Split History Facts and Timeline

(Split, Central Dalmatia, Croatia)

Croatia's second-largest city, Split, is the biggest and most significant urban centre on the Dalmatian Coast. It is also one of the oldest cities in the region.

The history of Split is believed to have begun around 1,700 years ago. Since then, this city on the Adriatic has been favoured by ruling Mediterranean powers of the day, from the Greeks to the Romans, Byzantines and beyond.

Diocletian's Palace

Most historians place the establishment of Split at the time when the Roman Emperor Diocletian built his retirement palace on the coast here just after the turn of the 4th century AD. However, in reality the site was already an established Greek colony called Aspalathos in the early 3rd century BC, until the Romans subdued the local Illyrians in the 220s AD, taking permanent control and founding the province of Dalmatia.


Diocletian's magnificent palace included parks and open-air spaces such as Marjan Hill, while the city was populated by as many as 10,000 people at its peak. When the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, Spalatum (as Split was known in Roman times) was absorbed into the Byzantine Empire.

The Middle Ages

As Byzantine power waned during the Medieval Era in Europe, Split was caught in a tug of war between regional powers. The history of Split over the next several centuries reflects that same back and forth pull. The Kingdom of Croatia and the Venetian Republic, followed some years later by the Kingdom of Hungary, all sought to control this coveted city and the surrounding area.

The Croats

With the arrival of the Croat people in the 7th century AD, this part of the Dalmatian Coast changed immensely. As the Kingdom of Croatia steadily gained power and girth, it began to establish its own cities such as Sibenik and take control over most of the interior hinterland. From the 700s AD onwards, Split increasingly adopted a distinctly Croatian character. This is evident today in the city's architecture, in particular Split's churches.

The Venetians

Whenever the Croatian state weakened, the Venetian Republic to the north stepped in to take control of Split. Venice did this several times from the 10th century onwards, as it increasingly influenced the Dalmatian Coast via its hefty economic strength.

In the second year of the 12th century, Croatia was forced to team up with the Kingdom of Hungary, although the city managed to retain much of its autonomy during this turbulent era, even printing its very own currency in 1312. Eventually, however, the Venetians centralised republic took over Dalmatia and Split, ruling it for almost four centuries from 1420.

The Modern Era

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the next puppet-master of Split, and the city's history was pushed from side to side again as WWI and WWII fractured the region. After WWI, the city joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (better known today as Yugoslavia), becoming the new kingdom's most prominent port city.

In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and annexed Split to Italy. The locals rebelled strongly against Italian rule and the city emerged as a core of the anti-fascist movement in Yugoslavia. Following WWII, the city was absorbed into the Socialist Republic of Croatia and enjoyed a solid period of population and economic growth. When Croatia gained its independence in the year of 1991, Split once again rebranded itself as a hot tourist destination to add some depth to its traditional port-based economy.