Top 5 Places to See in Split
Introduction
The one realization that most visitors to Split come to, is just how confusing and packed with content the place is, especially in the old historic core. This article aims to untangle some of its peculiarities and single out the most iconic monuments and parts of Split. Some of the texts are longer so I have added a TL;DR section. Click the arrow symbol to skip ahead.
Before breaking down the individual monuments of Split, it is necessary to explain the nature of the Diocletian’s Palace. Countless tourists have wandered aimlessly through the old alleys of the old town, searching for this elusive palace, never finding it, and some have even mistaken the Diocletian’s Palace of Split for the fortress of Klis, located atop a hill 14km north of Split. What is today known as the Diocletian’s Palace is, in reality, the city's oldest neighborhood, spanning around 38,000m2.
As a whole, it is one of the most unique ancient Roman monuments and one of the best-preserved examples of late Roman architecture and engineering anywhere in the world. It was built between the years 295AD and 305AD for the Roman emperor Diocletian, who set a precedent in Roman history when he willingly abdicated the throne on the 1st of May 305AD. Although his residence in Split is called a palace, its function was to serve the emperor’s retirement home, where he withdrew from Roman politics while maintaining an advisory role to future emperors. His decision to abdicate was part of his empire-wide reforms, in which Diocletian attempted to find a long-lasting solution to problems that plagued Roman politics throughout almost the entire 3rd century, such as the problems of succession and constant civil wars.
The palace was situated on a major route connecting the eastern and the western parts of the empire, and according to some sources, Diocletian was born in the nearby Roman city of Salona, leading some historians to assume that the choice of location for the palace was due to nostalgia for his homeland.
The palace was built as a combination of a castle and a villa. The three perimeter land walls were fortified with 16 towers and three gatehouses, while the southern wall opened up to the sea through an arcaded terrace that extended the full length of the palace. The palace had four entrances. The three land gates were designed as gatehouses with two flanking towers for protection, and layers of decoration on the facade for impressing the visitors, while the sea gate on the south was, in all probability, used solely for utilitarian purposes such, as bringing supplies via ships or as an emergency exit for the emperor in case of danger. Unlike the elaborate land gates, the southern gate lacked any decoration or defensive structures. Today, the northern gate of the palace is called the Golden Gate, the eastern gate is the Silver Gate, the western gate is the Iron Gate and the southern gate is the Bronze Gate. The names simply symbolize the order of importance, and their association with a metal is purely arbitrary.
The palace combined extravagance and practicality in a manner that had never been seen before in the Roman Empire. The southern quarter of the palaces was reserved solely for the emperor, forming the main residential area. It had a full complement of luxuries befitting a man of his importance, including a large entrance and reception halls, baths and dining rooms, private bedrooms, and a covered walkway with a breathtaking view of the sea and the islands.
Below the emperor’s apartment were substructures, also known in Split as the basements or cellars of the palace, which were built to elevate the emperor’s apartment above sea level, and were possibly also used as storage rooms. For a long time, the entire northern half of the palace was believed to have been the living quarters for the emperor's servants and guards, but recent archaeological excavations have challenged this well-established hypothesis, although conclusive results have yet to be reached, leaving the mystery unresolved for now.
The central portion of the palace consisted of the palace temples, the central courtyard, and the emperor’s mausoleum, forming the main sacral and public area of the palace. The wonderful thing about the Diocletian’s Palace is that it can be viewed and explored both as a whole and through its constituent parts, since many of them are today Split’s most iconic sights, such as the Cathedral of St. Duje, Paristil Square, the basements, etc. This is the result of the palace becoming the foundation for the city of Split when, after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, people took shelter among its strong walls, beginning the process of transforming the palace into their homes.
What we today call the Diocletian’s Palace is Split’s oldest neighborhood, and it was originally the residence of Roman emperor Diocletian, who in a surprising turn of events, abdicated the throne in 305 AD, becoming the first Roman Emperor ever to do so willingly. His palace in Split was his retirement home where he lived for eleven years. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the place was continuously settled by new people, beginning the process of its conversion into a city. Now, it is a unique blend of old Roman palace infrastructure, and the later changes, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The central square, and one of the most beautiful places in the palace, is called Peristil after the Roman term for a courtyard surrounded by a colonnade. The northern side of the square once opened up to the wide street that connected it with the main entrance to the palace, while the other sides formed the entrances to the three most important parts of the palace - the temple area to the west, Diocletian’s mausoleum to the east, and his private residence to the south.
