Brass Gate (Porta Aenea)
Modest Roman sea gate opening straight into the palace's vaulted substructures once used as an emergency escape route.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Brass Gate at Diocletian's Palace in Split opens with the emperor's famous put-down to the officials who begged him to return to power, delivered from the retirement compound he built on this coast in the year 305. It follows the smaller, plainer gate he actually used for his private route to the sea, distinct from the ceremonial Golden Gate, and the centuries it served afterward as the city's emergency exit whenever Split came under attack by land. You'll also hear what filled the vaulted halls just beyond the gate for hundreds of years before archaeologists began clearing them out in the twentieth century. Step through the opening and you're following the same route the emperor once took to his boat.
This audio guide was created using AI.