Trogir Part 1

Hello family and friends.  We are so happy that you are enjoying the blog.  We love getting your e-mails.  Even though I am telling you about the trip, we are missing everyone and wishing you were with us.  We just pinch ourselves everyday  to see if this is really happening.  I just can't tell you how amazing this trip has been.  I guess it is more meaningful because we feel so connected to the people.  You just can't believe how accommodating the people are.  They are a wonderful people and I know that Ryan is in for an experience of a life time.  We are so happy that he is coming here.  He will love it!  I am not going to say much tonight because it is already after midnight and we are meeting Ante at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.  We are taking the ferry to Hvar and need to be their early.

We were kind of dragging today.  It was very hot and I think that slowed us down.  We began our day by going to the island of Trogir.  It is a very small island but it has 2,000 people that live on it.  It was built with the town square and church in the middle and then very narrow streets go out from the square.  People lived on the island but worked in fields.  They would return at night and be safe inside the city walls.  If you were late getting back to the island, the doors would close and you would have to sleep outside the city.  A big tower, called St. Mark's Tower, was built to protect the city from intruders.  The city is on an island so they had a ready made mote.

There now is a bridge that takes you to the island.

This is the bell tower from the church.

This is St. John.  He was know for his compassion for the homeless.  He would give them his bed to sleep in at night.  He stands at the entrance.

This is how narrow the streets are.  They seemed like a maze to me.

People today live on the island and have small shops on the lower floors of the buildings, and apartments upstairs.  You can see in this picture that they have a cafe tucked away in the corner of the Town Square.  All of their business is tourism.

St. John Cathedral.  It took over 400 years to build the cathedral so if you look closely you will see the different types of architecture on the different levels of the building.

This was the Government Building in the Town Square.

This is where the judge sat and presided over court.

The Clock Tower

Entrance to Cathedral

People gathered here in the morning and a person would announce all the news for the day. It was also the place where people were punished.  They were tied to a pillar and people could hit them and throw things at them.  It was a mark of shame on them.  If that happened to them, it was pretty much determined that no one would ever marry them.  

Narrow Streets