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LandmarkHub · 1stop1st c. BC – 7th c. ADTicketed

Salona – Solin

Martia Iulia Valeria Salona Felix

city · Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia

What it is
Salona was the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and one of the largest cities of the late Empire, and its ruins lie in the fields of Solin, 6 km from Split: city walls, an amphitheatre, a theatre, baths, a forum, and churches and cemeteries that make it a major site for early Christian architecture.
What you’ll see
A spread-out archaeological park rather than a single monument: the ruins run across fields and roads between the houses of Solin, and English Wikipedia calls it the largest archaeological park in Croatia.
Worth the trip?
Yes, if you give it time and imagination. This was a capital city of tens of thousands, and walking its streets, churches and cemeteries is a different experience from Split's single palace.
Getting there & cost
Salona is in Solin, about 6 km from Split (en.wikipedia). The ticket office and small collection are in the Tusculum, the museum's building at Don Frane Bulića 91 by the Manastirine cemetery (the operator).Ticketed · €8 for adults · checked 26 September 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A wide green field scattered with the low stone walls and foundations of Roman buildings, with trees behind and bare limestone mountains on the horizon under a blue sky.
The ruins of the eastern town around the episcopal centre, below the mountains behind Solin. · Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The oval of a Roman amphitheatre with a lawn for its floor, surrounded by the broken lower walls and stairs of its seating, a single stone arch standing in the foreground and mountains beyond.
The amphitheatre, at the western edge of the city. · Photo: Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Tumbled stone blocks and slabs in the grass in front of the low walls of an early Christian basilica, with two slender columns standing and a line of dark cypresses behind.
Manastirine, the early Christian basilica and cemetery outside the walls where Saint Domnius was buried. · Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Walking route

HSalona1
Schematic, generated at build time from each stop's coordinates; no streets are drawn. Some positions are approximate, so the route is a guide, not a path. Open on the interactive map →

Walk it in this order

About 2.1 km and 27 minutes on foot from the centre of Salona, plus time at the stop.

  1. 1
    Diocletian's Aqueduct

    aqueduct

    Free

Walking times are estimates: the straight-line distance × 1.3 for streets, at 80 m a minute.

The stops

  1. A tall arcade of pale limestone arches on massive piers, seen from below at an angle, with a narrow road passing under the nearest arch and a road sign at its foot.

    Photo: Draceane · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    Stop 1 · aqueduct · Split-Dalmatia County

    Diocletian's Aqueduct

    The channel runs through cuttings and tunnels or is dug into the rock, and where it crosses low ground it rides on arches (hr.wikipedia).

What is there today

A spread-out archaeological park rather than a single monument: the ruins run across fields and roads between the houses of Solin, and English Wikipedia calls it the largest archaeological park in Croatia. The walls, forum, theatre, amphitheatre, public baths and aqueduct are the most conspicuous remains (en.wikipedia).

The amphitheatre

At the western edge of the city stands an amphitheatre of the second half of the 2nd century, built into a hillside, with three storeys on the south side and one on the north. It measured about 125 by 100 m and held an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 spectators. Christians were executed here during Diocletian’s persecutions. The Venetians demolished much of it in the 17th century for strategic reasons, so only its lower structures and fragments of its decoration survive (en.wikipedia).

The Great Thermae

The best-preserved and largest of the city’s baths, built in the 2nd or early 3rd century in the eastern town: a rectangular building with apses, a cold pool, changing rooms with benches and wall niches for clothes, a massage room, and hot rooms and a sauna (en.wikipedia).

The theatre

A theatre of about 65 by 58 m, built in the 1st century AD, beside the forum in the oldest part of the city; a temple to Dionysus or Liber stood south of it (en.wikipedia). Little more than the outline of its seating is visible.

Manastirine

Outside the walls lies Manastirine, a basilica and cemetery where the bishop Saint Domnius was buried after his execution in the amphitheatre in 304. A three-aisled basilica was built over the ruined complex in the mid-5th century, and Christians were buried around it as close to the martyr as they could be; many sarcophagi remain (en.wikipedia). The ticket office is in the Tusculum building beside it.

