Cellars of Diocletian's Palace

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The basements of Diocletian's Palace are one of the best preserved ancient complexes of its kind in the world, and they are largely responsible for the historic core of Split being included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

In Roman times, their function was to elevate the spaces of the emperor's apartment on the upper floor, but they were also the storage space of the Palace. As they are structurally faithful copies of the upper rooms, they enable a faithful reconstruction of the appearance of the imperial chambers.

In the early Middle Ages, one part of them was used for housing, and in one hall parts of a turntable for the production of oil and wine were found, and are still on display today. By building inside the Palace, the Cellars were turned into a waste pit of houses located above them.
The cleaning of the basement rooms was conceived and started in the middle of the 19th century by the architect Vicko Andrich, the first conservator in Split and Croatia, and to this day they have been excavated and reconstructed until the 1960s. Only the eastern part became open to the public relatively recently, in May 1995.

Today, these ground-floor halls are entered through Porta Aenea, from the Riva ( Promenade ), or by stairs from the Peristyle. The basements are still full of life today. They regularly organize painting and sculpture exhibitions, theater performances, fairs such as the International Flower Festival, gastronomic and enological events, and many other social and cultural events. The central hall, the main communication from the Riva to the Peristyle, is a place where you can buy valuable souvenirs, and the rest of the Cellar is open for tours as one of Split's biggest attractions.

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№32 of 36 places in Split
№1787 of 2178 places in Croatia
№2 of 2 Historic buildings in Split
№128 of 177 Historic buildings in Croatia