<< Our Photo Pages >> Diocletian's Palace - Ancient Palace in Croatia
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Saturday, 06 October 2007 Page Views: 55489
Multi-periodSite Name: Diocletian's Palace Alternative Name: Diocletian Palace, Palace of DiocletianCountry: Croatia Type: Ancient Palace
Nearest Town: Split
Latitude: 43.508300N Longitude: 16.440200E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 18th Sep 2004 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Have to leave the boat by 9:00. Catch a bus into Split at 09:30 and after some problems finding our way around, get to the old part of town. Stop for a coffee and pastries on the Riva (harbour front) outside the Diocletian Palace walls. Then do a walking tour around old Split, taking in the town square, Temple of Jupiter, the city walls, market, Diocletian Palace (with a great art exhibition in the amazing vaults underneath) and up the Cathedral bell tower for some great views.
C_Michael_Hogan have visited here
The palace, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was begun when Diocletian retired to his nearby birthplace at Salona. The palace dates to the period 293 to 305 AD, but has substantial medieval and later alterations. Marble and limestone for the palace was quarried from the nearby island of Brac, and specialized material such as Egyptian granite was also imported. Not only is the expansive structure a palace, but it is also clearly a fortified military structure with its massive high walls and perimeter arrow slits and other battlements. The complex would have housed a population of 8000 to 10,000 people, and even today it is a vibrant commercial and tourist core of the city of Split. The contents of this article are based on analysis of extant literature and my own site visit in 2004.
DESIGN. The basic plan is a trapezoidal, with the Adriatic Sea facing south side measuring 157.5 metres and featuring a splendid balcony and small gate. The long walls are on the east (191.2 meters) and west (192.1 metres); the north wall measures 150.9 metres in length. The last three walls have very large gate entries. The perimeter walls are somewhat variable in height, typically 5.0 to 5.5 metres high and at least two metres thick. The limestone blocks forming the walls are approximately four metres long by two meters, held together with iron pins and (originally molten) lead. These walls are largely intact, with square towers at the corners. Flanking all the landward gates are ornate octagonal towers.
The interior of the palace complex features a generally orthogonal street system that degenerates in some sectors to somewhat random turns. The typical transverse road or "decumanus" connects the west Silver Gate to the east Iron Gate. (Adam, 1764) There are extant temple structures and original sculptures and columns; however, much of the complex was materially modified in the Middle Ages and later. A focal element is the open columned court or "peristyle", which has impressive extant columns and other sculture. The sea facing south side originally was designed as Diocletian's private apartments, underlain with massive barrel vaulted cellars, which were used for persecution of Christians. Presently there is considerable distraction to the ancient design from modern fenestration on many buildings intermixed with undue commercial signage, both problems the evident result of poor urban planning since the 1950s.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS. The Palace is proximate to the Adriatic Sea to the south. The palace water supply derived from the Diocletian Aqueduct.(UNESCO, 2005) which had a cross section of 0.75 m by 1.60 m, and was gravity fed from the 33 m high Jadro Spring, at Salon, having a nine kilometre line to the Palace. This aquaduct allowed a flow rate of 1500 litres per second .
INFLUENCE ON WESTERN ARCHITECTURE. Early praise of this palace was given by tenth century Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos; however, .Diocletian's Palace has had a significant influence over western architecture far from Croatia. Although known widely in ancient times and throughout the Midlle Ages, the first broad scale exposure to Western Europe occurred in the 18th century by treatments of Austrian architect Fischer von Erlach and by British architect Robert Adam, who spent five weeks in Splatro (the earlier name for Split) sketching and analysing the palace. (Kruft, 1996) Adam's publication of dozens of drawings with elaborate text documentation of the palace (Adam, 1757) had a profound effect on further neoclassical Western Architecture and the work of Adam himself. Influences were seen rapidly in such new works as Adam's Adelphi buildings in London.
REFERENCES
*UNESCO World Heritage (2005) ‘'Diocletian's Palace and the Historical Nucleus of Split'‘
* Hanno-Walter Kruft (1996) ‘'A History of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius to the Present'‘, Princeton Architectural Press, 706 pages, ISBN 1568980108
* Robert Adam (1764) ‘'Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia'‘
* Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1721) ‘'Entwuerff einer historischen Architektur'‘, Vienna 1721, Tafel X
(This article is an original publication prepared for the Megalithic Portal by C. Michael Hogan)
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
1.4km WSW 252° Split Archaeological Museum* Museum
4.8km NE 45° Salona Town wall* Hillfort
4.8km NE 45° Solin Town Gate* Ancient Village or Settlement
8.8km NE 49° Klis Hillfort* Hillfort
17.6km S 171° Gradina Rat Hillfort
17.9km W 278° Sutilija Hillfort* Hillfort
21.7km SSE 157° Brac Island* Ancient Village or Settlement
28.5km NE 51° Cetina Valley Ancient Village or Settlement
29.7km SSE 156° Zmajeva Spilja* Cave or Rock Shelter
35.3km S 181° Vira (Hvar)* Barrow Cemetery
37.1km S 180° Fortica* Hillfort
37.3km S 180° Hvar Museum* Museum
37.3km S 179° Hvar Castle Museum* Museum
38.3km SSE 161° Pharos Town wall* Hillfort
38.4km SSE 161° Stari Grad Museum* Museum
39.8km SSE 161° Purkin Kuk Hillfort* Hillfort
42.2km SSE 154° Hvar Island* Ancient Village or Settlement
44.3km NW 318° Pokrovnik Ancient Village or Settlement
45.1km SSE 152° Tor Hillfort (Croatia)* Hillfort
61.6km WNW 303° Arauzona Hillfort* Hillfort
66.7km NW 314° Varvaria* Hillfort
77.1km SE 137° Nakovana Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter
83.4km NW 312° Asseria Hillfort* Hillfort
101.8km NW 305° Possible Illyrian site near Raštane Donj Ancient Village or Settlement
101.9km E 98° Zvonigrad - fortification wall* Hillfort
View more nearby sites and additional images