Croatia · 3rd century
Diocletian's Palace (Croatian: Dioklecijanova palača, pronounced [diokletsijǎːnova pǎlatʃa]; Latin: Palatium Diocletiani) is an ancient Roman palace and fortress complex in Split, Croatia. It was built at the end of the third century AD by the Roman Emperor Diocletian as his retirement residence. About half of the complex was for Diocletian's personal use, with the rest housing the military garrison. The complex was built on a peninsula six kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest from Salona, the former capital of Dalmatia, one of the largest cities of the late empire with 60,000 people and the birthplace of Diocletian.
Today the palace forms about half of the old town of Split, with 3,000 inhabitants and numerous shops, boutiques, cafes, bars, and restaurants. In 1979, it was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Text adapted from “Diocletian's Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Diocletian's Palace ranks #46 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 79 mapped in Croatia. Founded 293, it is older than 97% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 29 atlas entries founded in the 3rd century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 56,898 times in the last 60 days, more than 99% of the atlas. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Split, 1 km away. It is one of the 32 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Dalmatia. It is stop 12 of 21 on the Dalmatian fortress coast, Zadar to Dubrovnik. See how Croatia compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →