Diocletian’s Palace at Split

Work on the palace is thought to have begun around 295, soon after the establishment of the Tetrarchy. When Diocletian left office on 1 May 305 — the first Roman emperor to abdicate of his own free will — the palace was fit to live in, although work apparently continued while he resided there. Its design combined a villa with a military camp: an irregular rectangle of about 215 by 175–182 metres with towers along its walls and a monumental court, the Peristyle, before the imperial apartments. It was built largely of white limestone from the island of Brač, with granite columns and a dozen sphinxes brought from Egypt. Diocletian spent his last years there and was buried in its octagonal mausoleum, which in the 7th century became a church — today the Cathedral of Saint Domnius.

When Salona was destroyed in the invasions of the Avars and Slavs in the 7th century, its refugees took shelter inside the palace walls, and the medieval town of Split grew up within them. Together with the historic centre of Split, the palace was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.