Salona, the Roman City at Solin

Salona was the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and a city of substantial size, and Diocletian built his retirement palace a few kilometres down the coast from it. What is left now is a wide field of low walls, cypresses and olive trees on the edge of modern Solin: the outline of an amphitheatre at the far end, foundations of basilicas and baths, aqueduct arches, and the early Christian cemetery of Manastirine where carved sarcophagi stand in rows under the trees. The site is largely unroofed and unreconstructed, which makes it hard work to read and unusually peaceful for something this close to Split.

What's there

• Manastirine - the walled cemetery basilica with rows of carved stone sarcophagi under cypresses.
• The amphitheatre - the ground plan and lower vaults of the arena at the north-west edge of the site.
• The city walls and gates - long stretches of Roman wall with towers, cut through by later field boundaries.
• The Tusculum building - a small nineteenth-century house built by the site's excavator out of Roman fragments.

When to go

Spring and autumn, when the grass is green and the heat is bearable. There is almost no shade in the open parts and midday in July is unpleasant. Mornings are quiet, and the site is large enough to take two hours at a walking pace. Rain turns the paths between the fields to mud.

Practical notes

Salona is ruins at ankle height rather than standing architecture, and without a plan or a guide it can look like a rough field with old stones in it. Signage is sparse and some of it has faded. The site sits against a busy road and light industry, so the soundtrack is traffic. Most of the best sculpture was moved to the archaeological museum in Split long ago.

Nearby

Split and Diocletian's palace are fifteen minutes south, and the Klis ridge road climbs just behind.