Continued from Spalatum – Part III

A bit of a winding passageway is the only egress from the triclinium area of the palace and back toward the north. Near the entrance to the passage is a column capital mounted on a short pedestal. The passage winds for about 40 meters before opening up into an area with excavations on the west side of the walkway. There is a stairway that leads down into an area below street level in which a few square meters of mosaic have been uncovered. This space seems to have been an atrium or peristyle of some sort, or perhaps a nymphaeum, judging by the reconstructed shallow basin in the center (which wasn’t present when I visited in 2012). The walls on the north and west sides have the telltale distinctive rows of brick facing. Beyond that, however, there is no identification given to the space and no information present on site.

Just to the north of the mosaic is the decumanus maximus, which stretches between the Iron Gate in the west and the Silver Gate in the east, passing just to the north of the peristyle. The decumanus maximus between the peristyle and the Silver Gate is the best preserved and accessible of any of the roadways that divided the interior palace into quarters. Both the roadway and the platform on which a portico lined the north side of the road are well defined. A few columns from the portico are now standing along the road, and an arch is still preserved from the passageway leading from the peristyle into the portico.

At the east end of the decumanus maximus is the primary eastern entrance to the palace, the porta orientalis. It is more colloquially known as the Silver Gate, or sometimes the porta argentea. A church dedicated to St. Apollinaris was consecrated in the guardhouse above the gate in the 6^th century CE. Much of the interior face of the gate does not survive. An archway that led into the gate from the north portico survives, as do the foundations of the pylon that flanked the south side of the main entrance. The north pylon as well as the foundations of the entire north side of the interior portion of the gate seem to be reconstructed with modern materials.

The guardhouse in which the church was consecrated no longer survives, nor does much of the interior structure of the gate. The interior and exterior of the eastern wall is fairly well preserved, though. The actual portal of the gate survives, as does the upper arcade above it. On the exterior, two niches in the face of the gate flank the lunette window above the entrance. In antiquity, the gate was flanked by two towers that mostly have not survived, though some elements of these towers can be seen. Some older excavations on the south tower reveal some of the foundation as well as the lower entrance into the tower, though the excavations are somewhat obscured and don’t look to have been active in a while.

The eastern walls of the palace are visible from outside the palace stretching on either side of the Silver Gate, incorporated into the modern buildings. The arcades of the upper part of the walls remain in the areas flanking the gate as well, now preserved as windows in the modern buildings. Halfway between the Silver Gate and the southeast tower of the palace are some more recent and active excavations that have uncovered the foundations of a tower that was placed between the gate and the corner tower. Like the southern tower of the Silver Gate, this lower entrance to the tower has been excavated and is now visible. A similar door exists between the gate and the northeast tower, and though nothing remains of the tower itself, the outline can clearly be seen in the fortification walls. The slightly sunken area where the foundations would be is now a patio for a restaurant that operates through the portal that once led into the tower.

Just inside the Silver Gate, Ulica Julija Nepotova runs to the north. About 40 meters north up the street is the Leonis Restaurant and Rooms on the east side of the street. The façade of the building contains a series of three arches, two that look to be mostly original while a third is clearly a reconstruction, that were one part of a building of some sort in this area. The area is associated with the military barracks in the palace, but I couldn’t find any specific information on what would have been in this particular location.

From the eastern fortifications, travel back through the Silver Gate and along the decumanus maximus back to the intersection of the decumanus maximus and cardo maximus on the north side of the peristyle. There is only one ancient point of interest farther to the west along this axis, the porta occidentalis or Iron Gate (porta ferrea). The gate is located about 60 meters down Ulica Petra Krešimirova IV. The interior face of the gate is incorporated into some later buildings, but is clearly distinct. The interior space of the gate is clear and forms a little square, though the blocks of the original fortifications still delineate the space of the gate in the modern buildings that surround it. The exterior wall is preserved even better than the interior, with some of the decorative embellishments around the portal surviving. Like the opposite Silver Gate, the exterior portal is crowned by a lunette. The arcade in the upper register is more distinct than the interior wall. Almost nothing of the western fortifications of the palace remains, the course of the wall is completely obscured by modern buildings.

