Featured: Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2019!

Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2019!

A Guide to Stone Circles (New Edition), Aubrey Burl

A Guide to Stone Circles (New Edition), Aubrey Burl

Who's Online

There are currently, 128 guests and 0 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Our Photo Pages >> Diocletian's Palace - Ancient Palace in Croatia

Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Saturday, 06 October 2007  Page Views: 55409

Multi-periodSite Name: Diocletian's Palace Alternative Name: Diocletian Palace, Palace of Diocletian
Country: Croatia Type: Ancient Palace
Nearest Town: Split
Latitude: 43.508300N  Longitude: 16.440200E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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

Diocletian's Palace
Diocletian's Palace submitted by AlexHunger : Diocletian's Palace Wall in Split, from inside the compound. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Palace in Croatia. Diocletian's Palace in Split, Croatia, within the present day county of Split-Dalmatia, was the creation of Roman Emperor Diocletian and is the world's most complete remains of a Roman Palace.

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.


Diocletian's Palace Tower
Diocletian's Palace Tower submitted by AlexHunger : Diocletian's Palace Tower in Split. 43.51592N 16.43511E (Vote or comment on this photo)

Diocletian's Palace
Diocletian's Palace submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Inner walls within Diocletian's Palace. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Diocletian's Palace
Diocletian's Palace submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Barrel vaulted cellars in Diocletian's Palace. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Diocletian's Palace
Diocletian's Palace submitted by AlexHunger : Plan of Diocletian's Palace Basement. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Diocletian's Palace Basement
Diocletian's Palace Basement submitted by AlexHunger : Diocletian's Palace Basement in Split. This was being used for a flower show. Nite the height of the ceiling. The entire section of the Palace nearest to the sea can be accessed. The palace, no doubt, needed a lot of storage for provisions troops etc.

Diocletian's Palace
Diocletian's Palace submitted by AlexHunger : Facade of Diocletian's palace facing the sea in Split Croatia. During the Slav invasions, the towns people of Solana fled to the palace about 5 Km away, which proved to be a safer refuge. The different parts of the palace became mediaval living qaurters and churches while most of the fortifications survive.

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 area

Key: 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

<< Gulde Thing Platz [Guly Thing]

Palala River Bluffs San Rock Paintings >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Homo Brittanicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

Homo Brittanicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Diocletian's Palace" | Login/Create an Account | 0 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.