The history of Split is rich and overwhelming to fit in a few sentences. Although there were Greek settlements in the area of Split before, the emperor Diocletian, who started building a magnificent imperial palace of about 30,000 square meters in the peninsula near the great city of Salona in 293 AD, should be considered the first inhabitant and founder of Split. He retired in the palace when he left the Roman imperial throne.
After centuries of turbulence, the city was created, conceived when the inhabitants of Salona fled to the Palace before the invasion of Avars and Slavs. Afterwards, many authorities, from the Croatian kings in the 10th century, through the Hungarian and Venetian administrations, to the French rulers and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, alternated in the city that grew outside the palace walls. Modern times and the 20th century Split was “moved” from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, through the tragic but also heroic days of the Italian and German occupation in World War II, when Split was one of the centers of anti-fascist resistance, to socialist Yugoslavia, and to this day living in a free and independent Croatia, a member of the European Union.
The turbulent past has left its mark on the everyday life of the city, which has always stepped forward, remaining the center of this part of the coast to this day. It was in these mixes of historical layers and clumsiness, sometimes developmental complexity, but all of this is part of its originality today. The big city today is home to the quiet beats of history, the lively spirit of youth and the charm of the Mediterranean and yet with all Croatian soul …
