Split
City founded 1700 years ago, around the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian, the then centre of the Roman Empire (25 km from Villa Masha).
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Split

The palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian, built in 305 A.D., makes the core of the Split city. This is the best preserved fortified palace of the Roman period. Its numerous houses, temples, such as the Jupiter’s Temple, the Diocletian mausoleum (since the 6th century the cathedral housed in the oldest building serving this purpose in the world), the Peristyle square (the emperor’s ritual square, flanked with arched colonnades along its longitudinal sides). At the western side, the colonnade became part of medieval, Gothic and Baroque nobility palaces. At the southern side of Peristyl is the monumental Protyron, with four columns carrying a gable. Through its central part, the emperor appeared before the Roman people to address them. Behind this gate is the attractive Vestibulum, that lead to the emperor’s private quarters.

Besides the Roman monuments, the palace abounds in medieval spaces, churches, museums and all sorts of places of tourist interest.

In summers, at the Peristyle world’s leading musicians perform their concerts and operas. Performances of the Verdi’s Aida, staged on Peristyle are mentioned with respect in the worlds’ theatrological literature.

Of the numerous museums and galleries of Split, recommended should be the Ethnographic Museum in the old centre of Split, and the worldwide known Meštrović Gallery, exhibiting the works of Ivan Meštrović, sculptor of worldwide reputation (see his sculptures of The Indians in Chicago) and in the expert literature mentioned as a competition to August Roden.