Visiting the ancient ruins of Salona, Croatia

Written by Dave:  As we were leaving Split, Croatia we had one more site to visit before leaving town.  We had heard about the ruins of the city, and figured it would be worth a visit.  It wasn’t the easiest place to find, but after a couple wrong turns we eventually found it.  Croatia isn’t particularly known for accurate or frequent signs to direct you to a location.

When we first entered, we were met with the ruins of an old Christian church that was built more recently than the rest of the city, and outside of the city.  We moved on to buy our tickets into the main city ruins.

Just past the entrance we found this beautiful little park.  We took a few pictures, and then moved on.

The ruins were pretty ruined it turned out.  But it was educational to walk through and see the city layout.  The first thing we saw approaching the city was the public baths.

The ruins were spread out over quite an area, but it was a very large city in its day.  Salona was the home of Diocletian, who built his palace in Split.  It was founded by the Greeks, but later taken over by the Romans.

Of course, no Roman city was complete without a colosseum, and this is what remains.  It was interesting that the houses were right next to the ruins, and in some cases the ruins were in fenced areas surrounding the properties.  It brought back memories of Diocletian’s Palace, where banks and stores were built on and around the palace.  You never quite expect to see a Roman pillar and road inside a bank.

We walked a long ways around and through the city, and you could really get a feel for how big it was.  It was good to stretch our legs out a bit before the long camper drive north.