After leaving Venice, Kongo visited Split (pronounced SPLIT — as in banana split) on the Dalmatian cost in Croatia.  This is a very old city that was founded by the Roman Emperor Diocletian when he built his palace here in 305 A.D.

Diocletian was somewhat of an anomaly as far as Roman emperors go.  He was born near  Split on the Dalmatian coast and entered the army with a low status but quickly rose through the ranks to become emperor.   After stabilizing the empire and building up its military and economic might, Diocletian built his lavish palace in Split and simply retired.  Whoa.  Way to go.  Retirement benefits for ex-emperors were pretty good back in the early 300s.

When Kongo sailed into Split is was starting to rain (the only rain experienced on the entire trip) which grew to a torrential downpour on the short walk into the historic city center.  After an hour or so the skies cleared and all was well.

The palace is extremely well preserved and adorned with many trophies such as the Egyptian Sphinx seen in the image above.

Over the years Split has been part of many empires.  After the Romans, along came the Ostrigoths, more goths, the Avars, the Byzantines, and the Venetians.  There were probably a few more occupiers of the city.  Napoleon showed up in the 19th century.  Later Croatia and the city of Split were part of Yugoslavia until that country broke apart after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the troubles of the 90s began.  Croatia became an independent state in 1991.

In the image below, a dome from the Roman days has a hole in the top to let in light.  Supposedly the differences in air pressure and temperature keeps the rain out but the floor was wet when Kongo traipsed through.

After several hours exploring, it was time to–well, you know — split.  So Kongo made his way back to the ship and sailed off for Dubrovnik.

Have fune.  Travel safe.