Split is the one Mediterranean city for which one can say that beauty has made its big entrance on all doors. Split has been worldly recognized for its (waterfront) Riva, beaches, promenades, “lungs” of the city – Marjan, but parks as well, which bestow on Split its peculiar, “green” soul. One of these parks is Strossmayer Park, also known as Đardin, situated between two bastions, the remains of Venetian fortification, northern from Diocletian’s palace and next to its main entrance – the Golden Gate.
This park has always been regarded as the main park of the city, and somewhere around the middle of the last century it got a nice fountain, so called “putto”, i.e. an angel like figure. This famous park changed its look in 2002, adorned with verses of a great Croatian poet Tin Ujević, engraved on the surrounding walls, and new modernistic fountain on the western part of Đardin. In the immediate vicinity of the Đardin area is a famous sculpture of Croatian bishop Gregory of Nin, in addition to the remains of a medieval monastery and Art Gallery, one of the most important Split museums. It is also a place where different types of people come in search of inspiration, it is an encountering spot, a place where people meet or even create life memories like wedding pictures and similar. Also, it is not unusual to see cartoonists, writers and mind creators alike as they sit in the park and absorb that inspirational essence for their work. And the active rest of skateboarders can seldom be witnessed here. Probably everyone who has at least once visited Split, had a rest in this park while admiring the history that peeps from every stone in front of the magnificent Diocletian’s palace? It is a park interesting to many famous Croatian people as well, singer Oliver Dragojević being one of them. He interpreted the afore mentioned verses (by Ujević) “Zelenu granu s tugom žutog voća” (Green branch wearing the sadness of the yellow fruit) found at the end of the Strossmayer Park. Listen to the song…
D. Šabić
