Split & Central Dalmatia: A Roman Palace You Can Still Live In

A city built inside a palace

Split has one of the more unusual old towns in Europe, and it’s easy to walk through it without fully registering why. The historic core isn’t built near Diocletian’s Palace — it’s built inside it. The Roman emperor Diocletian had the palace constructed as his retirement residence around 300 AD, and rather than falling into ruin, it slowly filled in over the following centuries with houses, shops, and churches, all built into and around the original Roman walls, cellars, and colonnades. People still live in apartments carved out of the palace structure today, and the basement halls, once storage vaults, now house market stalls. It’s a genuinely rare thing — a working Roman palace that’s remained continuously inhabited for over 1,700 years.

Walking the peristyle, the palace’s central courtyard, at different times of day gives a real sense of this layering — Roman columns, a medieval bell tower built onto what was once Diocletian’s mausoleum, and modern cafe tables set up in between, all doing double duty as living history and daily life.

Good to know: the peristyle and the palace basements get genuinely crowded by mid-morning in summer, with day-trippers off cruise ships and tour buses moving through in waves. Seeing it early, before the group tours start, or in the evening when the stone is lit and the crowds have thinned, is worth rearranging a morning for.

The Riva and the green market

Just outside the palace’s seaward wall runs the Riva, Split’s palm-lined waterfront promenade, which functions as the city’s real living room — locals meet friends there for coffee in the evening just as much as visitors stroll it during the day. A block or two back, the open-air green market fills every morning with produce, cheese, and flowers from the surrounding countryside and islands, and it’s as good a place as any to get a sense of daily life in the city outside the old walls.

Split as Dalmatia’s hub

Beyond the old town, Split functions as the practical center of Dalmatia. The airport has strong seasonal connections across Europe, the ferry terminal right by the old town is the main departure point for the central Dalmatian islands, and train and bus lines connect north to Zagreb and south along the coast. It’s the kind of city that works well as a base precisely because you can get almost anywhere else in the region from here without much friction.

Trogir, just down the coast

A short drive or bus ride from Split, Trogir is a small, UNESCO-listed medieval old town built on its own islet and connected to the mainland by a bridge. It’s compact enough to see thoroughly in half a day, with a well-preserved medieval street plan and a Romanesque cathedral that’s worth the climb up its bell tower for the view back over the rooftops. Because it’s so easy to reach from Split, it’s one of the more reliable day trips in the region.

Krka National Park

Inland and a little south, Krka National Park gets a fraction of the attention Plitvice does, largely because it’s farther from Zagreb, but it’s closer to the coast and arguably just as worth the trip if you’re already based in Split. The park is built around a series of travertine waterfalls and cascades along the Krka River, with wooden walkways threading through the forest alongside them. Swimming near the falls has historically been allowed in designated areas at certain times of year, though the rules here have shifted over recent seasons, so it’s worth checking the park’s current regulations before planning a trip around it rather than assuming the old policy still holds.

The gateway to the islands

Split’s ferry terminal is the main jumping-off point for Hvar, Brač, and Vis, with frequent car ferries and faster passenger catamarans running throughout the day in season. Even if you’re not staying in Split itself, there’s a good chance you’ll pass through its port at some point on a longer Dalmatian itinerary.

Best time to visit

May through early October covers the main season, with July and August the hottest and busiest. Late spring and early autumn give you comfortable temperatures for walking the old town and Krka’s trails, along with noticeably shorter ferry queues heading out to the islands.

[Editor’s note: this is the place to add your own history with Split — what it’s meant to your family over the years, favorite corners of the old town, how it’s changed. Swap in your own photos here as well.]