Split reveals its layers of history

Step by step, revealing layers of history 

With every step we stumble over a stone that tells a story leading us into past centuries.

Prothyron as a decorative cloak at the entrance to the emperor's private rooms today wears elements from all the centuries through which our city came into being.

If you look at the entrance to the former apartment of the Emperor Diocletian, you can see the Roman architecture from the time of the palace construction, but right at the entrance mantle of the Prothyron  there are much older monumental columns with Corinthian capitals, which the Emperor had transferred from distant Egypt, which he also ruled.

Between the pillars of the Prothyron, two chapels were built in the Middle Ages, which are still there today.

In the backside of the Prothyron, above the entrance to Vestibule we see a large supporting arch built of brick and tuff in its original Roman shape.

Further we see the Vestibule, a magnificent hall that was a representative entrance to the apartment. In the Middle Ages, many uses took place here, and apartments were even built. Today it is an empty room, which as such bears witness to the glory days when many guests visited the emperor.

Vestibule 

And what comes next? We see a complex of medieval houses with an arch forming a medieval street between them. There is as usual a medieval square in front as well. 

Once a palace of the Roman emperor, today our historical nucleus and a World Heritage Site.

In accordance with the international agreements on cultural and natural monuments of the world, the Unesco committee accepted the proposal in November 1979 to add the historical center of Split with the Diocletian's Palace to the list of world cultural assets.

The international committee for the world cultural and natural sites has compiled criteria for the entry of cultural goods on this list. At least one of the following conditions must be met:

- that it represents a unique, artistic or aesthetic work and a masterpiece of human creativity.

- that it had a significant influence on the further development of architecture and art

- that it represents a unique or rare antiquity 

- that it is characteristic of a certain type of structure that has the greatest impact in the artistic and scientific domain

- that it is linked to an event or personalities of great historical importance.

The historical centre of Split with the Diocletian's Palace fulfills all these conditions and was rightly included on the World Heritage List. 

Peristyle 

The open square, Peristyle is a real whiteness to all the changes that happened to the Palace. Not just because of what was there originally in the Roman period, but because of the unique combination of many historical styles it has a full right to be called as a perl of our heritage.

On the west side, we see houses of the Split aristocratic families which were built in the Middle Ages, but redecorated during history. The view is a great show of Architecture with all the different styles. Once open arcades on both sides of the square, today presentation of Art and culture of living during centuries. One of the arcades on the west side became even a medieval street between two houses.  

Egyptian art and fragments, Roman art and architecture, pre-Romanesque and Romanesque, Renaissance plus the New-Romanesque style, we see it all. 

Step by step, century by century, style by style, men by men, history without ending.

All materijal, including photos by Darka