Jonathan and I only had one evening in Split and so we started at its most important site, namely Diocletian’s Palace. This was constructed around the beginning of the fourth century as a fortified retirement residence for Diocletian, although the buildings and streets within its walls gradually became the centre of Split itself.
This photograph shows the Silver Gate, the eastern entrance to the complex, alongside the former imperial mausoleum which was later converted into the Cathedral of Saint Domnius. Known to the Romans as the Porta Orientalis, the gate opened onto the decumanus, the principal street running east to west through the palace towards the Iron Gate.
Today, it’s very much a busy part of the city and the heart of its historic centre. It was a pleasant time of day to visit with the colourful sky, although lots of other people had a similar thought so there was some battling through the crowds to get around. Unlike during much of our time travelling around the Balkans, this felt like a city dominated by tourism and the vibe was very different.
Seen directly from the front, the Silver Gate reveals rather more of its Roman design. Despite the name, it was built from limestone rather than an unexpectedly extravagant quantity of silver and was more modestly decorated than the Golden Gate on the northern side of the palace. It originally formed part of a more complex and decadent two-stage entrance, with outer and inner gateways creating a controlled defensive passage into the complex.
The two recessed niches on either side of the main arch probably once contained statues, long since lost, while the row of openings above belonged to the upper level used by the palace guards. It still felt like a proper defensive entrance, and enough survived for me to imagine how imposing it must have appeared to anyone approaching the palace without the correct authorisation.
The gate’s present appearance is partly the result of a substantial twentieth-century reconstruction. It had been blocked from the Middle Ages and remained closed until 1952, when the war-damaged Baroque church known as Dušica was demolished and the ancient entrance was reopened. The work exposed the Roman gateway and lowered the surrounding ground to reveal sections of the original paved route.
A photograph displayed at the site showed how the gate looked before the surrounding ground was lowered. It had been considerably less imposing, so I was pleased that the work had brought its appearance closer to the original Roman arrangement. The Silver Gate was used ceremonially in 2000 when Pope John Paul II passed through it on his way to the Cathedral of Saint Domnius. My own passage attracted less attention, although this made it substantially easier to take photographs.