The colonnaded courtyard at the centre of Diocletian's Palace, where the emperor appeared to his subjects and where Split now drinks wine on the steps. Free, roofless, and the best-preserved Roman square you can sit down in.
By Marin Perić
The red cushions belong to the cafe and cost the price of a drink; the stone steps are free and just as good. In the evening there is usually klapa — Dalmatian close-harmony singing — in the Vestibule next door, and the acoustics under that broken dome are worth standing still for. The cafe opens at nine and closes at midnight, and the cushions are the ones with the best view of the sphinx, which is the one thing in the square that predates everything else by a margin.
The rest of the palace around the square is in the Diocletian's Palace guide.
One of the black granite sphinxes Diocletian shipped from Egypt still sits at the south end. It is about 3,500 years old, which makes it older than the palace by a wider margin than the palace is older than you. Diocletian brought at least two of them; the other lost its head in the middle ages and the fragments are in the archaeological museum. The one on the Peristyle is intact, polished by three thousand years of hands, and worth a look in the morning before the cruise groups arrive.
It was the formal entrance to the imperial apartments — the colonnaded courtyard where the emperor appeared to his subjects, and where the approach from the sea terminated. The columns are Egyptian granite, the arches are Roman, and the whole thing was roofed in timber on one side and open on the other. The cafe now sits where the imperial guard once stood, which is a trade most people would make.
The approach from the sea still runs up through Diocletian's cellars from the Bronze Gate.
Before ten in the morning, when the square is empty and the light is soft. After seven in the evening, when the cruise groups are at dinner and the klapa singers arrive. Between eleven and four in July, the Peristyle is a crowd and you will be photobombed by someone taking a selfie with the sphinx.
In summer the square becomes a stage for the Split Summer Festival.
For the evening that follows, see the palace wine bars.
Get out there
Guided trips that include this stop, with live availability.
History
Ninety minutes through the palace with a guide who lives inside it: the Golden Gate, the cellars, the Peristyle, the cathedral and the streets in between. Small group, no flag, and a proper explanation of why a Roman emperor retired to a cabbage patch in Dalmatia.
Within a short walk.
Food & drink
Four or five hours that start at the green market and the fish hall and end with you eating what you bought. The good ones shop first, which is the half that teaches you something: how to tell this morning's fish from yesterday's, and what is actually in season.
History
The oldest cathedral building in the world still in use, and it started life as the mausoleum of the emperor who persecuted the man it is now named after. The bell tower beside it gives you the best view in Split for the price of 183 steps.
History
Ninety minutes through the palace with someone who can explain what you are looking at. Worth it on your first morning: the palace makes far more sense with a guide, and everything you do afterwards is better for it.
History
Diocletian's Palace is free: its lanes, the Peristyle, the domed Vestibule and the central passage through the cellars are open at all hours with no gate. You pay only for interiors — the side halls of the cellars (€10 for adults as of October 2026) and the cathedral, bell tower, crypt, treasury and Temple of Jupiter, ticketed separately. Built around AD 305, it is still full of homes, bars and shops.
Food & drink
The layer between the Riva and the clubs: small cocktail rooms, jazz corners, hostel bars and neighbourhood cafés that turn into bars after nine. This is where the local crowd drinks, it costs about a third less than the seafront, and it is the part of Split nightlife that still works in February.
Food & drink
The nine-until-midnight part of a Split night, and the best of it. Small cellars and side rooms inside Diocletian's Palace pour Dalmatian wine by the glass with no music you have to shout over. Arrive before nine if you want a table, and leave around midnight when the lanes empty.
Culture
Split's palm-lined seafront promenade, and the city's actual living room. Locals walk it at seven every evening, coffee lasts an hour, and nobody is in a hurry. Free, always open, and the correct place to watch the light go orange on the palace wall.
Food & drink
Three and a half hours through the green market, the fish market and four family-run places inside the palace, eating soparnik, pršut, Pag cheese, fresh anchovies and rožata. Enough food to replace lunch, with the context that makes Dalmatian cooking make sense.
Family
The most Split thing you can do for ten euros. Poljud is a listed 1979 shell of a stadium, the Torcida have been going since 1950, and a mid-table league game on a Saturday night tells you more about this city than any walking tour will.
History
The vaulted basement halls that held up the emperor's apartments, preserved because they were filled with rubbish for a thousand years. The best-surviving Roman substructure anywhere, ten degrees cooler than the street, and the one part of the palace that looks like a ruin.
Culture
The villa Ivan Meštrović built for himself on Marjan's south slope, now the best museum in Split. Sculpture inside, a garden of bronzes with a sea view outside, and the Kaštelet chapel with his wooden reliefs five minutes down the road.
History
A fortress wedged into a mountain pass above Split, held by Romans, Croatian kings, Ottomans and Habsburgs in turn — and used as Meereen in Game of Thrones. Twenty minutes on the bus, and the view down to the coast explains a thousand years of fighting over it.
Culture
Inside the palace for atmosphere and noise, Varoš for stone lanes and quiet, Bačvice for the beach and the nightlife, Meje for calm and views, Žnjan for space and value. Split is small enough that none of them is a bad choice — they are just different holidays.
Culture
Yes, for two to five days, and most of all in June or September. Split is a Roman palace that people still live in, with beaches in town and the islands an hour away by boat. It is not worth it for a party-free week in mid-August, or for anyone who wants sand and silence.
Culture
Base yourself in Split if you want islands, day trips, beaches and a city that is still a city. Choose Dubrovnik for two or three nights of the most complete walled town on the Adriatic. For a week, Split; for a long weekend, either; with ten days, both — four to five hours apart.
History
You do not need a shore excursion in Split. The cruise berths and the tender landing are a five-to-fifteen-minute walk from Diocletian's Palace, and the whole old town is walkable. Four hours covers the palace; six adds Marjan or a swim; eight lets you add Trogir or Klis by local bus.