Ten minutes inside Split's Temple of Jupiter

One room off the Peristyle

The temple went up between 295 and 305 AD. Christians turned it into the baptistery of St John the Baptist, probably in the 6th century, and that is what you see today. A 13th-century font stands in the middle, put together from older carved altar-screen panels. Behind it is Ivan Meštrović's dark bronze of John the Baptist. The sarcophagi of two medieval archbishops of Split sit along the walls, and Diocletian brought the sphinx outside it from Egypt.

The chamber is small and the doorway is narrow. Admission comes with the cathedral complex ticket, so if you want more than 10 or 15 minutes out of it, buy the one that also gets you into the cathedral and up the tower.

Which colour ticket to buy

Tickets are colour-coded and sold at the kiosks on the Peristyle. Blue costs €9 and covers the cathedral, the crypt and the baptistery, which is the temple. Red is €10 and adds the treasury. Green at €12 is the cathedral, the bell tower and the treasury, so it leaves the temple out. Purple at €15 covers all five sites.

For the temple plus the climb, ask for purple. If the queue on the square is long, there is a second ticket office behind the temple that is usually quieter.

The cathedral and the climb

Across the Peristyle from the temple, the Cathedral of St Domnius was built as Diocletian's own tomb and became a cathedral in the 7th century. Go in for the walnut doors at the entrance, carved with Gospel scenes, and for the dark octagonal room inside with its eight red granite columns. It is a working church with Mass through the day. Entry is free during Mass, and you will not get in with bare shoulders.

The Bell Tower of St Domnius is the one climb in the palace, 57 m of narrow stone and metal stairs up to an open platform. From the top you look down on the temple's roof and across the tiles to the harbour. The upper flights are open to the drop, so leave it if heights bother you.

Quiet hours in the lane

The baptistery is open 08:00 to 20:00, and from midday to 18:00 on Sunday. The Peristyle is the square every walking tour in Split stops at, and it is at its busiest mid-morning. Look at it before you commit to a queue. If the steps are packed at 10:30, come back in the late afternoon.

The Change of Diocletian's Roman Guard happens on the square at noon, with the Emperor, the Empress and Roman Praetorians. In 2026 it ran every day from 28 May to 27 September. The 2027 dates aren't out yet, so check before you go. Guided walks of the palace run every day and sell out on individual dates, so book a few days ahead if your plans are fixed.

Free Roman rooms nearby

The Vestibule is a few steps from the Peristyle and costs nothing. It was the way into Diocletian's living quarters, square on the outside and round on the inside. The dome has gone, so you stand in a tall brick drum open to the sky. Klapa singers use it for the echo.

Next door, the Ethnographic Museum Split is built into the emperor's apartments, and its stone terrace looks straight down into the Vestibule. Adults pay €7. It opens 09:00 to 16:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, with longer hours and a Sunday morning from June to August.

On the north side of the palace, the Golden Gate is free to walk up to. Meštrović's huge bronze of the bishop Grgur Ninski stands just outside it. Visitors rub the statue's big toe for luck and it is worn bright gold. The same sculptor made the John the Baptist inside the temple.

The cellars under the palace

If the temple is one small room, the Substructures of Diocletian's Palace are the opposite. They repeat the plan of the emperor's rooms above, so one walk through the heavy barrel-vaulted halls gives you the scale of the place. The central passage is lined with stalls and free to walk down. The ticket covers the empty side halls and costs €10 for adults, €8 reduced. You go down from the Riva through the southern gate, or by the steps at the south end of the Peristyle. From November to late March they open 09:00 to 17:00, with last entry half an hour before closing.

Coffee on the Roman steps

Café & Restaurant Lvxor is on the same lane as the temple, at the foot of the bell tower. The outdoor seating is cushions laid on the Roman steps with small tables between the granite columns. Breakfast starts at 08:00 and the kitchen takes orders until 23:30. From April to October there is acoustic music outside from 20:00 to 23:00, with the musicians sitting on the steps. A reservation holds you a table, not a place at the music.

Salona and Klis

If the palace leaves you wanting the Roman city it was built beside, go out to Salona in Solin, five kilometres northeast. Bus 37 from Sukoišanska street takes 15 to 20 minutes. You walk open ground past a half-ruined amphitheatre and the old ramparts, with stone sarcophagi among the cypresses at Manastirine. Adults pay €8, or €10 for a combined ticket with the Archaeological Museum in Split that stays valid for a week. It opens at 09:00 daily and closes at 18:00 in winter, 20:00 from June to September. There is no shade, so avoid the middle of a summer day.

Klis Fortress is the other half-day. It sits on a bare rock ridge 12 kilometres above the city, and bus 22 from the HNK stop goes there. It is open 09:00 to 19:00 every day, and tickets are €12 for adults and €4 for children under 15. The bus fare is €2 from a machine or ticket office and €4 if you pay the driver. Departures are not frequent, so check the timetable before you set out on a Sunday.

Closed days and booking

The baptistery opens late on Sunday, and the cellars close on 18 November, 25 and 26 December, 1 and 6 January and 28 March. Book a guided walk ahead if you want a fixed time; the rest you can buy at the door. See the Split guide for the rest of the city and the Split hotel search for a room near the walls.