Diocletian's Palace
Roman emperor's retirement palace and fortress in Split.
Emperor Diocletian built this Roman fortress and palace in what is now Split, Croatia, at the close of the third century AD for his retirement. Half the complex served as his private quarters, while the rest housed soldiers. Today it makes up roughly half of Split’s old town and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Split, Croatia
- Built
- 4th century AD
Facts from the source article.
History
Diocletian had a fortified compound built near his birthplace, Spalatum, so he could retire there on May 1, 305. The spot he picked was on the south side of a short peninsula, close to Salona, the main administrative hub of the province of Dalmatia. Roman map records, known from a medieval copy of the Tabula Peutingeriana, show that a settlement called Spalatum already existed in that bay, but its size and any ruins remain unknown. Exactly when construction started is unclear, though it likely began around 295, after the Tetrarchy was established. Even a decade later, when Diocletian stepped down in 305, the palace appears to have been incomplete, and some work seems to have continued while he lived there. No one knows who designed it or who oversaw its building. The layout was based on third-century Roman forts, like the Castrum Divitia bridgehead fort across the Rhine from Cologne. Greek names like Zotikos and Filatos, along with many Greek letters carved into the stone, suggest that some builders came from the eastern empire—Diocletian brought craftsmen from there. But most of the labor force was probably local. Materials came from nearby: white limestone from the island of Brač and some from Seget near Trogir, tufa from local riverbeds, and bricks made in Spalatum and other area workshops. At Carnuntum, people urged Diocletian to come back to the throne to settle conflicts sparked by Constantine’s rise and Maxentius’s rebellion. His famous reply was that he preferred staying in his palace to grow cabbages. He lived four more years, tending his palace gardens. He watched his tetrarchic system collapse under his successors’ ambitions, learned of Maximian’s third attempt at power, his forced suicide, and his damnatio memoriae—with statues of his former co-emperor torn down inside the palace. Sick and despairing, Diocletian may have taken his own life. He died on December 3, 312.
Cultural heritage
In November 1979, UNESCO adopted a proposal that the historic city of Split built around the Palace should be included in the register of World Cultural Heritage. In November 2006, the city council decided to permit over twenty new buildings within the palace, though the public petitioned against the decision in 2007 and won; no new buildings, shopping centres or underground garages were built. The World Monuments Fund has been working on a conservation project at the palace. The palace was depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 500 kuna banknote, issued in 1993.
Architecture
The palace's layout is an irregular rectangle. Its east side measures 214.97 meters, the north side 174.74 meters, and the south side 181.65 meters, with the southern wall adjusted for the terrain. Sixteen towers project from the western, northern, and eastern facades, which face the mainland. Four corner towers give the structure a resemblance to legionary forts, like those along the Danube. Two of the six octagonal ground-floor towers were framed by three landing entrances, and six rectangular ground-floor towers sat between the corner and octagonal ones. Today, three corner towers survive, with the southwestern one missing, and only remnants of the octagonal and rectangular towers remain. Three well-preserved landings show architectural fragmentation, especially the northern one, which was the main entrance from Salona. The southern seaside gate is small, simple, and well-preserved. The lower parts of the facade walls are massive and plain, with no openings, while the upper parts feature large arches on the west, north, and east sides. The subterranean areas have barrel-vaulted stonework. Anne Hunnell Chen argues that Sasanian palace design may have heavily influenced this palace, noting that Diocletian and his co-rulers campaigned on Persian soil before its construction. She points out that the spatial arrangement, while similar to Roman military camps, also closely matches the layout of early Sasanian royal palaces. The pitched brick dome construction technique, unknown in Roman imperial architecture before the late 3rd century, has roots in Mesopotamian building traditions. Chen suggests it reached Rome through architects and engineers who accompanied troops on Persian campaigns. She concludes that Rome adopted these Persian elements after decisive victories over the Sasanians in the late 3rd century, using recognizable Eastern palace features to project power in a visual language understood by both domestic and foreign audiences.
More in World Heritage Sites in Croatia
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced