Split (; Croatian: [splît] ⓘ) is the second-largest city in Croatia, after the capital Zagreb, situated on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. As the administrative seat of Split-Dalmatia County and the largest city on the Croatian coast, it serves as a key economic, cultural, and transportation hub for the region. Developed around the historic core of Diocletian's Palace and extending across a central peninsula toward its surrounding suburbs and hinterland, Split combines a continuous urban tradition spanning more than seventeen centuries with a contemporary role as one of Croatia's leading tourist destinations. The city itself has a population of over 160,000, while the metropolitan area encompasses approximately 310,000 inhabitants.
The city was founded as the Greek colony of Aspálathos (Ancient Greek: Ἀσπάλαθος) in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE on the coast of the Illyrian Dalmatae, and in 305 CE, it became the site of the Palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian. It became a prominent settlement around 650 when it succeeded the ancient capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, Salona. After the sack of Salona by the Avars and Slavs, the fortified Palace of Diocletian was settled by Roman refugees. Soon after, Split became a Byzantine city. Later it drifted into the sphere of the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Croatia. For much of the High and Late Middle Ages, Split enjoyed autonomy as a free city of the Dalmatian city-states, caught in the middle of a struggle between Venice and Croatia for control over the Dalmatian cities.
Venice eventually prevailed and, during the early modern period, Split remained a Venetian city, a heavily fortified outpost surrounded by Ottoman territory. Its hinterland was won from the Ottomans in the Morean War of 1699, and in 1797, as Venice fell to Napoleon, the Treaty of Campo Formio rendered the city to the Habsburg monarchy. In 1805, the Peace of Pressburg added it to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and in 1806 it was included in the French Empire, becoming part of the Illyrian Provinces in 1809. After being occupied in 1813, it was eventually granted to the Austrian Empire following the Congress of Vienna, where the city remained a part of the Austrian Kingdom of Dalmatia until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and the creation of Yugoslavia. In World War II, the city was annexed by Italy, then liberated by the Partisans after the Italian capitulation in 1943. It was then re-occupied by Germany, which granted it to its puppet Independent State of Croatia (NDH). The city was liberated again by the Partisans in 1944, and was included in the post-war Socialist Yugoslavia, as part of the People's Republic of Croatia. In 1991, Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia amid the Croatian War of Independence.
Today, Split is a major transportation hub and a popular tourist destination attracting over one million visitors annually. Its historic core, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, reflects the city's continuous urban life from late antiquity to the present. The Port of Split is one of the busiest passenger ports in the Mediterranean and serves as a key gateway to the southern Adriatic islands, while the University of Split reinforces the city's role as a major educational and research centre. The city gained additional international recognition when it hosted the 1979 Mediterranean Games and 1990 European Athletics Championships.
Name
The name Aspálathos or Spálathos may come from the spiny broom (Calicotome spinosa, ἀσπάλαθος in Greek), although it is the related Spanish broom (Spartium junceum, σπάρτος) that is common in the area.
After the Roman conquest, the name became Spalatum or Aspalatum in Latin, which in the Middle Ages evolved into Aspalathum, Spalathum, Spalatrum and Spalatro in the Dalmatian language of the city's Romance population. The Venetian name, Spalato, became official under Venetian era, in international usage by the Early Modern Period and is still the name of the city in Italian. From the 10th century onwards, the local use was Spaleto, from where, through a stage *Spəlētu- to *Splětъ, came the South Slavic forms: the ekavian Splet, ijekavian Spljet and ikavian Split. In the 19th century, following the Illyrian movement and its official recognition by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Croatian names Split and Spljet became increasingly prominent, before Split officially replaced Spljet in 1910, by decision of the city council.
Formerly, the name was thought to be related to Latin palatium 'palace', a reference to Diocletian's Palace. Various theories were developed, such as the notion that the name derives from S. Palatium, an abbreviation of Salonae Palatium. The erroneous "palace" etymologies were notably due to Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, and were later mentioned by Thomas the Archdeacon. The city is several centuries older than the palace.
History
Antiquity
Although the beginnings of Split are traditionally associated with the construction of Diocletian's Palace in 305, the city was founded several centuries earlier as the Greek colony of Aspálathos, or Spálathos. It was a colony of the polis of Issa, the modern-day town of Vis, itself a colony of the Sicilian city of Syracuse. The exact year the city was founded is not known, but it is estimated to have been in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. The Greek settlement lived off trade with the surrounding Illyrian tribes, mostly the Delmatae.
After the Illyrian Wars of 229 and 219 BC, the city of Salona, only a short distance from Spálathos, became the capital of the Roman Province of Dalmatia and one of the largest cities of the late empire with 60,000 people. The history of Spálathos becomes obscure for a while at this point, being overshadowed by that of nearby Salona, to which it would later become successor. The Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled AD 284–305) in 293 began the construction of an opulent and heavily fortified palace fronting the sea, near his home town of Salona, selecting the site of Spálathos (or Spalatum in Latin). The Palace was built as a massive structure, much like a Roman military fortress. The palace and the city of Spalatum which formed its surroundings were at times inhabited by a population as large as 8,000 to 10,000 people.
Between 475 and 480, the Palace hosted Flavius Julius Nepos, the last recognised Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Salona was lost to the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 493, along with most of Dalmatia, but the Emperor Justinian I regained Dalmatia in 535–536.
Middle Ages
The Pannonian Avars sacked and destroyed Salona in 639; the surviving Romans fled to the nearby islands. The Dalmatian region and its shores were at this time settled by tribes of Croats, a South Slavic people subservient to the Avar khagans. The Salonitans regained the land under Severus the Great in 650 and settled the 300-year-old Palace of Diocletian, which could not be effectively besieged by the Slavic tribes of the mainland. The Emperor Constans II granted them an Imperial mandate to establish themselves in the Palace as the City of Spalatum, which imposed upon the Croatian Slavs – at the time allies of Byzantium against the Avars – a cessation of hostilities. The Temple of Jupiter was rededicated to the Virgin Mary and the remains of the popular Saint Domnius were recovered from the ruins of Salona, later establishing the Cathedral of Saint Domnius as new seat of the Archbishop of Salona.
Until the Sack of Constantinople, Split remained a de jure possession of the Byzantine Empire as a Byzantine duchy, administered by the Exarchate of Ravenna and after 751 by Jadera (Zadar).
Its hinterland was now home to the Duchy of the Croats. In this period, an independent Dalmatian language developed from Latin, with a distinct local dialect: to its inhabitants, the city became known as Spalatrum or Spalatro, one of the main Dalmatian city-states.
In 925, Tomislav's Kingdom of Croatia emerged in the hinterland of the city, centered in Nin as an ally of Byzantium against Simeon I of Bulgaria – though without receiving any power from the Emperor over the Dalmatian cities. The rise of the rival Bishopric of Nin, headed by Bishop Gregory, which attempted to institute the "Slavonic" or "Slavic language" as the language of religious service, led to the 925 Synod of Split, at which it was decreed that "no one should presume to celebrate the divine mysteries in the Slavonic language, but only in Latin and Greek, and that no one of that tongue should be advanced to the holy orders".
Historical affiliations
- Illyria (9th–3rd centuries BCE)
- Aspálathos (3rd century BCE – 219 BCE)
- Roman Republic (219–27 BCE)
- Roman Empire (27 BCE – 476)
- Odoacer's Kingdom of Italy (476–493)
- Ostrogothic Kingdom (493–535)
- Byzantine Empire (535–791)
- Francia (791–812)
- Byzantine Empire (812–998)
- Republic of Venice (998–1019)
- Byzantine Empire (1019–1069)
Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia ( Commune of Spalato) (1069–1091)
- Byzantine Empire ( Theme of Dalmatia) (1091–1096)
- Republic of Venice (1096–1105)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1105–1116)
- Republic of Venice (1116–1117)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1117–1118)
- Republic of Venice (1118–1124)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1124–1125)
- Republic of Venice (1125–1141)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1141–1171)
- Byzantine Empire (1171–1180)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1180–1244)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia ( Counts of Bribir) (1244–1327)
- Republic of Venice (1327–1357)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1357–1390)
- Kingdom of Bosnia (1390–1391)
- Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (1391–1403)
- Ladislaus of Naples ( Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić) (1403–1409)
- Ladislaus of Naples (1409–1420)
- Republic of Venice (1420–1797)
- Holy Roman Empire (1797–1805)
- First French Empire ( Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy) (1805–1806)
- First French Empire (1806–1809)
- First French Empire ( Illyrian Provinces) (1809–1813)
- Austrian Empire (1813–1815)
- Austrian Empire ( Kingdom of Dalmatia) (1815–1867)
- Austria-Hungary ( Kingdom of Dalmatia) (1867–1918)
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941)
- Kingdom of Italy ( Governorate of Dalmatia) (1941–1943)
- Greater German Reich ( Independent State of Croatia) (1943–1944)
- SFR Yugoslavia ( SR Croatia) (1944–1991)
- Croatia (1991–present)
In 1100, the bell tower which became the main symbol of the city was constructed and dedicated to Saint Domnius, by then regarded as the patron saint of the city.
Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries, Split was raided by the Narentines (a South Slavic confederation recognizing the King of Croatia as their sovereign). Therefore, the city offered its allegiance to Venice and in 998 the Venetian Doge Pietro II Orseolo, led a large naval expedition which defeated the Narentines the same year. After obtaining permission from Emperor Basil II in Constantinople, Orseolo proclaimed himself Duke of Dalmatia.
In 1019, the Byzantine Empire restored direct control over Dalmatia. The title "Duke of Dalmatia" seems to have been dropped at this point by the Venetian doges. In 1069, Peter Krešimir IV, King of Croatia, gained control over Dalmatian islands and cities, including Split, and stretched his rule south to Neretva. The coastal cities retained autonomous administration and were still nominally under Byzantine Empire, but were now subjects of the Croatian king.
After the death of Croatian King Stephen II in 1091, a period of succession crisis followed in Croatia, with King Ladislaus I of Hungary interfering in it. Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos took advantage of this and joined the old Theme of Dalmatia to the Empire. In 1096 Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, at the time engaged in the First Crusade, granted the administration of Dalmatia to the Doge of Venice.
In 1105, Coloman, King of Hungary, after entering personal union with Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia, reneged on its alliance with Venice and moved on the coastal towns, besieging and taking Zadar. Split and Trogir decided then to surrender upon guarantee of their ancient privileges.
The rights granted to the city (and reaffirmed by new charters) were substantial. Split was to pay no tribute, it was to choose its own count and archbishop whom the king would confirm, it preserved its old Roman laws, and appointed its own judge. Dues from trade (which were substantial in the period), were divided between the count, the archbishop, and the king, and no foreigner was to live within the walls of the city against the will of the citizens. These rights were generally upheld by Hungarian kings, but there were inevitable incidents of violation.
After Coloman's death in 1116, the Doge Ordelafo Faliero returned from Outremer and retook all the Dalmatian cities, and also, for the first time, the Croatian cities of coast such as Biograd and Šibenik. In 1117, he was defeated and killed in renewed battle with the Hungarians under Stephen II of Hungary, and Split again acknowledged Stephen's rule. The new Doge, Domenico Michiel, quickly defeated the Croats and Hungarians again and restored Venetian authority by 1118. In 1124, while the Doge was engaged against the Byzantine Empire, now hostile to Venice, Stephen II recovered Split and Trogir without resistance. Upon Michele's return in 1127, the Doge yet again expelled the Croats and Hungarians from the two cities and utterly destroyed Biograd, the favored seat of the Croatian Kings that the Hungarians were attempting to establish as a rival to the Venetian Zadar.
The cities remained in Venetian hands without contest during the reign of Béla II but in 1141, his successor, King Géza II, having conquered Bosnian lands, marched to Split and Trogir, both voluntarily accepting him as overlord. This turned out to be a definitive conquest, as Venetian rule was not to return to Split for another 186 years.
In that period, Split was to see one brief and final restoration of Imperial power in Dalmatia. The Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos began his campaigns against the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary in 1151, and by 1164, had secured the submission of the Dalmatian cities back under Imperial rule. Having won a decisive victory against Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary in 1167 at the Battle of Sirmium, consolidating his gains, the Emperor suddenly broke with Venice as well, and sent a fleet of 150 ships to the Adriatic. Split was to remain in Byzantine hands until Manuel's death in 1180, when Béla III of Hungary moved to restore his power in Dalmatia. The city remained loyal to the Empire, resisting the re-establishment of Hungarian rule, and consequently, upon its inevitable submission, was punished with the King's refusal to renew its ancient privileges.
During the 20-year Hungarian civil war between King Sigismund and the Capetian House of Anjou of the Kingdom of Naples, the losing contender, Ladislaus of Naples, sold his disputed rights on Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for 100,000 ducats in 1409. Acting on the pretext, the Republic took over in the city by the year 1420.