The Dalmatian Coast, the summer destination
Croatia is a small country. Barely 4.5 million inhabitants and an area similar to that of Aragon or Lake Michigan. Nor are the ties with Spain very close. If you go into Google, for example, the search for 'Croatia' gets 27 million results in 0.22 seconds. If you search for 'Albania', a country that is not exactly a world power nor stands out loudly in anything, the figure reaches 329 million results in the same time.
Croatia is a small country and at the same time a coastal giant: its coastline has 1,244 islands and islets , almost as many as there are bars in La Rioja – a region, let's not forget, that gives its name to one of the best wines in the world. The sum of all its costs translates into a great imaginary riverbank that reaches six thousand kilometers, something like swimming from Spain to New York . So Croatia is not that small. It's time to choose destination. Of that thousand islands, 66 are inhabited. Among the options, the small 'Micronesia Adriatica' of the Kornati Islands stand out, boasting an underwater world teeming with life, Rovinj and the coast of Istria or Korcula, which looks like a miniature Dubrovnik. But there are three factors that lead us to Hvar in Central Dalmatia: it has some of the best restaurants on the Adriatic, it is very well connected to the elegant city of Split and it has the Hula-Hula Hvar, none other than Beyoncé's favorite beach club in the Mediterranean.
In four stages, we reveal why the Dalmatian Coast may be the destination you've been looking for this summer and the steps you need to take to reach the jewel in the crown: the island of Hvar.
**FIRST DELIVERY: SPLIT, THE SITE OF HIS RECREATION (DE DIOCLECIANO) **
To get to the island of Hvar (pronounce juar), you must first pass through Split, the second largest city in Croatia after the capital Zagreb , with about 200,000 inhabitants. And it is appreciated. The Roman emperor Diocletian must have thought the same thing 17 centuries ago. He arrived, he saw and as his ancestors had already won he had it built in 298 AD. a huge rest palace with great detail : Italian marble, Lebanese wood, stone from Dalmatia and from the quarries of Brac, red granite columns, Egyptian sphinxes and decorative objects from every corner of the Empire were used.
Diocletian's Palace: an art treatise with a life of its own
So much dedication and waste had as a consequence a luxurious villa with a rectangular floor plan that occupies an area of 38,000 square meters surrounded by a wall . It came to house nine thousand people. The town was distributed around two streets, Cardo and Decumanus, and housed within the walls, among other facilities, a military camp, servants' quarters, a temple consecrated to Jupiter, the emperor's rooms and the mausoleum where he would be buried. After abdicating from him, Diocletian, who was Dalmatian, settled in the palace and lived here for little more than the last decade of his life. Split was born in the early 4th century AD. in the shadow of this palace.
LIVING MUSEUM
Today it is a historical monument protected by UNESCO, and three thousand residents of Split still live within the walls . The degree of conservation is extraordinary, but it has been adapted to the uses and customs over the centuries: the mausoleum of the last pagan Roman emperor was paradoxically converted during the Middle Ages into a Catholic cathedral consecrated to Saints Domnius and Anastasius, martyred by Diocletian. The former residences of the servants and the army are shops, warehouses and houses. The complex is completed with medieval fortifications, Romanesque churches from the 12th and 13th centuries, as well as Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque palaces. An entire treatise on art with a life of its own . A huge palimpsest of indelible footprints the size of four football fields. A walk that is a history lesson of more than 1,700 years.
Split Cathedral
THE CATACOMBS
The good conservation of the place hides an unpleasant matter. The basements of the imperial palace remained unoccupied for centuries, so the residents found a purpose for that empty space. They dug holes in the ground of their houses and began to dump their garbage. The catacombs of Split played a very different role from those of Rome, in which the early Christians buried their dead and practiced cult ceremonies. The subways collapsed with filth . When the cleanup began in the mid-20th century, the rot touched the vaults. The height it reached in the high-ceilinged underground rooms can still be seen today.
However, thanks to this the cellars were preserved intact. From the first moment the neighbors repeated the move and gave up cleaning the rubbish of the previous tenants. Now, in the place where detritus reigned , in these spacious rooms of gleaming stone, sheltered from the heat in summer and the damp cold in winter, concerts and banquets are held . A gastronomic recommendation before leaving Split: next to the port and the old town is the restaurant Sperun , authentic traditional Dalmatian cuisine (Sperun street, 3) .
AN EXTRA: THE SEA VIEWS
It is located on the outskirts of Split, just over 15 minutes from the historic center, and offers a fabulous picture of the outskirts of the Dalmatian city that is very worthwhile: the elegant hotel Le Méridien Lav It is one of the most modern and luxurious in the city.
The views from the Le Méridien Lav hotel