SPLIT or SPLJET the capital of Dalmatia, Yugoslavia (Ital. Spalato), has the finest harbour on the Adriatic coast, with a broad bay affording deep, safe anchorage. This, combined with its cen tral position, and good communication with other parts by road, rail and steamer, has made it of great commercial importance, with an extensive trade in cement and marl. Pop. (1931) 43,808, al most entirely Serbo-Croatian. Spalato arose from the palace of Diocletian, who renounced the imperial crown in A.D. 303 and lived here until his death. The palace was then allowed to fall into ruin, but when the incursion of the Avars was over (639) the inhabitants of the ruined city of Salona, near by, took refuge here, and built up homes within the 9i acres covered by the palace, incorporating its walls and pillars. Its ground plan is like a Roman camp, i.e., almost a square with four quadrangular towers and four gates, with four streets meeting in the middle. The eastern gate, or Porta Aenea, is destroyed, but the western gate, or Porta Ferrea, and the main entrance to the building, the beautiful Porta Aurea, are still in fairly good preservation. The streets are lined with massive arcades. The vestibule now forms the Piazza del Duomo or cathedral square; to the north-east of this lies the temple of Jupiter, or perhaps the mausoleum. Since the 9th century this has been the cathedral of St. Doimo or Domnius, noteworthy for its finely carved choir stalls. To the south-east is the temple of Aesculapius, long transformed into a baptistery, a beautiful Romanesque campanile having been added in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Excavations have been carried on intermittently at the ruins of Salona, 4 m. north-east, since 1818, and many interesting archi tectural remains have been discovered together with many smaller relics, now housed in the Split Museum. These include prehistoric objects. Salona was made a Roman colony in 78 B.C. and was one of the chief ports of the Adriatic. Soon after 313 the city became
an episcopal see with St. Doimo as its first bishop. The palace was transformed into an imperial cloth factory. The town was cap tured several times by the Goths and Huns and in 639 was de stroyed by the Avars, but was not entirely deserted until the end of the 12th century. In 659 John of Ravenna, the papal legate, was created bishop of Spalato, as the new city was called, the origin of the name being uncertain. A little later it became an archbishopric, and its holders were metropolitans of all Dalmatia until 1033. In 1105 Spalato became a vassal state of Hungary; in 1327 it revolted to Venice, but in 1367 returned to Hungary. It was ruled by the Bosnian king Tvrtko from 1390 to 1391, and in 1402 by the famous Bosnian prince Hrvoje. A large octagonal tower is still known as Torre d'Harvoye. In 1420 Spalato fell to Venice and ceased to have an independent history. The castle, and walls were erected by the Venetians between 1645 and 1670 and dismantled during the French occupation of Dalmatia (1805-13) in which latter year the province returned to Austria, who still held it at the outbreak of the World War (1914-18). Owing to this fact, the Croatian inhabitants suffered greatly, their intelli gentsia being deported in chains as hostages, while the occupation of the town by the Italians in 1918, led to still further hardships.
See T. G. Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria (Oxford, 1887) ; E. A. Freeman, Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice (London, 1880 ; R. Munro, Bosnia, Hercegovina and Dalmatia (London, 1900) ; for researches at Salona, R. Adams, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalato, in Dalmatia (London, 1764) with engravings by Bartolozzi; L. J. Cassas and J. Lavallee, Voyage pittoresque et Historique de l'Istrie (Paris, 1802) illustrated; and G. Lucio, De Regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae (Amsterdam, 1666) for chronicles relating to Spalato and Salona.