Diocletian's Palace

The backstoryFrom imperial retirement villa to accidental city

Diocletian became Roman emperor in 284 AD and spent two brutal decades stabilising an empire that had been sliding into chaos, ultimately splitting its administration into the Tetrarchy to make it governable at all. In 305 AD he did something almost no Roman emperor before him had done: he voluntarily abdicated and retired, choosing to spend his final years near his birthplace on the Dalmatian coast, in a purpose-built palace-fortress combining an imperial residence with the layout and defensive walls of a Roman military camp. He died there around 311 AD, reportedly embittered by the empire's slide back into civil war almost immediately after he stepped down.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the palace outlived the empire that built it. When the nearby Roman city of Salona was overrun by Avar and Slavic raids in the early 7th century, its surviving population fled to the fortified palace and simply moved in, walling up some of its grand colonnades, carving homes out of its halls, and laying the foundation for the city that grew up inside and around it ever since — which is why Split's old town and the Roman palace are, to this day, the same physical place rather than a ruin beside a city.

On the groundWhat you're actually looking at

The palace was laid out on the plan of a Roman castrum, a fortified camp, divided by two main colonnaded streets crossing at a central square called the peristyle — still the social heart of the old town today, ringed by columns, black granite sphinxes imported from Egypt in antiquity, and cafés that spill their tables out across the ancient stone. Diocletian's own mausoleum, an octagonal domed structure originally built to hold his remains, still stands just off the peristyle; converted into a church in the 7th century, it is now the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, meaning one of Split's most important religious buildings is, structurally, a repurposed Roman imperial tomb.

Beneath the peristyle and the southern half of the palace run the substructures — a network of vaulted basement halls originally built simply to raise the emperor's private quarters above sea level and give them a grand elevated platform. For most of their history these cellars were filled with centuries of rubbish and used as a dump; they've since been cleared, and their cavernous, column-lined halls are now one of the most atmospheric parts of a visit, memorably used as a filming location for the dragon pens in Game of Thrones. The palace's four monumental gates — Bronze, Golden, Iron and Silver — still mark the four points where the walled complex meets the surrounding streets, and all four remain in everyday pedestrian use rather than preserved as static monuments.

How to do it wellGetting more out of a visit

Come early, ideally right at sunrise, if you want the peristyle without a crowd — Split is a major cruise and ferry port, and the old town fills fast from mid-morning through to early evening once the day's ships have docked. The palace has no single ticket gate or entrance; it's a living neighbourhood you can walk into from any of its four gates at any hour, free, which means there's no wrong time to wander, only a wrong time to expect it quiet.

Climbing the Cathedral of Saint Domnius's bell tower is worth the narrow, slightly vertiginous stairs for a rooftop view over the terracotta roofs of the old town to the harbour beyond — a separate small ticket from the cathedral interior. Budget at least two unhurried hours for the palace itself, more if you want to properly see the substructures, the cathedral, and the small Ethnographic Museum tucked into one of the old Roman chambers. Because so much of what you're walking through is unlabelled — a shop doorway might be a Roman arch, a restaurant's back wall might be two-thousand-year-old masonry — a guided walking tour genuinely earns its cost here in a way it doesn't in every old town; it's easy to walk straight past the most interesting Roman fabric without knowing to look twice.

NearbyWhat else is close by

The Riva, Split's palm-lined waterfront promenade, runs directly along the harbour side of the palace and is the natural spot for a coffee or an evening drink once you've finished wandering the old streets. The city's fish market and produce market sit just a few minutes' walk northeast of the palace walls, lively every morning and a good way to see how Split actually shops and eats away from the old-town restaurant strip. For a longer view of the whole peninsula, Marjan Hill rises directly west of the old town, a forested park with walking trails and a lookout point that puts the palace's layout into proper geographic context from above.