Basic facts about Split

Split is the largets city in Dalmatia and the second largest city in Croatia. Split is situated on the shores of the Meditrranean on the eastern Adriatic Sea. In the northern hinterland is Mosor the mountain, the mountain range in northwest Kozjak and east of the mountains Perun.
The old town center is located at the eastern end of the Marjan peninsula.
Split is an important regional transit center as well as a popular tourist destination. Split is also one of the oldest city in area and the city was originally built around the Diocletian palace.

History about Split

Split was originally a Greek colony on the Adriatic, Aspalathos. In the north of the city is the ancient Roman settlement of Salona. The most important building there is the ruined arena.
The nucleus of the city of Split is Diocletian's Palace, built by the Emperor Diocletian  in 300., and in the 7th Century the massive building was abandoned long ago to settle within its walls, the first inhabitants of Split.
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, Spalatum became a part of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium. It grew very slowly as a satellite town of the much larger Salona. However, around AD 639 Salona fell to the invasion of Avars and Slavs, and was razed to the ground, with the majority of the displaced citizens fleeing to the nearby Adriatic islands. Following the return of Byzantine rule to the area, the Romanic citizens returned to the mainland under the leadership of the nobleman known as Severus the Great. They chose to inhabit Diocletian's Palace in Spalatum, because of its strong (more "medieval") fortifications. The palace was long deserted by this time, and the interior was converted into a city by the Salona refugees, making Spalatum much larger as the successor to the capital city of the province.
The Medieval period in Split's Dalmatia province is marked by the waning power of the Byzantine Empire, and by the struggle of the neighboring powers, namely the Venetian Republic, the Kingdom of Croatia, and (later) the Kingdom of Hungary. During the 20-year Hungarian civil war between King Sigismund and the Capetian House of Anjou of the Kingdom of Naples, the losing contender,Ladislaus of Naples, sold his "rights" on Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for a mere 100,000 ducats. The much more centralized Republic took over the city by the year 1420, it was to remain under Venetian rule for 377 years (1420 - 1797).The population was by that time largely Croatian, but besides Slavic, the common language was also Italian (a mixture of Tuscan and Venetian dialects).
After a brief period of Napoleonic rule (1806–1813), the city was allocated to the Empire of Austria by the Congress of Vienna.
After the end of World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the province of Dalmatia, along with Split, became a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which in 1929 changed its name to Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Since both Rijeka and Zadar, the two other large cities on the eastern Adriatic coast, were annexed by Italy, Split became the most important port in Yugoslavia.
In April 1941, following the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Nazi Germany, Split was occupied by Italy and formally annexed one month later. Italian rule met heavy opposition from the Croat majority and almost a third of the total population joined Josip Broz Tito's Partisans.
After World War II, Split became a part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, itself a constituent sovereign republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When Croatia declared its independence again in 1991, Split had a large garrison of JNA troops (drafted from all over Yugoslavia), as well as facilities and the headquarters of the Yugoslav War Navy (JRM). This led to a months-long tense stand-off between the JNA and Croatian National Guard and police forces, occasionally flaring up with various incidents.
The most tragic such incident occurred in November 15, 1991, when the JRM light frigate Split fired a small number of shells at the city and surroundings. The damage was insignificant, but there were a few casualties. In this attack three general locations were bombarded: old city core, city airport and uninhabited part of hills above Kastela between airport and Split.