Diocletian's Palace
The Diocletian's Palace (Croatian Dioklecijanova palača ) is an ancient architectural complex, which served as a retirement home for the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who 305 AD voluntarily resigned as the sole Roman Emperor from office, together with his co-emperor Maximian. The Diocletian's palace today is the downtown area of the Croatian town of Split and was converted by the Roman era to an inhabited fortress, which was subsequently adapted to different cultural influences. Numerous buildings or civil engineering changes from different eras testify to the lively history of the city of Split. UNESCO declared the downtown area of the Diocletian's Palace in 1979, a World Heritage Site.
Reasons for building
The Roman emperor Diocletian who built an extensive palace complex for the last years of his life. He had this (also Dognidolatz ) settle in the province of Dalmatia near his birthplace Dioclea, near Solin. The building was constructed in record time in the years from about 295-305 AD. The Diocletian's Palace was distinguished by its exceptional strategic location in the center of the Roman Empire.
Building complex
It was a composite structure from Roman villas and palace architecture, military and urban architecture and sacred architecture. The palace was built rectangular in plan took an area of about 30,000 m² a ( about 215 × 180 meters). On the outside, the building flanked by thick walls with square corner towers and additionally projecting towers at the facades from clear, except on the south facade facing the sea. Based on the underground halls, the dimensions of the former palace can best be understood. These halls were hidden for many centuries by waste.
Inside the palace share a crossroad ( Decumanus ) and a longitudinal road ( Cardo ) - according to the architecture of Roman military camp - the palace in about equal parts. In the northern areas were found in archaeological excavations remains of two large buildings with a rectangular ground plan, whose functions have not yet been fully clarified. Perhaps these buildings were military facilities.
In the south of the palace left and right were a central peristyle courtyards with larger cult monuments ( three temples and Diocletian's mausoleum ); in the southern quarter of the remains of the imperial apartment received with many different room types.
Changes over the centuries
Over the centuries the original architecture has been changed, but the inhabitants of this city, which was later Spalatum (from Latin Salonae palatium ), then called Split, knew the structure of the palace of the Byzantine, Venetian and Austro- Hungarian rule to use and they damaging as little as possible.
Major Attractions
The peristyle of the palace, the Diokletianmausoleum (now the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Duje ), the Temple of Jupiter (now the Baptistery of St. John ), the colonnades along the road, an early Croatian churches, Romanesque and Venetian buildings, the gate Andrija Buvina and works of Giorgio di Matteo are in good condition.