The Golden Gate (, ), or "the Northern Gate", is one of the four principal Roman gates into the stari grad (old town) of

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

. Built as the main gate of

Diocletian's Palace Diocletian's Palace (, ; ) is an ancient Roman palace and fortress complex built at the end of the third century AD by the Roman Emperor Diocletian as his retirement residence. About half of the complex was for Diocletian's personal use, with th ...

, it was elaborately decorated to mark its status. Over the course of the Middle Ages, the gate was sealed off and lost its columns and statuary. It was reopened and repaired in modern times and now serves as a tourist attraction.

History

The gate stood at a terminal point of the road which led north towards

Salona Salona (, ) was an ancient city and the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and near to Split, in Croatia. It was one of the largest cities of the late Roman empire with 60,000 inhabitants. It was the last residence of the final western ...

, Diocletian's birthplace and the capital of the Roman province of

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

. It was probably used by Diocletian to enter the palace after his

abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the Order of succession, succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of ...

from the imperial throne on 1 May 305. The Romans of

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

called the structure ''Porta Septemtrionalis'' ("Northern Gate"). In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, its name was changed to ''Porta Romae'' ("Roman Gate"); the name "Golden Gate" seems to date from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, making its first appearance in the 1553 itinerary of the Venetian trade unions Died and Giustiniana. Amid the upheavals of the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

in the 6th century, small churches were built over the Golden,

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, and

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

gates. Dedicated to St. Martin, the church of the Golden Gate occupies a narrow corridor (1.64 x 10 meters), which had been used as a guard passageway in the time of Diocletian. St. Martin's Church was later augmented by a

pre-Romanesque The Pre-Romanesque period in European art spans from the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom around 500 AD, or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the Romanesque period in the 11th century. While t ...

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

. Demolished in the 19th century, this was similar in style to the still-surviving bell tower of the Church of Our Lady of Zvonik above the Iron Gate. The sieges of the early Middle Ages prompted the town's inhabitants to close off the gate, using a smaller and more defensible passageway in its place. In more settled times, a new gate, the Door of Picture, permanently superseded the Golden Gate as the main entrance to the city on the north side. In or around 1630, the Venetian governor Alvise Zorzi ordered the disassembly of eleven Roman towers on the north and east sides of the palace wall, sending the stone blocks to Venice to be used in the construction of

Santa Maria della Salute Santa Maria della Salute (; ), commonly known simply as La Salute (), is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at the Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice, Italy. It stands on the narrow finger of Pun ...

. Among the casualties of this project were the two octagonal towers flanking the Golden Gate. The gate was only re-opened in 1857, in an undertaking which necessitated the demolition of houses which had been built up against the north wall of the palace. Much accumulated earth was cleared away, but around 2 meters of the gate and wall remain below ground level. The most recent reconstruction was carried out by the metropolis in the first years of the new millennium, with the gate covered in a building wrap from 2012 until 2015. As of 2020, the structure was open to the public.

Description

The Porta Septemtrionalis was the "main landward gate" of Diocletian's palace, located in the middle of the northern wall. Its exterior opening measures 4.17 by 4.36 meters; above the lintel is a 3.02-meter-high arch composed of 19 stone blocks. The double doors of the gate were set into this opening, which could also be closed by a

portcullis A portcullis () is a heavy, vertically closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications. It consists of a latticed Grille (architecture), grille made of wood and/or metal, which slides down grooves inset within each jamb of the gateway. ...

. Between the inner and outer openings of the gate is a courtyard ( propugnaculum), once overseen by guard passageways built into its upper walls. The inner gate opens onto the

Cardo Maximus A ''cardo'' (: ''cardines'') was a north–south street in ancient Roman cities and military camps as an integral component of city planning. The ''cardo maximus'', or most often the ''cardo'', was the main or central north–south-oriented str ...

, at whose opposite end is the Bronze Gate. Centuries of soil accumulation at the base of the wall have reduced the openings in the gate from 6.5 to fewer than 4.5 meters in height. 20130603 Split 085

Set into the facade of the gate are five niches, two on each side of the central arch and one above. Four of these once housed statues of the

Tetrarchs The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by Roman emperor Diocletian in 293 AD to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the ''augusti'', and their junior colleagues and designated successors, the ''caesares''. ...

Diocletian Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...

Maximian Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...

Galerius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; Greek: Γαλέριος; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. He participated in the system of government later known as the Tetrarchy, first acting as '' caesar'' under Emperor Diocletian. In th ...

and

Constantius Chlorus Flavius Valerius Constantius ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as Caesar (title), ''caesar'' ...

. Modern restorers note that the fifth, central niche was made too shallow to hold a statue, to leave room for the portcullis to retract into the upper part of the gate. The same examination found no evidence of statues having stood in the other niches, and the restorers express doubt that the decoration of the gate was ever finished. The upper three niches are incorporated into a

blind arcade Blind often refers to: * The state of blindness, being unable to see * A window blind, a covering for a window Blind may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Blind'' (1987 film), a documentary by Frederick Wiseman about t ...

of seven arches. Formerly the arches were supported by columns, whose bases stood on

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

projecting from the facade. These columns have since disappeared, although five of their

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

remain, still affixed to the underside of the arcade. The undersides of the corbels are decorated with carved

acanthus Acanthus (: acanthus, rarely acanthuses in English, or acanthi in Latin), its feminine form acantha (plural: acanthae), the Latinised form of the ancient Greek word acanthos or akanthos, or the prefix acantho-, may refer to: Biology *Acanthus ...

, with the exception of those immediately over the gateway, which display sculptures of small humanoid faces with horns (one set of which has been broken off) and animals' ears. A modern scholar found these faces "not unlike medieval devils" in appearance. Above the arcade are four plinths; some reconstructions of the gate prefer these, rather than the niches, as the location of the Tetrarchs' portrait statues.

John Bryan Ward-Perkins John Bryan Ward-Perkins, (3 February 1912 – 28 May 1981) was a British classical archaeologist and academic, specialising in ancient Rome. He served as director of the British School at Rome from 1946 to 1974. Family and early life John B ...

sees the style of the gate as influenced by the architectural practices of the eastern

Roman provinces The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as gover ...

, particularly

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. He cites such "typically Syrian" features as the "combination of an open arch with a horizontal lintel ndthe bracketing out on consoles of hedecorative arcade". The outer gate was defended by two

octagonal In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a hex ...

towers, since lost. The surface of each tower on the ground floor was about 60m², the inner diameter 8.53m, and the side 3.41 m. There were no corresponding structures on the inner face of the gate. The towers and their connecting walkways could be entered only through passages built into the palace wall and had no doorways on the ground floor.

Gallery

File:SPLIT-Porta Aurea restitution.jpg , Reconstruction of the 5th century Porta Aurea File:SPLIT-Porta Aurea remains 1910.jpg , View of The Golden Gate ca. 1910, Photo by E. Hébrard and J. Zeiller, Spalato, le Palais de Dioclétien, Paris, 1912. File:Zlatna vrata.jpg , The Porta Aurea, during cleaning and restoration 2007

References

External links

Zlatna vrata u Splitu - putovnica.net
(accessed 23.06.2019.)
Zlatna vrata - visitsplit.com
(accessed 23.06.2019.) {{Landmarks in Dalmatia World Heritage Sites in Croatia Buildings and structures in Split, Croatia Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Croatia Romanesque architecture Churches in Croatia Tourist attractions in Split-Dalmatia County City gates in Croatia

History

Description

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links