Introduction
Split-Dalmatia County anchors the central Dalmatian coast around Split, Croatia's second city, and stretches out to sea across the islands of Hvar, Brač and Vis — a stretch of Adriatic coastline where a 1,700-year-old Roman palace still functions as a living neighbourhood and the ferry timetable is as much a part of daily life as the road network.
Overview
Split-Dalmatia County is built around two very different kinds of place: Split itself, a genuine working city that happens to have a Roman emperor's retirement palace at its centre, and the string of islands — Hvar, Brač, Vis among them — reachable from its harbour by ferry and catamaran. Split's old town isn't a preserved museum piece kept at arm's length from modern life; cafés, shops and apartments occupy the same stone rooms Roman guards once patrolled, and the Riva waterfront promenade functions as the city's actual living room, filled every evening with locals rather than only visitors. From Split's harbour, the islands unfold in genuinely different characters: Hvar draws a glamorous, yacht-set crowd around lavender fields and Venetian-era architecture; Brač's Zlatni Rat beach shifts its pebble tip with the wind and current; and Vis, closed to foreign visitors as a Yugoslav military base until 1989, remains the least developed of the county's major islands. The county's food and wine culture runs on the same maritime rhythm as everywhere in Dalmatia — grilled fish, black risotto, and the indigenous Plavac Mali red grape grown on sun-baked coastal slopes.
Discover Split-Dalmatia
Diocletian's Palace, built around 305 AD as the retirement residence of the Roman emperor Diocletian, is the reason Split exists in its present form — rather than falling into ruin after the empire's collapse, the palace was gradually settled by local residents fleeing the destruction of nearby Salona, who built their homes directly into and around the imperial structure. The result, unique among Roman remains anywhere, is a complex that has been continuously inhabited for over 1,700 years: the Peristyle, the palace's grand ceremonial courtyard, is now a public square ringed by cafés; the Cathedral of St Domnius, remarkably, occupies what was originally Diocletian's own mausoleum, making it one of the oldest cathedral buildings anywhere still in its original structure; and ordinary Split residents live in apartments carved into walls that once housed a Roman garrison. The palace basements, among the best-preserved substructures of their kind, are now lined with market stalls and open to walking tours. Beyond the palace walls, the Riva — Split's palm-lined waterfront promenade — is the city's genuine social centre, filled each evening with residents rather than staged for visitors, and Marjan, the forested hill rising directly behind the old town, offers walking and cycling trails with views back across the palace roofs to the sea.
Ways to Experience This Destination
A 1,700-year-old Roman palace absorbed directly into the living city — the Peristyle square, the Cathedral of St Domnius inside Diocletian's former mausoleum, and the palm-lined Riva waterfront.
Venetian old town, hilltop Spanish Fortress, lavender fields inland, and the quieter coves of the offshore Pakleni Islands.
The shape-shifting Zlatni Rat beach at Bol, the limestone quarries that built Diocletian's Palace, and the quieter village of Škrip inland.
The least developed major Dalmatian island, closed as a military base until 1989 — abandoned tunnels, working fishing harbours, and the glowing Blue Cave on nearby Biševo.
Frequently asked questions
This overview comes from Visaja's worldwide missions database (visaja.com), checked against official government sources; for binding answers, the mission itself always has the final word.