The Golden Gate (Zlatna vrata) is the north gate of Diocletian's Palace in Split, the main entrance to the retirement palace the Roman emperor built around 300 AD. It opened onto the road to Salona, the capital of Roman Dalmatia. Look up inside the passage: a tiny early medieval church, St Martin's, is squeezed into the old guards' corridor above the gate.
The Golden Gate at a glance
- Where: in the middle of the north wall of Diocletian's Palace, at the end of the street that runs north from the Peristyle, with the Gregory of Nin statue just outside.
- Built: around 295–305 AD, as part of Diocletian's palace; the Church of St Martin above the passage dates from the 6th century.
- What it is today: a pedestrian entrance to the old town and part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the palace, restored in the early 2000s and again in 2012–2015.
- Time needed: 10–15 minutes; combine it with the statue outside and the walk down to the Peristyle.
From the emperor's gate to a city entrance
Diocletian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 284, built his palace on the coast near Salona to live in after he gave up power in 305. The palace was laid out like a fortified camp, with a gate in the middle of each of its three landward walls. The north gate was the grandest. The Romans simply called it Porta Septemtrionalis, the North Gate; the name 'Golden Gate' seems to come from the Renaissance and first appears in a Venetian travel account of 1553. It was a double gate: travellers passed through an outer opening into a small walled courtyard, the propugnaculum, where guards in the upper corridors could watch them before the inner gate let them in.
In the 6th century, as people from Salona took refuge inside the palace walls, the guards' corridor above the gate became the Church of St Martin. Around 1630 the Venetian governor Alvise Zorzi had eleven Roman towers pulled down, including the two octagonal towers that flanked the gate, and the stone was shipped to Venice for the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Over the centuries houses were built against the wall and the gate was blocked; it was only opened again in 1857. The ground outside has risen too: about 2 metres of the gate and wall are still below ground.
What to look for
- The niches: five niches are set into the façade. Four of them are thought to have held statues of the four rulers of the Tetrarchy: Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.
- The blind arcade: a row of seven small arches above the gateway, which once had columns standing on carved brackets. Look closely at the brackets for acanthus leaves and, over the gateway, small horned faces.
- The height: the arch looks squat because the ground level has risen. The opening was once about 6.5 metres high; today it is under 4.5.
- The propugnaculum: once through the outer opening, notice the small courtyard between the outer and inner gates, designed as a trap for unwelcome visitors.
- The Church of St Martin: a narrow early medieval church inside the old guards' corridor above the passage, only about 1.6 metres wide. It is not always open.
Why 'golden'?
Nothing on the gate was ever made of gold. The name seems to have been given by the Venetians in the 16th century, perhaps for its rich decoration or its role as the main gate; nobody knows for sure. Restorers even doubt that the decoration was ever finished: work on the palace seems to have stopped once Diocletian retired, and parts of it were left incomplete.
Tips for your visit
- Come early in the morning, before the tour groups, to see the façade without crowds and in soft light.
- Step back into the park outside to see the whole façade, the niches and the arcade together with the palace wall.
- Then walk through the gate and straight down the old Roman street inside: in a few minutes you reach the Peristyle, the route the emperor's road took into the palace.
Nearby
- Gregory of Nin statue: Ivan Meštrović's giant bronze bishop just outside the gate, with a big toe polished by visitors' hands.
- Peristyle: the colonnaded courtyard at the centre of the palace, a few minutes' walk south.
- Cathedral of St Domnius: Split's cathedral, built inside Diocletian's own octagonal mausoleum, next to the Peristyle.
- Croatian National Theatre: the theatre opened in 1893 on Trg Gaje Bulata, a few minutes' walk north-west.
See Split with World City Trail
Our Split scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around 2 hours, with about 20 minutes of walking. The Golden Gate is one of the stops, along with the Gregory of Nin statue and the Croatian National Theatre.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Split.
Play the Split scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Split →
Play the outdoor escape game in Split →
Facts checked in October 2026.