The porch of the emperor’s residence consists of four granite columns that support a pediment, with the entrance passage visually accentuated by a rounded arch, as opposed to the flat architrave on the sides. The top of the pediment, behind the peak, has a rectangular extension on which it is believed a quadriga, a war chariot pulled by four horses, once stood. The east and west sides of the Peristil foregrounded the importance of sacred areas behind them, as monolithic granite columns with Corinthian capitals continue into round arches and a decorated entablature.
According to one theory, Peristil served as a place of worship of Diocletian’s divine nature. Throughout his rule, Emperor Diocletian tied his persona to Rome’s highest deity Jupiter, adopting the title Jovius. The retired emperor would then appear to his subjects on the porch of his apartment, from where he would receive adoration. Sources from his time mention that his subjects were required to prostrate themselves on the ground in the emperor’s presence, as ordinary people were not allowed to stand in the presence of a demigod.
A strangely out-of-place statue is situated in the square's southeast corner, the 3500-year-old Egyptian sphinx. It was the largest of the twelve sphinxes that were brought to be part of the palace decoration, and possibly the oldest as well. Small carvings depicting a row of prisoners are etched along the base of the sphinx, and they commemorate the military conquests of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. The other eleven sphinxes in the palace were probably destroyed in a fit of religious frenzy since people saw them in Split as pagan symbols. Why the one in Peristil was never vandalized like the others is still a mystery, but nonetheless older generations called it a Gorgona, and feared the sphinx’s gaze, believing that bad luck comes to those who look the sphinx in the eyes.
Maybe more than any other place in the palace, Peristil perfectly embodies the mutating nature of the old town, since besides the imposing Roman infrastructure, later additions such as the bell tower of the cathedral, the two chapels in between the columns of the southern porch, the houses of former Split’s nobility to the west, the former church of St. Roche on its northeast corner and the horrendous modernist building across from it from the communist period, all combine to give Peristil its unique look and feel. Peristil is at its grandest during the summer when it becomes a stage for the classical music festival which has been hosted by the local theatre since the 1950s. It reaches its apex during the performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida when the 3500-year-old sphinx becomes part of the stage scenery for the story set in ancient Egypt.
During the main part of the tourist season, every day at noon there is a performance in the square known as “the changing of the guards”, where a local actor appears on Peristil to greet the tourists. The whole scene is comically tacky, exploiting all the familiar Roman tropes, from the look of the soldier’s armor to the beats of Ben-Hur’s Victory March as the quintessential sound of Imperial Rome. Not surprisingly, it is extremely popular with tourists, and many people make sure to arrange their schedules so that they can experience this short and sweet spectacle.
Peristil Square was the palace's central courtyard, and it is one of the places where the Roman infrastructure was preserved best. It presumably served both as a central space from which various parts of the palace could be accessed and as the place where Diocletian could make his public appearance. The sphinx on the square is one of the most unique monuments in Split and it is 3,500 years old. During the summer, Peristil becomes a stage for the city’s classical music festival, a tradition that has been going on since the 1950s.
One of the city's symbols, the Cathedral of St. Duje with its adjoining bell tower, is one of the original buildings of the palace, though the tallest bell tower in Dalmatia is a later addition that stands in place of an original grand portico. The imposing central octagon structure was once the mausoleum of Emperor Diocletian, where he was entombed in a sarcophagus made of the finest porphyry. Around three centuries after the emperor’s death, the earliest citizens of Split converted his tomb into a Christian church, and a key part of this transformation was when they smashed the emperor’s grave. His body was never recovered, and the only parts found were pieces of his sarcophagus scattered around the area outside the cathedral. Initially consecrated as the Church of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary, the cathedral is better known in Split by the city’s patron saint, Duje.
There was a good reason for the people of Split to act in such a way. During his reign, Diocletian was one of the fiercest enemies and persecutors of Christians. Ironically, Saint Duje (Dujam or Lat. Dominus), one of two Christian saints buried today in Split’s cathedral, was a victim of Diocletian’s persecutions. The other saint buried in the cathedral is Saint Anastasius the Fuller, also a victim of Diocletian’s persecutions. Duje was the bishop of the nearby Roman city of Salona and was decapitated in its amphitheater, while Anastasius had a millstone tied around his neck and was drowned in the nearby river Jadro.
Besides its historic value as a tomb of a Roman emperor, the cathedral is a fascinating fusion of ancient Roman and later Christian artwork. Its doors are among the finest examples of 13th-century wood carving. The artist, Andrija Buvina, depicted various biblical scenes on 28 wooden panels, and another of his masterpieces is found in the back of the building – the richly ornamented wooden benches. There are also three altars, two of which were dedicated to Saint Duje, and one dedicated to Saint Anastasius, each a fine example of late Gothic, Renaissance (the old altar of St. Duje and the altar of St. Anastasius), and Baroque (the new altar of St. Duje) sculpture in Croatia. Finally, there is the hexagonal, 13th-century Romanesque pulpit, made of 15 different types of stone, mostly reused from ancient Roman remains, and its pillars were once fully gold plated.
