Continuing our rapid exploration of Diocletian’s Palace, Jonathan and I entered the Vestibule, the monumental antechamber which once connected the public Peristyle with the emperor’s private apartments. Constructed around the beginning of the fourth century, the building appears rectangular from outside but contains this imposing circular interior. Its dome has long since disappeared, leaving the large opening, which is slightly sub-optimal when it’s raining.
Beside the Vestibule is the Ethnographic Museum, which also provides access to more of the historic complex and a terrace overlooking the remains of the former cupola. We had only one evening in Split, though, and choices had to be made before Jonathan discovered that I had scheduled seventeen hours of sightseeing into approximately three. It also gives me a reason to go back in the future, although my list of cities I need to return to is growing ever longer.
The original interior would have been considerably more decadent than the exposed stone surviving today. Niches once contained statues, the circular walls were whitened and the great cupola was decorated with colourful mosaics which reflected the light. The Vestibule formed part of the carefully controlled ceremonial route towards the imperial residence, ensuring that anyone granted an audience had been suitably pre-impressed before Diocletian had even appeared. It appears that Roman emperors understood the need for a dramatic entrance to surprise and delight visitors without troubling themselves too much with the associated decorating costs.
The chamber remains impressive despite losing nearly all its decoration, helped by the height of the walls and the acoustics created by its circular form. Like most other parts of the Palace that were free to visit, it was rather packed with visitors, nearly all attempting variations of the same photograph directly upwards. Despite the crowds, this was one of the most memorable surviving spaces within the Palace and gave a sense of the scale of the building.