The Ham Nomads

10 Apr 2015. <HR> Trogir, & Split, Split-Dalmatia —

We left our overnight stop and drove the short distance to Trogir. On the way we passed a shepherd tending his flock near the side of the road. We got to the town, after having seen it from a high vantage point as we approached, and found that there was plenty of good parking just outside the old town, right beside the local market. We parked, and walked through the market, across a bridge (where the traffic was insane) and we were in the old town.

It's an old town, dating back to about the end of the third century BC, but there have been archaeological finds going back into prehistory. Trogir was on the losing side in the Civil war between Caesar and Pompey in 49BC. Pliny the Elder wrote about the Trogir quarry about a century later. It was later ruled by Byzantium, and by the Franks, and from the seventh century onwards was occupied by the Croats, being part of the Hungaro-Croatian state. Then they put themselves into the hands of the Venetians in 1322. Since then, they have had the Turks, the French (under Napoleon), the Austrians, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Mussolini's Italy, Socialist Yugoslavia, and now (finally?) a free Croatia. You can't say the town hasn't had an interesting history, as has Rovinj that we visited a couple of days ago!

We went into Trogir, into the main city square, into which restaurants have completely overflowed. We sat there having our first coffees for the day, being entertained by a four-man a capella group singing Dalmatian folk songs for the passing tourist trade (and selling their CD's to all and sundry).

Then we went into St Lawrence Cathedral, whose sacristy contains incredible treasures dating back to the 14th century. We then went up the campanile for a good view of the city. On our way back down, we went into the 15th century baptistery, a small room with the most exquisite carvings. But the pride of the cathedral is its entrance door, Radovan's portal, dating back to 1240. It has recently had a lot of work to clean it up, and it really looks magnificent. It will be wonderful when the rest of the town can receive similar tender care in areas where it's needed.

Radovan's Portal

Inside the baptistery

The view up the bell tower

A view from the bell tower

Gothic triforas of Cipiko Palace facade,
15th Century, opposite Cathedral

We then walked around to the citadel, the ruin of an old fortress that is still used regularly (in the summer months) for concerts and open-air movies. This is just the shell of the old citadel, the curtain walls and battlements. What was once inside has totally disappeared — but that now leaves a great entertainment space!

Citadel Kamerlengo, 15th century

The view of the waterfront from the Citadel

Near the citadel is a waterfront area, populated today mainly by restaurants. The palm trees that characterise this area were planted in the late 1700s by the Venetians who were occupying the town at the time. We had a wonderful lunch in one of these restaurants — the service was first class!

Then we wandered back into the town, to the main square (taking a few detours on the way through streets that may have been narrow, but whose marble pavement and buildings was quite intriguing — Trogir was known by the Romans as the marble city. While we were in the cathedral's campanile, we were able to see the quarry up in the hills behind the town where all that marble actually came from — the quarry mentioned by Pliny the Elder in the first century AD.

The quarry in the hills behind Trogir

While we were wandering, one interesting item we found for sale was sea sponges — apparently they collect a lot of them from the Adriatic and sell them to the tourists!

Anyway, after a lovely day in Trogir, we hit the road and directed ourselves on the A1 towards Dubrovnik, stopping off in the Truck Stop Odormište Mosor for a quiet and relaxed overnight stay. Warren had a little free time out in the evening air working with his computer — the weather is quite mild here right now!

Distance driven — today, 70 miles ( 113 km ); to date, 17,574 miles ( 28,283 km )