Split: the back story

About Split: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Zagreb Editorial Team

Split is unlike anywhere else: a busy, modern Mediterranean city whose old heart is a Roman palace, still lived in after 1,700 years. Washing hangs between ancient columns, cafés fill imperial courtyards, and the cathedral was once an emperor’s tomb.

An emperor’s retirement

Around AD 300, the Roman emperor Diocletian, who had grown up in the province of Dalmatia, built himself a vast palace on the bay where Split stands today, to live in after he gave up power in 305. It was part luxurious villa, part military camp: a rectangle of massive walls with towers and four gates, with the emperor’s apartments facing the sea.

A city inside the walls

In the 7th century, people fleeing the destruction of the nearby Roman city of Salona took refuge inside the palace walls, and a city grew within it. Diocletian’s mausoleum became the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, one of the oldest cathedrals in the world still in use, and the Temple of Jupiter became a baptistery. Over the centuries, houses, churches and palaces were built into and on top of the Roman walls, and the palace became the old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Washing hangs between ancient columns, and the cathedral was once an emperor’s tomb.

Venice, Meštrović and the modern city

Split later spent centuries under Venetian rule, which left Gothic and Renaissance palaces on the Pjaca and around the Fruit Square. In the 20th century it gave Croatia its greatest sculptor, Ivan Meštrović, whose statue of Gregory of Nin guards the Golden Gate and whose villa on the sea is now a gallery. Today Split is Croatia’s second city and the busiest port on the Adriatic coast.

The Riva, Marjan and the beaches

Life in Split happens outdoors: on the Riva, the palm-lined promenade in front of the palace; on the wooded hill of Marjan, the city’s green lung; and on the beaches, from sandy Bačvice, where locals play picigin in the shallows, to the pebble coves below Marjan.

Our advice: explore the palace early in the morning or late in the evening, when the cruise crowds have gone, climb the cathedral bell tower for the view, and walk up Marjan for sunset. Split is also the gateway to the islands: ferries and catamarans leave the harbour for Brač, Hvar, Vis and beyond.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Split: the back story before you go.