Emperor Diocletian founded the city by building at the foot of the hill Marjan, in 293. AD a lavish 30.000 square meters imperial villa that he retired to after his retirement from throne of the roman emperor.
Palace forms into a city with the arrival of the inhabitants from nearby Salona who have found safety inside the imperial walls from the attacks by the Avars and Slavs. Expansion of growth and immigration spread the city even outside the palace walls and so the city limits changed with every year and from century to century as did the rulers who governed in Split. From the 10th century Croatian kings, over the Hungarian and Venetian administrations to the French rulers and the Austro- Hungarian monarchy.
History left the traces on the way the city looks but also in its inhabitants that in time changed their home, made it the center of Dalmatia and the pearl of the Mediterranean.
Palace forms into a city with the arrival of the inhabitants from nearby Salona who have found safety inside the imperial walls from the attacks by the Avars and Slavs. Expansion of growth and immigration spread the city even outside the palace walls and so the city limits changed with every year and from century to century as did the rulers who governed in Split. From the 10th century Croatian kings, over the Hungarian and Venetian administrations to the French rulers and the Austro- Hungarian monarchy.
History left the traces on the way the city looks but also in its inhabitants that in time changed their home, made it the center of Dalmatia and the pearl of the Mediterranean.
