Steps to the Cellars of Diocletian’s Palace, 2022
acrylic on canvas, 130 × 100 cm

“After a fruitful meeting at the University of Split, we had time for sight-seeing. As we walk through the stony streets, which run in different directions, at different angles, in a way that seems chaotic and disorderly, we reach the old Palace corridors and go back to the times of the Roman Empire. The closer we get to the centre, the more people and noise there are.

We reach the so-called Peristyle, that is an inner courtyard surrounded by columns, where public events used to take place. Here today you can meet the people of the city, souvenir sellers, and eager tourists. Artists sell their pictures – large and small, colourful, showing Split or abstract designs. On the left, you can see the eight-sided Cathedral of Saint Dominus.

Monika decided to sign up for a trip up the bell-tower, from where you can have a beautiful panoramic view of the city. From the courtyard, going down steep steps, you can look into the cellars under Diocletian’s Palace. This is a sequence of cellars with stone arches, which reflects the former lay-out of the chambers in the Palace.”

SEA EU Maritime Universities
in the Paintings of Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, Gdańsk 2022