The first inhabitant of Split was the Roman emperor Diocletian who started to build his palace in this friendly bay around 293 AD. After his abdication he withdrew to this luxurious palace of about 30 thousand square meters.
The following turbulent centuries made the palace into a town first populated by the citizens of the nearby Salona, fleeing before Avars and Slavs. The town overgrew the walls of the palace and its authorities kept changing - from Croatian kings in 10th century AD, Hungarian and Venetian administration, to French rulers and Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Such past left its traces combined in the town everyday life. The city, however, went on remaining the centre of this part of the coast till our day. This mixture of historic layers brought some clumsiness and some things done too fast but today all that makes a part of its originality. 
The big city today lives by the silent beats of history, lively spirit of the young and its particular Mediterranean charm.