Back at the intersection on the north side of the peristyle, it seems that the intersection was marked with the construction of a tetrapylon, though nothing is visible of the structure now. At the northeast corner of the intersection is a building. Within this building, and visible through the large windows, is the northeast corner of the ancient intersection. The street paving of part of the decumanus maximus as well as that of the cardo maximus is visible alongside the raised crepidoma of the porticos that lined these streets. A column from the portico also remains. Though difficult to see through the windows, along the decumanus maximus is a floret shaped drain. When I visited it was not directly accessible, but it seems as though it is being prepared for eventual public access. A sign in English and Croatian in one of the windows explains the work being done here and what is present.

The modern Dioklecijanova road runs the course of the ancient cardo maximus between the peristyle and the northern gate of the palace. Just a few meters north of the intersection, on the west side of Dioklecijanova is a shoe store called Karla. Inside the store the curb between the street and the portico is still visible. The is open from 8:00 to 20:00 every day except Sunday, when it is closed, but the curb can also be seen through the windows when it is closed (which probably offers a better view without people in the store). Roughly opposite the store is an alleyway that leads to the east. At the end of the alleyway, the brickwork from an ancient building is preserved in the modern building up to a height of a few meters.

Continuing north on Dioklecijanova another 30 meters is the intersection with Ulica Papalićeva, and another few meters east down that road is the Muzej Grada Splita, the Split City Museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed both times I visited, in 2012 and 2025, so I don’t have any personal experience visiting there. It appears to have been reopened as of early 2026, though. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 to 17:00 and is closed on Monday. Admission is 10 Euros. The collection of the museum, housed in the Papalić Palace, appears to be mostly later objects. The primary interest here, with regard to antiquity, is the presence of excavations done within the museum grounds that have revealed elements from a Roman bathing complex, including mosaics and a hypocaust system. It is thought that this area was associated with military barracks.

Another 35 meters up Dioklecijanova past Ulica Papalićeva is the interior entry of the porta septemtrionalis, the northern gate and primary entrance to the palace. In the medieval period it was referred to as the Porta Romae, and in the Renaissance took on the more familiar moniker of the Golden Gate (porta aurea). The cardo maximus terminated here and the road continued on toward Salona. The Golden Gate has much the same form as the other landward gates with a square setup and interior courtyard between the interior and exterior portals. The interior face has the similar structure, though the three arched arcade that would seemingly be above it no longer exists. The interior side of the northern portal does have the three arched arcade as well as the lunette window above the gateway. The exterior face is more ornate than the other gates. Like the Silver Gate, niches flank the lunette window. Above this level are an additional three niches contained within seven decorative arches.

As with the other entrances, the Golden Gate was flanked by two towers which have largely been destroyed. The outline of the towers is discernable in the walls now, and both the partially buried lower entryways into the tower as well as the upper entryways into the tower remain in the walls. The north face of the walls is in similar condition to the eastern walls, though the east side is obscured somewhat by modern buildings. The two corner towers remain relatively well preserved, and though the intermediary towers between the Golden Gate and the corner towers have been removed since antiquity, the vestiges of where they were built into the walls, including the presence of the upper entryway for the tower to the east of the gate. The arcade along the upper part of the walls remains for much of the walls as well, and is particularly intact between the gate and the northwest tower.

Just before reaching the interior entry of the Golden Gate, a small alleyway (Ulica Majstora Jurja), curves around the west side of the gate. A stairway just inside the curve leads up to the Church of St. Martin, which was consecrated in the 6^th century CE inside the guardhouse above the southern entrance of the Golden Gate. The tiny church is ostensibly open to visitors from 9:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:00 daily, but it took me a couple of tries to find it open during these hours. Admission is 1 Euro. The church is small and narrow (about 1.5 x 10 meters), and there really isn’t a whole lot to see, but it does preserve the interior of the guardhouse. From the church, Ulica Majstora Jurja continues along the interior of the northern walls and offers a good look at the interior face of the northwest corner tower, one of the only good looks at the interior of the fortifications that I could find with public access.

Continued In Spalatum – Part V

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Sources:

Brcic, Inga Vilogorac. “Venus et Cybele. Matres Romanorum,” The Century of the Brave: Roman Conquest and Indigenous Resistance in Illyricum During the Time of Augustus and His Heirs. Stoljeće Hrabrih (Ed.), FF Press: Zagreb, 2018.

Bužančić, Radoslav. Diocletian’s Palace, 2009.

Bužančić, Radoslav. “Diocletian’s Palace, Restoration of the S–E Quadrant.” 50 Years (1972–2022) of the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 2024.

Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Walton & Murray, 1870.

Stillwell, Richard, William L. MacDonald, and Marian Holland. McAllister. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Press, 1976.

Grant, Michael. A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names.  New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997.