Diocletian’s Cellars

Diocletian’s Cellars lie directly beneath the imperial apartments of Diocletian's Palace in the old town of Split. Built in the early 4th century under Emperor Diocletian, the cellars were designed to support the palace above, mirroring its layout and helping preserve it structurally over nearly two millennia.

In antiquity, the cellars were used mainly for storage and service functions, hidden from public view. Over the centuries, as the palace transformed into a living city, the underground spaces fell into neglect and were gradually filled with debris and waste. This accidental burial helped protect the architecture, leaving the vaults, arches, and corridors remarkably intact.

Today, walking through the cellars feels like entering the shadow version of the palace above. The massive stone halls are cool, dim, and echoing, with a distinctly underworld-like atmosphere. Their preserved state has also made them a popular filming location, most notably as Daenerys’ dragon dungeon in Game of Thrones. Diocletian’s Cellars are not a place of documented horror, but they are deeply unsettling in scale and silence — a reminder of imperial power built literally over darkness.