagus."
- What would you find on the beaches in Croatia?
A) black sand B) brown sand C) small rounded rocks D) Astroturf - When was the earthquake that destroyed most of Dubrovnik?
Global Citizen questions about Croatia:
- Draw a picture of the Romans and Croatians watching an event in the Pula coliseum.
- What does "AD" mean when people write dates 305 AD? What does "BC" indicate when someone writes a date 2500 BC? Bonus question: Some people also use the term "CE" instead of "AD." What does "CE" stand for?
- Why do you think the people in Dubrovnik built walls that were twenty feet thick by the ocean? How might they be attacked?
- How many years before the United States Declaration of Independence was the earthquake of Dubrovnik?
- List three synonyms for the word "split."
- Choose one of those synonyms and write a paragraph on how you would found a town by that name.
- The Romans adopted the Greek gods as their own. What was the Greek name for the Roman god, Jupiter? Find the Greek names for each of the Roman gods from which the planets in our solar system are named.
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