Diocletian's Palace in the context of "Split (city)"

Split (/splɪt/; Croatian: [splît] , see other names) is the second-largest city of Croatia after the capital Zagreb. It is the largest city in Dalmatia, largest city on the Croatian coast, and the seat of the Split-Dalmatia County. The Split metropolitan area is home to about 330,000 people. It lies on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and is spread over a central peninsula and its surroundings. An intraregional transport hub and popular tourist destination, the city is linked to the Adriatic islands and the Apennine Peninsula. More than 1 million tourists visit it each year.

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. 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.

Brač is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, with an area of 396 square kilometres (153 sq mi), making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is 5 to 13 km (3 to 8 mi) wide. The island's tallest peak, Vidova gora, stands at 780 m (2,560 ft), making it the highest point of the Adriatic islands. The island has a population of 13,931, making it also by population the largest island in Dalmatia and the third largest in the Adriatic. The island is divided in eight municipal units with twenty-two settlements, ranging from the main town Supetar, with more than 3,300 inhabitants, to Murvica, where less than two dozen people live. Brač Airport is the largest airport of all islands surrounding Split.

Brač is known as a tourist destination, for the Zlatni Rat beach in Bol, the marina in Milna, the white limestone which was used for the palace of Diocletian, the stone mason school in Pučišća, the Charter of Povlja, author and first president of Croatia Vladimir Nazor, its olive oil with protected designation of origin, the Kopačina cave near Donji Humac with archaeological findings dating to the 12th millennium BCE, the Blaca hermitage, and other things.

A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design. The barrel vault is the simplest form of a vault: effectively a series of arches placed side by side (i.e., one after another). It is a form of barrel roof.

As with all arch-based constructions, there is an outward thrust generated against the walls underneath a barrel vault. There are several mechanisms for absorbing this thrust. One is to make the walls exceedingly thick and strong – this is a primitive and sometimes unacceptable method. A more elegant method is to build two or more vaults parallel to each other; the forces of their outward thrusts will thus negate each other. This method was most often used in construction of churches, where several vaulted naves ran parallel down the length of the building. However, the outer walls of the outermost vault would still have to be quite strong or reinforced by buttressing. The third and most elegant mechanism to resist the lateral thrust was to create an intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles, thus forming a groin vault.

The Jadro is a watercourse in Dalmatia, Croatia, that discharges into the Adriatic Sea. The upper reaches of the Jadro River, as well as its source, Jadro Spring, are protected as an ichthyological nature reserve, partly due to the presence of an endemic species of soft-mouthed trout. The headwaters of the Jadro River were the original water supply for the ancient city comprised by Diocletian's Palace (now an area within the present day city of Split). Contemporary studies indicate favourable water quality levels of the river near the headwaters at Jadro Spring.

The Jadro flows through the town of Solin and has a length of approximately four kilometres' moreover, the river provides water to the cities of Split, Kaštela and Trogir as well as of municipalities Podstrana, Klis, Seget and Okrug. Incompliances with the regulations related to water for consumption occasionally appear due to turbidity caused by abundant precipitation.

The Temple of Jupiter (Croatian: Jupiterov hram) is a temple in Split, Croatia dedicated to the Ancient Roman god Jupiter. It is located in the western part of Diocletian's Palace near the Peristyle, the central square of the imperial complex. It was built between 295 and 305, during the construction of the Palace, and was probably turned into a Baptistery of St. John the Baptist in the 6th century, at the same time when the crypt dedicated to St. Thomas was built. Before the entrance to the Temple is one of the twelve sphinxes brought from Egypt by Emperor Diocletian. Scottish architect Robert Adam considered this temple to be one of Europe's most beautiful monuments.