Beyond the emperor's walls, Split keeps its culture in villas, fortresses and courtyards: Meštrović's sculpture house above the Adriatic, six centuries of Dalmatian painting by the Golden Gate, and a 1979 concrete youth centre where the city's bands still play.
Ivan Meštrović built this villa as his own home and studio between 1931 and 1939; today marble, bronze and wood sculptures fill the halls and the terraced gardens above the sea. Summer hours Tue–Sun 09:00–19:00.
A 16th-century fortified summer house Meštrović bought to hold his life's work: 28 walnut-wood reliefs of the Life of Christ, carved over four decades, line the walls of the small Chapel of the Holy Cross inside the courtyard.
Croatia's only museum of the early medieval Croatian state: carved pleter interlace panels, stone inscriptions naming 9th-century dukes Trpimir and Branimir, and grave jewellery, displayed in a stark 1976 modernist hall.
Six centuries under one roof, from 14th-century Dalmatian altarpieces through Emanuel Vidović's misty Split harbours to postwar abstraction, inside a converted early-1900s hospital pressed against the Golden Gate wall.
Founded in 1820 and purpose-built in 1914 for finds from Roman Salona: sarcophagi lining an arcaded courtyard, the Good Shepherd sarcophagus, Greek pottery from the colony of Issa, and thousands of Latin inscriptions.
The 1893 neo-Renaissance opera house on Trg Gaje Bulata, rebuilt after a 1971 fire that gutted the auditorium. It houses resident opera, ballet and drama companies, with a season running from October to June.
Set in the Gothic Papalić Palace attributed to Juraj Dalmatinac, with its carved courtyard staircase and mullioned windows. Rooms trace the city after Diocletian: guild banners, weapons, and Marko Marulić's printed works.
Split's art-house cinema, tucked into a building on the palace wall beside the Golden Gate. It screens European and Croatian films in the original language with subtitles, and the courtyard bar stays busy long after the last reel.
The open Pazar market east of the palace wall and the 1890 Art Nouveau fish hall on Marmontova, famously free of flies thanks to the sulphur springs beneath it. Traders set up from 06:30 and pack down around 13:00.
The stone fishermen's quarter climbing Marjan's lower slope, built with no plan into narrow stepped alleys. At its centre stands the 12th-century Romanesque church of St Nicholas, a barrel-vaulted single nave with a bell gable.
Inside the 17th-century Gripe Fortress, raised against Ottoman advance. The galleries hold Adriatic shipbuilding models, amphorae from wrecks, and Ivan Lupis's 1866 self-propelled torpedo, the first of its kind anywhere.
The never-finished 1979 concrete youth centre beside Koteks, now the home of Split's independent scene: Klub Kocka gigs in the raw basement hall, film nights, and studios used by artists' and theatre collectives.