The beginnings of museum activities and the collection of monumental heritage in Split are connected with the Papalić Palace, where the Museum of the City of Split is located today.

The beginnings of museum activities and the collection of monumental heritage in Split are connected with the Papalić Palace, where the Museum of the City of Split is located today. At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, in this representative Gothic-Renaissance palace, which belonged to the Split noble family Papalić, there was a collection of ancient stone monuments from Salona. Marko Marulić and Dmine Papalić, touring the ruins of Solin, collected and studied the ancient inscriptions that Papalić had built into the courtyard of his palace. The fragments remained at that place until 1885, when most of them were transferred to the building of the Archaeological Museum at the Silver Gate.Since 1925, in addition to a large reading room and other spaces, it has been training on the second floor, in two rooms of the Bernardi Palace, the Museum-History Department, which will grow into an independent institution. The city museum was founded in 1946, while it was given its name two years later. The first director was Marko Uvodić, the author of numerous short stories and a chronicler of Split life. He was succeeded by Ćiro Čičin-Šain, a journalist and writer who paid special attention to archival material and who in 1950 launched the first museum editions. A crucial event in the history of the museum is a large cultural and historical exhibition organized in 1950 at the initiative of JAZU and the Ministry of Culture, on the occasion of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Marko Marulić. The exhibition was set up on the ground floor and on the first floor of Papalić’s palace, so that after its completion, the space would be permanently ceded to the museum. The museum was ceremoniously opened to the public in 1952 with a partial exhibition covering the history of Split’s autonomous commune and Venetian rule, while weapons used in the city’s defense were on display on the ground floor. From 1960 to 1979, the director was Duško Kečkemet, a connoisseur of Split’s history and art and the initiator of valuable editions and professional publications.

The general renovation and expansion of the museum complex began in 1984, and ended in 1992, when, for the first time in its history, the museum was opened to the public with a complete permanent exhibition. For the first time since the creation of the museum in 1915, it was possible to exhibit a holdings that present the cultural and historical heritage of the city. The museum houses the Emanuel Vidović Gallery, dedicated to the most important Split painter of the 20th century and one of the most prominent protagonists of Croatian modern painting.

The basement halls of Diocletian’s Palace

Diocletian’s Palace in Split is one of the best preserved architectural achievements of Late Antiquity. The emperor Diocletian gathered the finest architects of the time to undertake the construction of this palace, which took place during a tumultuous period (295 – 305 AD). The Palace represented a new type of fortified and luxurious imperial residence, whose northern quarters were designed to accomodate the military and servants, while the southern part served for the Emperor’s residential and religious purposes.

Subsequent centuries of architectural activities permanently altered the original structure of the Palace’s upper floor, but the basement halls in the southern part of the Palace reveal the original floor plan and layout of the Emperor’s residential quarters. Construction of the basement halls was determined by the geological substratum consisting of steep sea cliffs stretched from the north to the south. The architectural purpose of the basement halls was to raise the southern part to the same level as the northern part of the sloping terrain, as well as to provide constructional support which enabled the erection of the imperial quarters to higher level, thus offering protection from sea humidity and groundwater. As the city of Split began its urban development in the early Middle Ages, its inhabitants started to use the Palace basement halls as dumping ground for various materials from the upper floor on which the blossoming city rested.

Archeological research of the Palace basement halls that has been taking place over the past fifty years revealed new structures predating Diocletian’s Palace. It also revealed new insight regarding the later use of certain halls. Specifically, in the eastern part of the substructure (19C, 21C-22C) the remains of a building wall from an early Imperial period were uncovered, its constructional and decorative architectural elements (Y), as well as the remains of a Nymphs’ shrine – nymphaeum (15C), and a marble table (mensa) from Diocletian’s dining halls (Y). The subterranean halls surrounding the open courtyards served as temporary shelters already in the Early Byzantine period (mid-6th century), and from the early Middle Ages (mid-7th century) as permanent subterranean dwellings (20) where the poorer classes from the nearby Salona took refuge. Another example of architectural reworkings of the substructures in order to adjust it to the specific conditions of habitation throughout the Middle Ages can be seen in the remains located in courtyard 15A. Water wells predating the Palace were discovered in the western part of the basement halls (Y), as well as parts of wooden beams in the function of temporary construction of formwork (4A), and remains of an early medieval olive oil and wine press. (4B).

The western halls of the basement opened for public in 1959, while the eastern basement halls, upon completion of the extensive restoration and conservation work, opened to the public as late as 1996. Diocletian’s Palace was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979.