Things To Do in Split Croatia

Life Inside a Roman Palace

Split is built inside the walls of a Roman emperor's retirement palace, and the result is one of the most unusual inhabited historic sites in the world. Diocletian's Palace, constructed in the 3rd century, was later settled by the local population and gradually converted into a city — the peristyle became a cathedral square, the imperial mausoleum became a church, and the cellars became workshops and bars. Today around 3,000 people live inside the palace walls, and the streets between ancient columns and medieval accretions are among the most atmospheric urban spaces in the Mediterranean.

Beaches and the Dalmatian Coast

Split is the gateway to some of the most beautiful coastline in Europe. The beaches of Bačvice, just southeast of the old town, are the closest swimming — famous for the local game of picigin, played in shallow water with a small rubber ball. The islands of Brač, Hvar, and Šolta are reachable by ferry within an hour, and the Zlatni Rat beach on Brač, a distinctive spit of pebbles that changes shape with the current, is one of the most recognisable natural features of the Adriatic.

Food and Konobas

Dalmatian cooking is one of the great Mediterranean cuisines, built on good olive oil, fresh fish, lamb, and the particular quality of vegetables grown in thin, rocky soil that seems to concentrate flavour. A good konoba in Split — the kind of small family restaurant tucked into the alleys of the old town — might offer grilled sea bass caught that morning, lamb peka slow-cooked under an iron lid in the fire, and local wines from the Dalmatian hinterland. The food is not elaborate, but the quality of the underlying ingredients is hard to fault.

Nightlife and Energy

Split has become one of the most active nightlife cities on the Adriatic, driven partly by its growth as a regional hub and partly by its large student population. The Riva promenade along the harbour front fills each evening with people beginning a night that extends into the palace district and the bars of the Varoš neighbourhood. In summer, when the population swells with visitors, the energy is considerably higher, and the city hosts a number of large outdoor events that use the Roman ruins and harbour setting in ways that would be impossible anywhere else.

Diocletian's Palace, the Living Old Town and Split's Roman Heritage

Split's old town is built within and upon the walls of Diocletian's Palace, a late Roman imperial complex completed around 305 AD as the retirement residence of the Emperor Diocletian and today housing several thousand permanent residents within its walls alongside restaurants, bars, and galleries. The palace is not a museum but a living neighbourhood: people hang washing between columns, shops occupy Roman cellars, and the cathedral was converted from Diocletian's mausoleum in the 7th century — a claim made by no other Christian cathedral in the world. The underground cellars beneath the palace — the only part of the structure built to the original Roman plan and not subsequently altered by medieval construction above — can be toured and provide the most complete experience of Roman architectural scale and engineering available in the palace complex. The Cathedral of Saint Domnius, the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world in continuous use, occupies Diocletian's octagonal mausoleum with its original Roman coffered ceiling intact, while the 13th-century Romanesque bell tower added beside it provides the best elevated view over the old town and harbour available to visitors.

The Riva Promenade, Marjan Hill and Split's Urban Life

The Riva, Split's palm-lined seafront promenade running along the southern face of Diocletian's Palace walls, is the primary social space of the city: a kilometre of café terraces, outdoor seating, and waterfront views where the entire population of Split appears to congregate in the evening hours in a performance of urban sociability that is entirely natural rather than staged for visitors. The Marjan peninsula, a forested hill of Aleppo pine rising immediately west of the old town and accessible by steep paths through residential neighbourhoods, provides hiking, sea viewpoints, and a complete escape from the urban density of the palace district within a 15-minute walk of the main square. The Croatian Maritime Museum in the Gripe Fortress on the hill above the old town and the Ivan Meštrović Gallery — the purpose-built home and studio of Croatia's most important sculptor, housing the largest collection of his work in a Baroque villa on the Meje waterfront — extend the cultural program of the city beyond the Roman heritage. The central fish market at the eastern gate of the palace, operating from early morning, is the most direct expression of Split's relationship with the Adriatic and supplies the city's restaurants with fresh catch in a setting unchanged in character for centuries. The Meštrović Gallery, the former summer residence and studio of Ivan Meštrović on the Meje waterfront, holds the largest single-artist collection in Croatia in a building designed by the sculptor himself and presenting the full range of his monumental and intimate work in marble, bronze, and wood from the early 20th century to his death in 1962. The ferry connections from Split's harbour to the islands of Brač, Hvar, Šolta, and Vis — with Hvar's medieval town and lavender fields and Vis's relative isolation making them the most visited day trip destinations from the city — give Split its function as the primary gateway to the central Dalmatian islands and ensure that its own attraction as a destination is amplified by the wider context of the Dalmatian coast.