Mixed in with the later additions are the old decorations of the mausoleum, such as the frieze encircling the building just below the roof, the monolithic columns and elaborate capitals, and the incredible fan-shaped bricklaying technique that forms the roof of the cathedral. The only surviving image of Diocletian and his wife Prisca in the entire palace is found in the frieze of the mausoleum. In each image, two putti are holding a laurel wreath within which are depicted busts of a man and a woman. It is presumed that the rest of his images and statues in the palace were systematically removed at the same time his grave was smashed.
The bell tower above the cathedral entrance, reaching a height of 57 meters, is the tallest of its kind in Dalmatia. The construction of the bell tower began in the 13th century, but it took nearly four centuries to complete, which is why, in its design, the tower displays elements of the three predominant architectural styles in Dalmatia: Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance. The current version of the bell tower is the result of renovations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during which much of the original decoration was removed and replicated.
The cathedral is still in operation, with regular masses held, and it is one of the most popular churches in Split for weddings, usually chosen by those who wish to show off. For ordinary tourists, there is an admission fee, and tickets can be purchased at the cathedral office across the square.
Split’s cathedral was originally the mausoleum of emperor Diocletian. He is no longer buried inside because, during his reign, mass persecutions of Christians were carried out, and later citizens of Split took revenge on him by smashing his grave in the 7th century. Instead, two Christian saints were buried in the cathedral, St. Duje and St. Anastazije, both victims of Diocletian’s persecutions. The cathedral has maintained its original mausoleum building, now filled with various works of Medieval and Renaissance masters.
The first room behind the southern porch, the Vestibule was the lobby of the emperor’s apartment and is today the only room that has maintained its original shape. Although impressive in design, the room is now stripped bare since none of the original decoration has survived. The roof is also missing, though some claim that the original design might have included a smaller opening at the top. The walls of the Vestibul were plastered and then adorned with colorful mosaics or fresco paintings, and statues stood in the four half-circular niches.
Because of its impressive acoustics, the room is used during the summer months by local singing groups where they do demonstrations of traditional Dalmatian singing. Known as Klapa singing, this form of a cappella music originated among groups of friends. The word 'Klapa' means 'a group of friends' in the local dialect. One no longer finds random groups of people singing in the street like in the old days, but Klapa singing has evolved into its own style of music and is now popular throughout the entire country.
The Vestibul was the lobby room of the emperor’s apartment and is today the only preserved room of his exclusive residence. It is one of the most popular places for photos and the place to come to hear traditional Dalmatian Klapa singing.
To the west of Peristil, a narrow alley leads to the only surviving temple in the palace, the Temple of Jupiter. Sometime during the early Middle Ages, the temple was converted into a Christian baptistery and is known today as the Baptistery of Saint John. This also helped preserve the temple, since we know of at least two more temples, usually referred to as the Temples of Venus and Cybelle, that were part of the palace but were removed to make way for houses of Split’s nobility, now occupied by the bar and restaurant Luxor, and the ticket office and museum of the church in Split.
In front of the temple is currently exhibited one of the destroyed sphinxes of the palace, sadly decapitated and its front arms smashed. The entrance to the temple features some of the finest preserved decorations of the palace. The consoles above the gate are adorned with carved mythological figures, gods, and giants, showcasing late Roman religious symbolism.
Inside the temple are the statue of St. John the Baptist, a work of Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović, and a cross-shaped baptismal well with the earliest-ever image of a Croatian king, depicted on the front-facing stone slab. The image probably shows Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV and dates back to the 11th century. The roof of the temple is another beauty of Roman design. It is done as a vaulted, coffered ceiling consisting of 80 coffers, decorated with rosettes, heads, baskets, and varied folate forms.
One of the most famous locations in the city among locals is found outside the temple and is the narrow passage that leads behind it. Known as the narrowest street in Split, it is aptly named “pusti me proć” or “let me pass”.
The Temple of Jupiter is the only surviving temple of the palace of the original three, and it has some of the finest preserved decorations of the palace. In front of the temple is one of the vandalized sphinxes, and the passage behind it is known as the smallest street in Split, named “Please let me pass”. The temple building is today the Baptistery of Saint John.
It might be disappointing to learn, but the Golden Gate of the palace never actually had any gold on it. It is called “golden” simply to denote its importance as the main, and the most decorated of all the other entrances to the palace. The other gates followed a similar naming scheme, so now we also have the Silver Gate (eastern), Iron Gate (western), and Bronze Gate (southern gate, sometimes referred to as Brass Gate).
