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- #15. This 🇭🇷Croatian City on the Dalmatian Coast🏖️is Called 'The Most Beautiful City in the World'🏛️
#15. This 🇭🇷Croatian City on the Dalmatian Coast🏖️is Called 'The Most Beautiful City in the World'🏛️
Sail into Split, a vibrant coastal city on the Adriatic Sea where ancient Greek foundations, Roman emperors, and centuries of shifting empires have shaped a rich cultural tapestry - with its beating heart, the iconic Diocletian’s Palace standing as a present-day testament to its resilient and complex history.
Big Body
September 18, 2024
Located on the narrow belt of the stunning Dalmatian Coast (and eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea), one of Croatia’s four historical regions, Split is the second largest city in the country and one of its oldest, tracing its history back over 1,700 years.
Though the city’s establishment is commonly associated with the Christianophobic Roman emperor Diocletian, who built his monumental retirement palace in the 4th century, Split actually saw its roots sprout in the 3rd (or 2nd) century BCE, when it was founded as the Greek colony of Aspálathos.
Subsequent years saw the city become a prime battleground in various power struggles between the Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Habsburg, French, and Austrian empires, with the red-white-blue tricolor ultimately seceding from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the bloody and highly destructive Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s.
Today, the city’s well-preserved Roman walls, squares, temples, and fortifications, positioning on Croatia’s stunning coastline as a gateway to the Adriatic Sea and nearly 2,000 surrounding islands, and estimated 2,800 hours of sunshine each year, have earned it the nicknames of ‘The Most Beautiful City in the World’ and ‘The Mediterranean Flower’.
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