Diocletian Cellars Split

The cellars of Diocletian’s Palace in Split are not cellars in the ordinary sense. They are the substructures, the vaulted basement halls of the vast palace the Roman emperor Diocletian built for his retirement around the year 300 AD. For centuries silt and rubbish filled them, until they were cleared in the mid-20th century and revealed a near-complete Roman ground plan, a rare survival that helped archaeologists understand the palace above.

Walking through them today you move under heavy domed vaults, past the imperial apartment layout mirrored in the basement below. The halls are part of the UNESCO-listed palace complex at the heart of Split, and they are open to visitors for a modest fee during the day.

They are also famous on screen, used as a filming location for Game of Thrones. That has made them busy, but the architecture is the real draw; the engineering of a building that has stood for seventeen centuries.

For photographers, the low arches and the play of light on stone are best with a camera that can handle the contrast. Combine the visit with a walk through the rest of the palace above; the cellars explain what you cannot otherwise see.

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