Also on the circuit are the Porta Caesarea, the gate of the early city, with two octagonal towers and three passages; the episcopal centre, twin basilicas, a baptistery and a bishop’s palace of the 5th century; and stretches of the aqueduct Augustus built to bring water from the river Jadro (en.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you give it time and imagination. This was a capital city of tens of thousands, and walking its streets, churches and cemeteries is a different experience from Split’s single palace. But almost everything is at foundation level, spread over a large area, and much of it is unshaded, so on a hot afternoon it can feel like a long walk through fields of stones. Go in the morning, start at the Tusculum, and combine it with Diocletian’s Palace, built by the emperor who was born here.

Getting there

Salona is in Solin, about 6 km from Split (en.wikipedia). The ticket office and small collection are in the Tusculum, the museum’s building at Don Frane Bulića 91 by the Manastirine cemetery (the operator).

The site is open every day: 09.00 to 20.00 from June to September and 09.00 to 18.00 from October to May, and it is closed on public holidays. A ticket is €8, or €4 for children, pupils, students and pensioners, and free under six; a combined ticket with the Archaeological Museum in Split, valid for seven days, is €10 (Archaeological Museum in Split, read 26 September 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Daily 09.00–20.00 from 1 June to 30 September, and 09.00–18.00 from 1 October to 31 May. Closed on public holidays.
Tickets
€8 for adults; €4 for children, pupils, students and pensioners; €15 for a family; free under 6. A combined ticket with the Archaeological Museum in Split, valid 7 days, is €10 (children €5). Guided tours for groups of up to 30 cost €70 (informator) or €120 (curator).
Parking
No car park is mapped close to the site in OpenStreetMap; the ticket office is the Tusculum building at Don Frane Bulića 91, Solin (the operator).

Before you go

  • The site is large and largely unshaded; the remains are spread across fields between Solin's houses and roads.

Hours and prices checked 26 September 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Salona grew up on the river Jadro in the 3rd century BC, near the Greek towns of Tragurium and Epetium, in the territory of the Illyrian Delmatae. It became the capital of Dalmatia because it sided with Caesar in the civil war against Pompey, and was made a colony, probably under Caesar. Its walls, first built in the 2nd century BC, were extended around 170 under Marcus Aurelius to take in the eastern and western suburbs, with at least 90 towers. Diocletian was born here and built his retirement palace 6 km away (en.wikipedia).

The city prospered into late antiquity: churches, an episcopal basilica and martyrs’ shrines were built in the 4th and 5th centuries, making Salona a key site for the history of Christian architecture. It was the last residence of the last Western emperor, Julius Nepos, from 476 to 480. In the early 7th century Avars and Slavs destroyed it; the date is disputed, traditionally 614, with opinions ranging from 608 to 639. Refugees took shelter inside Diocletian’s Palace, which became the town of Split (en.wikipedia).

More photographs

A stone-paved track running between the ruined masonry of two gate towers, overgrown with grass and shrubs, under a clear sky.
The Porta Caesarea, the gate of the early city. · Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A grassy hollow shaped like a half circle, outlined by a curve of stones where the seating stood, with fragments of masonry and a road and trees beyond.
The theatre, of which only the outline of the auditorium remains. · Photo: Following Hadrian · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Low stone walls of excavated rooms spread across a dry field, with the buildings of the modern town and a mountain ridge behind.
The remains of the baths in the eastern town. · Photo: Pudelek (Marcin Szala) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A paved Roman court lined on the left by an arcade of granite columns carrying round arches, closed at the far end by a pedimented front on four columns with an arched opening, with visitors standing in the sun.

    Photo: Following Hadrian · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons

    5 km · palace · Split-Dalmatia County

    Diocletian's Palace

    The palace is an irregular rectangle of roughly 215 by 175–180 m, laid out like a legionary fort, with towers on its three landward walls and a gate in the middle of each side.

  • A rectangular block of conserved Roman walls of rough limestone, about head high, with a row of sloping buttresses along one side, standing in grass with fields and low hills behind.

    Photo: Ante Perković · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    20 km · fort · Split-Dalmatia County

    Tilurium

    The camp covered about 12 hectares, and the village of Gardun sits over it (en.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 197488CC BY
Wikidata Q1258998CC0
Vici.org 2037CC BY-SA (text), CC0 (metadata)
OpenStreetMap way/555296067ODbL
Wikipedia (en) — SalonaCC BY-SA 4.0
Arheološki muzej u Splitu — opening hours (the operator)licence not recorded
Arheološki muzej u Splitu — ticket priceslicence not recorded