Diocletian Palace is one of the best preserved monuments of the Roman architecture in the world. The Emperor’s Palace was built as a combination of a luxury villa – summer house and a Roman military camp (castrum), divided into four parts with two main streets. Southern part of the Palace was, in this scheme, intended for the Emperor’s apartment and appropriate governmental and religious ceremonies, while the north part was for the Imperial guard – the military, servants, storage etc. The Palace is a rectangular building (approximately 215 x 180 meters) with four large towers at the corners, doors on each of the four sides and four small towers on the walls. The lower part of the walls has no openings, while the upper floor is open with a monumental porch on the south and halls with grand arch windows on the other three sides. Over the centuries the Palace inhabitants, and later also the citizens of Split adapted parts of the palace for their own requirements, thus the inside buildings as well as the exterior walls with the towers significantly changed the original appearance, but the outlines of the Imperial Palace are still very visible.
Considered to be one of the most imposing Roman ruins, Diocletian’s palace is certainly the main attraction of the city of Split.
Nowadays, during the day you can often hear music in the palace. But in the evenings the palace is particularly attractive.
When the night falls, the marble and granite columns, topped by Corinthian capitals, are usually illuminated by colorful garlands, and the interiors of the palace are becoming a beautiful scene, where actors in Roman togas are performing with their solemn voices, echoing under the arches of this ancient palace.
