The best museums in Split

Split's greatest museum is the city itself — a living Roman palace people still inhabit — but it also holds one of Croatia's oldest collections and the finest gallery of its greatest sculptor. Here are the museums and historic sites worth your time.

The cellars of Diocletian's Palace

Start underground. The vast Roman substructures beneath the palace once supported the emperor's apartments and now form an atmospheric series of stone halls (you'll recognise them from Game of Thrones). Above them, the Cathedral of St Domnius — built inside Diocletian's own mausoleum — and its climbable bell tower anchor the old town.

The Meštrović Gallery

A short walk west along the Marjan shore, the Galerija Meštrović is set in the seaside villa the sculptor Ivan Meštrović built for himself. It's the best single collection of his work anywhere, and the building and gardens are worth the trip on their own.

The Archaeological Museum

Founded in 1820, the Archaeological Museum is one of the oldest in Croatia, rich in finds from nearby Salona — the Roman provincial capital of 60,000 people whose extensive, near-empty ruins sit just outside the city at Solin.

City Museum & the galleries

The Split City Museum occupies the Gothic Papalić Palace in the old town, while the Gallery of Fine Arts (Galerija umjetnina) covers Croatian art across the centuries. For something stranger, the small, much-loved Froggyland displays a Victorian taxidermist's tableaux of frogs going about human life.

Many of Split's headline sights cluster inside the palace walls, so you can see a lot on foot in a day. Save Salona and the hilltop Klis fortress (both a short bus ride out) for a half-day of their own.

Staying in town? See our boutique hotels in Split, and read the best time to visit Split. For the back-story, our 50 things about Dalmatia has plenty on Diocletian and Salona.