Places I Love - Split - Fremantle Shipping News

I knew I’d love Split. The Dalmatian city is my first stop on a trip along the Croatian coast to Dubrovnik. Friends had raved about its Roman architecture, medieval bell towers and the Harbourside Riva.

Split is the second largest city in Croatia and is a sister city to Cockburn, just south of Freo.

It is estimated that over 250,000 Croatians and their descendants live in Australia today. They began to settle in Australia in the second half of the 19th century. The first Croatian immigrants settled in WA, both in Perth and the near Fremantle, espec8ally around Spearwood, where they engaged mostly in fishing and agriculture and later they worked in the mines and settled in other areas.

You may have noticed the ‘Cultivate Sculpture’ which marks the alliance between Cockburn and Split. It was unveiled in 2007, and features three crowned leopard heads atop a brick pillar. These leopards feature on Croatia’s coat-of -arms and are known as ‘Hekateia’, or a triple bodied boundary marker. It’s located on the roundabout on the corner of Spearwood Avenue and Beelier Drive, Yangebup.

For me Split is a place where history whispers. It’s a vibrant port city on the Adriatic and has been continually inhabited since Roman times. The marina is jammed full with sailboats and catamarans. The port is busy with small and large cruise ships. Crowds promenade the Riva (esplanade) in their best clothes and dark sunnies—so they can check out the other promenaders.

The old town of Split is within the 6 metre thick white walls of the Roman Palace built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian for his retirement in 305 AD. The paving stones are worn smooth and shiny from almost 2,000 years of footsteps— the city is a living monument with 1,500 people living within the walls.

You can visit the bell tower and church. If you are a Game of Thrones fan you’ll love exploring the cellars where Daenerys Targaryen kept her dragons. Several sites around Split featured in the HBO series. There’s a Game of Thrones Museum and you can do walking tours around the film locations.

It’s a quiet town until the cruise ships arrive. While I was there two cruise ships arrived on the same day for day-visits: landing 5,000 tourists, who all headed for the walled city. Outside the centre, you can wander the narrow winding cobbles streets where children kick football, fat cats laze in the sun and washing flutters overhead on tight wires. Or you can visit the fish or green markets where locals haggle over the price the produce.

Delegates from Split have visited Cockburn in the past and last February, Perth council U-turned on a $114k trip for four Perth councillors to travel to Croatia, the visit included attending a music festival. The proposed junket for Cockburn’s mayor and three councillors included business class flights and accommodation capped at $500 a night per person. Cockburn residents were unimpressed and the trip was scrapped.

What are your views on sister city relationships? We’d love to hear?

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

** WHILE YOU’RE HERE –