Split: the city inside Diocletian's Palace

Split is the only city in the world whose historic center coincides almost entirely with a still-inhabited Roman imperial palace, rather than its ruins.

The pedestrian historic center can be explored entirely on foot.

Built between 295 and 305 A.D. as a residence for the retirement of Emperor Diocletian, the Palace of Diocletian today encloses shops, houses and restaurants within its original walls, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

At the center of the palace, the Peristyle, a ceremonial courtyard still used for public events, preserves Egyptian sphinxes brought to Split by the emperor himself.

Just steps away, the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, derived from the mausoleum where Diocletian would have wanted to be buried, is among the oldest cathedral buildings still in use in the world — an irony not to be overlooked, given that the emperor persecuted Christians.

Descending toward the sea, one walks along the Riva, the palm-lined waterfront that closes the day among outdoor cafés and moored fishing boats.

The palace's underground chambers, once warehouses and cellars, have survived nearly intact beneath street level and today allow you to walk directly beneath the very rooms where the emperor lived.

Diocletian had Christians executed during his reign: that his tomb became a cathedral remains one of the sharpest reversals of fortune in all of Dalmatia.