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SplitSplit County Split-Dalmatia county Area 18 km² Altitude 3 m Location 43°30′N 16°26′E Population 189,000 Official Site www.split.hr Split Split on the map of Croatia Split (Italian: Spalato, Latin: Spalatum, Greek: Aspalathos) is the largest and most important city in Dalmatia, the administrative center of Croatia's Split-Dalmatia county. It is situated on a small peninsula on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. The absolute majority of its citizens are Croats: 95.15% (2001 census). Split is situated on a peninsula between the eastern part of the Gulf of Kastela and the Split Channel. A hill, Marjan (178 m), rises in the western part of the peninsula. The ridges Kozjak (780 m) and Mosor (1,330 m) protect the city from the north and northeast, and separate it from the hinterland. Split has a Mediterranean climate: hot, dry summers (maximum air temperature in July reaches 36°C) and warm, wet winters (average annual rainfall is 900 mm). Split is one of the sunniest places in Europe. Vegetation is of the evergreen Mediterranean type, and subtropical flora (palm-trees, agaves, cacti) grow in the city and its surroundings. Marjan is covered with a cultivated forest. Although the beginnings of Split are usually linked to the building of Diocletian's Palace, there is evidence that this area was inhabited as a Greek colony even earlier. Diocletian was a Roman emperor who ruled between AD 284 and 305 and was known for his reforms and persecution of Christians. He ordered the work on the palace to begin in 293 in readiness for his retirement from politics in 305. The palace faces the sea on its south side and its walls are 170 to 200 m (570 to 700 feet) long and 15 to 20 m (50 to 70 feet) high, and it encloses an area of 38,000 m² (9½ acres). This massive structure was long deserted when the first citizens of Split settled inside its walls. In 639, the interior was converted into a town by the citizens of Salona who escaped the destruction of their town by the Avars. Over the centuries, the city has spread out over the surrounding landscape, but even today the palace constitutes the inner core of the city, still inhabited, full of shops, markets, squares, with even a Christian cathedral (formerly Diocletian's mausoleum) inserted in the corridors and floors of the former palace. Although part of Byzantine Empire, the town had political autonomy. The rise of the Medieval Croatian state in the hinterland provoked in the following centuries a slow Croatization of Split, which can be seen in the architecture of churches in the city and surroundings, and which led to the unity of the church with Split at the center in 928. One of the first known rulers of Split was Count Petar (1222-1225), also as Duke of Zahumlje (1198-1227). At the beginning of the 12th century Split was led by Hungarian nobility. The city however mantained independence, as in 1312 it issued statues and had a currency of its own. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Split":
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