Being the most decorated, the Golden Gate had a special purpose in the overall design of the palace. It was likely the first point of contact with the palace for most people, and its function was to promote the specific ideology of Diocletian’s rule. First, it was flanked by two strong octagonal towers, remains of which still protrude from the wall. The outer gateway was a portcullis, evident from the hole in the entrance vault where the gate once slid down.
The central portion above the entrance has four niches in which statues once stood, and one shallow rectangular niche in the center which originally could have had a relief or a painting. Statues also stood on pedestals above the gate, and a row of columns decorated the gate's central portion, standing between the consoles and the arches. Although none of the statues survived, they probably depicted either Roman gods or emperor Diocletian and his co-emperors, promoting Diocletian’s master plan of the tetrarchy as the new system of governance in the empire.
The gate features a variety of ornaments seen throughout the palace, such as the popular egg-and-dart pattern, leaf-and-dart pattern, bead-and-reel astragals, and leaves. However, it also includes two unique decorations not found elsewhere in the palace. On the central two consoles above the entrance are two heads of Minotaurs, or anthropomorphized bulls (the head on the left still has its horns), usually associated with the cult of Dionysus, symbolizing prosperity and fertility, or pointing to the pleasure aspect of the palace as the paradise awaiting within.
The outside entrance leads into a defensive courtyard, and we find a similar gatehouse structure in all three land gates of the palace. The second, inner gate added an additional layer of protection in case the outer portcullis was breached. Like all other places in the palace, the Golden Gate has been changed and modified numerous times. The most fascinating alteration occurred above the outer entrance, in a section of the guard’s corridor that housed the mechanism for raising and lowering the portcullis. During the 5th or 6th century, this corridor was converted into the Church of St. Martin, making it one of the oldest and smallest churches in Split.. The church can be visited today from the nearby convent of St. Dominic.
Changes to the gate are also clearly visible from the outside. The sharp contrast between the precise Roman stonework and the later changes is easily distinguishable, such as the crenellations on top of the wall, or the brick balcony, built above the central part in the late 19th century. A benedictine convent was once attached to the western part of the wall, of which today only the chapel of St. Raynerius of Split, and the bell tower of the church of St. Euphemia survive. When there was no longer any threat of siege, people opened up windows in the northern wall, and they are today private apartments, just like in any other part of the palace.
In front of the Golden Gate of the palace stands one of the most iconic monuments in Split, the 8-meter tall statue of Croatian bishop Grgur Ninski, often mistaken for Professor Dumbledore, but a seminal artwork of Croatian wunderkind sculptor Ivan Meštrović.
It is difficult to distinguish facts from fiction and mythology when discussing the bishop Grgur. His importance in public discourse has ranged from minuscule to completely blown out of proportion. The historical figure of the bishop was a significant church representative in 10th-century Croatia, whose jurisdiction spanned most of the territory of medieval Croatia. His clash with the archbishop of Split over primacy in church matters in Croatia is a rarely well-documented event in our early history. According to some sources, language played a role in these debates, with Grgur advocating for Slavic liturgy, while his counterpart from Split supported the use of Latin.
The result of these disputes was a decisive victory for the archbishop of Split who was confirmed as the leader of the church in Medieval Croatia and Dalmatia. Meanwhile, Grgur’s bishopric of Nin was disbanded and he was given the option to fill a vacant space in several other bishoprics. These events resonated strongly during the 19th century when the figure of the bishop Grgur came to be seen as a Croatian proto-nationalist, fighting for the rights and use of the local language.
The statue was commissioned for the celebration of the one-thousandth anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom’s founding. Based on the sculptor’s wish, it was initially erected in Peristil Square, despite strong criticism from some prominent city intellectuals, who believed the massive statue was out of place among the old Roman colonnade. The statue remained there until the Italian occupation during WWII, when it was removed for being a symbol of the city’s Slavic identity. Lines on the statue can still be seen today where it was cut.
After WWII, the statue was reassembled in front of the north entrance to the palace, and since then it has become one of the most beloved spots in the city, not so much because of the sculptor’s genius, but for the shiny big toe believed to bring good luck to all those who give it a rub.
The Golden Gate is the name for the main entrance to the Diocletian’s Palace. There was never any gold on it and the name is purely symbolic. Originally, the gate was the most decorated of the four entrances, but today only the smaller ornaments survive. In front of the gate is one of the most famous artworks of Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The sculpture depicts a Croatian bishop Grgur Ninski, who was an early advocate of the use of Slavic language in church. The statue is today famous because it is said that rubbing the bishop’s toe brings good luck.