THE HISTORY OF A TOURIST PEARL, FROM ITS BIRTH, THROUGH THE GOLDEN AGE TO INFLAMMOUS COLLAPSE
After a long summer break, it's time to continue our story about the Palace Hotel and its significance over time for Kaštela. With our previous articles, we reached the second half of the sixties, the beginning of the golden age, the introduction to the seventies and eighties, those years that older and middle-aged Kaštela residents will tell you about with nostalgia when it comes to the Palace.
What the situation was like in the 1966 season is evidenced by the newspaper report that at the beginning of May, Palace did not have a single domestic reservation for summer vacations. There were two reasons for this, the first is that the management of the Kaštelan Riviera, under which the facility was located, concentrated on foreign guests. It was a trend throughout Yugoslavia, which was crying out for foreign currency, and tourism was the safest way to get it. Another reason is the structure of tourism in the country at that time, most people went on collective annual vacations, either through companies or through other organizations, then they would look for cheaper accommodations. Although in today's terms the price of Palac was not the least bit expensive, at that time it was possible to visit the workers' resorts for less.
However, we may have gone a little too quickly to May of that year, because at the end of March an interesting meeting took place that would ultimately have a significant impact on the future of the Palace. Namely, the then Commission for Social Supervision was dealing with a case from the hotel's surroundings. Urban plans had prohibited the construction of private houses in the immediate vicinity of the Palace, in the Štalija area west of the complex, since 1964, because the land was intended for tourist purposes and there were plans for the Palace to expand in that direction. However, the Department for Construction, Urban Planning and Communal Affairs issued two building permits to Ante Vukman and Nikola Vukša, who then built weekend houses there. The Commission was dissatisfied with the Department's position that this was an oversight caused by excessive work, that these two permits were issued while all the others were rejected. The head of the Kaštela Riviera, Mijo Lemo, said on that occasion that these weekend houses next to the hotel accommodate young people who are prone to noise, which affects the guests of the Palace. He even paid Mrs. Ljubica Balđić half a million dinars at the time not to receive such guests in her hotel during the season. At the end of this continuation of the story about the Palace, you will see why this meeting was important in the long run.
However, the work itself in the Palace that year went like clockwork, from June 15th, contracted Poles and Czechoslovakians began to arrive, and the results were generally better than the year before. Infrastructure projects were also important, Slobodna Dalmacija writes that the Tourist Bureau of Lukšić filled in over a kilometer and a half of beaches, about a hundred trucks of material went into it, and for the first time, showers for tourists were being installed en masse. The author of the text, however, positions the Palace in Lukšić for some reason.
Not all the infrastructure was up to par, the telephone lines between Split and Kaštela were such that the media raised this issue on several occasions. Journalists say that they called the reception of the Palace for three days in a row and the PTT failed to sort it out for them. There is also an anecdote about a Canadian guest at the hotel who called his home in Ottawa via Split (at that time, international lines could not be established just like that), and then the link between Canada and Split was established much faster than the one between Split and Kaštela. Let's also mention an interesting trivia from 1966: that was the first time a traffic accident from Kaštela ended up in the press, there were finally enough vehicles for this to happen, someone crashed into an oncoming vehicle on the way out of the Palace.
The year 1967 was without major turbulence, tourism continued to grow, Palace had already achieved some renown, and it was only at the end of the summer that there was an incident with an escaped prisoner. A certain Luka Ignac, an 18-year-old from Vinkovci, broke into the Tourist Office, Palace and Ballet School on the first day he arrived in Kaštela. While he only quite bizarrely stole postcards from the Office, he did manage to get hold of cigarettes and alcohol in the hotel and Ballet School, "earning" around 70.000 dinars. The police quickly caught him, however, and it was later established that Ignac was actually a fugitive from prison in Kakanj. That was just a small detail, and in 1968 Palace and Resnik were throwing big New Year's parties, which they advertised in the newspapers. The reception at the Palace cost 70 dinars, which included dinner, a bus ride back from Split for the guests, and a performance by Ana Štefok and Berislav Vuletin's orchestra. Resnik was 20 dinars cheaper, and VIS Aspalatos was performing. Incidentally, the year 1968 will be remembered for the incredible downpour before the Assumption, in one day 80 liters of rain fell per square meter in Kaštela. This led to flooding in the basements of both Palac and Resnik, simply no one was prepared for such summer rainfall.
It should not be forgotten that the Palace has had its own sports aspect throughout this time. For example, in those years, this very hotel served as a base for Dinamo football players when they visited Split. This sports aspect continued, so that some sports clubs from Kaštela regularly used the courts of the hotel complex. The volleyball players of Kaštela used the ones in the Palace as their home court in the Second Federal League.
And so we reached the last year of the 60s, which was both the most successful and with the biggest plans, which will have to be adapted in the end. According to the data reported in the media at the time, over half a billion dinars of foreign currency changed in the Tourist Office, Palac and Pošta alone that season, which was actually the most important measure of success. It was also emphasized how the results from May and June are improving, which at that time was considered pre-season, and the main reason for this was cited as the catering offer of Palac. As he points out, there was a well-equipped bar within the hotel, which opened at 22 p.m. and poured drinks as long as needed, and dancers were a nightly occurrence. The media report that guests are happy to return to the hotel, statistics show that on 30th of June 1969, 24 people were registered in the Palace who have been guests for five years or more in a row.
However, the most important text from the newspaper that year, as far as Palac is concerned, was published on August 27. On that day, Kaštela Riviera announced that it would build a new hotel building next to the Palace, with 220 beds and all rooms facing the sea. There was also an entertainment area planned, as well as an indoor swimming pool with sea water, which would work all year round. At the same time, the old Palac itself was also wanted to be renovated, which would then work all 365 days from 1970 and would be categorized as a high B category. The planned opening of the renovated and new part was planned for July 1, 1970.
But now we must recall that part of the text with the construction permits for the days of the omaška, which directly led to the meeting that the people of Kaštela and the city planners would hold in December 1969. So the citizens persuaded the city planners to change the decision to make the Štalija area a tourist area only, because there were already houses there. And then the city planners concluded that they were a little further north than the hotel building itself anyway, so they agreed with that idea. We will leave the story of how the Palace and the renovations and expansion developed further for the next installment. Just as an interesting fact, let us point out that the citizens were not satisfied with the location of the new waterworks building either, because they thought it would be better if there was a school there. In the end, there is a ViK branch there today, in Novi, and the school is on the plot next to it.
You can read previous articles on this topic at the links below…
HOTEL PALACE The journey from tourist giant to neglected ruin – Part One: "BIRTH"
HOTEL PALACE Part two: "The peak and the end of Petar Kamber, the father of Hotel Palace"
HOTEL PALACE Part Three: World War II and Post-War Reconstruction
HOTEL PALACE Part of the fourth: The beginning of the Kaštela Riviera and the rise of tourism
HOTEL PALACE Part Four and a Half: When the Party Solves Problems
Photo: Soniboj Grgin
