Omis - Tourist guide

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Omis is a very extraordinary town situated only 28 km south from Split on the main road to Dubrovnik. Huge stone cliffs dominate the city as if they were protecting it over the centuries. The old part of it seeming so fragil under them is the real treasure of the past.

It is sistemated at the mouth of the Cetina river, who strangely succeded to pierce mountain rocks making a canyon of the impressive view. A very important strategic position conditioned building of the habitats from the classic ancient times.

Omis owns to its river all its fame; past, present and future. Once was a secure shelter for the piraten ships. Today Omis is the turist pearl. Wars and trade have marked the past centuries and influenced the destiny of the inhabitants. After the fall of the Croatian State in the early Middle Ages the piracy florished once again and the population of Omis came to the negative fame which accompanied them for a long period. Popes, Venetians, Spalatians stood up against it, very long without the result.

The insurmontable rocks were the ideal place to errect numerous fortresses which protected Omis which was not obliged to divide the destiny of its continent, Turks invasions went beyond it. The rests of the local autogovernment rights were not completely lost, so Omis received Austrian government relatively self-governing. While from the middle of the XV century Omis was the part of Venetian Repubblic. With the history of Omis is also connected the story of the Repubblic of Poljica –the example of the so-called rural democration in the statute from which Thomas More got the support for his „Utopia“.

St. Peter's church is one of a very important examples of the preromanic architecture of the croats. The urbanistic structure of Omis comes from the Middle Ages. The walls from this period were demolished in the XIX century apart from the smaller part in the south structure of the Peovica (Mirabella) fortress (certanly the most tipical romanic one) and the best preserved in Dalmatia (XIII century). Over the city there are the ruins of the medieval fortress Starigrad.

The parish church of St Michael was finished in the 1629. The manieristic and neobaroque characteristics superimposes themselves. Separated from the church building, there it is a harmonic bell from the same period. Next to the church there is a small pittoresque baroque square. The church of All Saints dating from the XVI century presents an Renneissant altar with the painting of Jacopo Palma il Giovane.

On the corrent of the Cetina river there are Radman's mills surrounded by the enormous platans and the fish-pond with trouts. Today this one is the favourite destination for the trips in the central Dalmatia. Sand and pebble beaches,numerous neighbouring trip destinations, a completly diverse inland from the mediterranean impression are the reasons which impose on visiting this unique city; salt water and sweet water, mediterranean climate and the other almost alpine one, silence and rumorous life are the contradictions of this place which would be difficult to find somewhere else.

The other curiosities valuable to visit are the Francescan convent, Civil museum, the old cemetery of Omis, the medieval city centre, Festival of dalmatian choral groups (32 years old), Cultural Summer of Omis, Swimming marathon... Omis provides numerous sports and recreational facilities; football and handball playgrounds, tennis courts, boccia alleys; beach volleyball may be played on the main beach. There are 30 free climbing trails on the cliffs of the Cetina canyon; equipment is rented.

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