FAITH BEFORE SPLIT EXISTED
Salona's Early Christians: Three Cemeteries, Three Martyrs
Manastirine, Marusinac and Kapljuč — the three early-Christian burial grounds where Salona's martyrs were laid, and how their story runs into Split's.
See Salona tours on GetYourGuide ↗A Christian community inside a pagan capital
Long before Split existed, Salona had a substantial Christian community, organised enough to have its own bishops and to suffer, then survive, one of the Roman Empire's most severe persecutions. That persecution was launched under Diocletian — the very emperor Salona had produced — whose edicts from 303 AD onward targeted Christians across the empire, Dalmatia included. What followed in Salona wasn't the end of Christianity there but arguably its foundation story: the martyrs from these years were buried just outside the city walls, and the cemeteries that grew up around their graves became some of the most important early-Christian sites in the region, predating any Christian building in what's now Split by centuries.
Manastirine: Bishop Domnius's grave
Manastirine, immediately outside Salona's walls, grew up around the burial of Bishop Domnius, the senior figure of Salona's Christian community, traditionally martyred during the 304 AD persecution. A basilica and an extensive Christian cemetery developed on the spot in the centuries that followed, as other Christians sought burial near a martyr's grave — a common pattern across the early Christian world. Domnius's story didn't end at Manastirine: his relics were later moved into Diocletian's mausoleum in Split once that building was converted into a cathedral, and he became — and remains — the patron saint of Split. It's a direct thread from a grave outside Salona's walls to the cathedral at the centre of Split's old town today.
Marusinac and the martyrdom of Anastasius
A short distance from Manastirine, the cemetery at Marusinac grew around a different martyr: Anastasius, a cloth-worker originally from Aquileia, said to have been executed — by drowning, weighted with a millstone — after painting a cross on his workshop door as an open profession of faith during the same wave of persecution. A private mausoleum built for him, possibly as early as around 300 AD, drew pilgrims and further burials, and by the mid-5th century a dedicated basilica had been added to commemorate his martyrdom. Marusinac follows the same pattern as Manastirine on a smaller scale — a single burial becoming a magnet for an entire cemetery — and its excavated remains are one of the clearer examples of an early martyr's shrine anywhere on the Dalmatian coast.
Kapljuč and the Five Martyrs
The third of Salona's early-Christian cemeteries, Kapljuč, holds a basilica traditionally linked to five martyrs from the same persecution era, and is generally considered the oldest of the city's cemetery basilicas. Together, Manastirine, Marusinac and Kapljuč form a ring of Christian burial ground around Salona's edges — typical of the period, when Roman law required burial outside city walls and Christians, like everyone else, buried their dead along the roads leading out of town. What makes Salona's version unusual is the sheer density of named martyrs and basilicas packed into a relatively small area, evidence of how significant this provincial capital was to the early Christian church in the Balkans.
Salona's three early-Christian cemeteries
| Cemetery | Associated martyr | Notable feature |
|---|---|---|
| Manastirine | Bishop Domnius | Basilica; his relics later moved to Split's cathedral |
| Marusinac | Anastasius of Aquileia | Mid-5th-century basilica built over his mausoleum |
| Kapljuč | The "Five Martyrs" | Considered the oldest of Salona's cemetery basilicas |
Bishops, a cathedral, and a church that outlasted the empire
Salona's Christian community wasn't only defined by martyrdom — it also had organised leadership. Bishop Sympherius and his nephew Hesychius are credited with building a substantial three-aisled cathedral in the city around 400 AD, evidence of a confident, well-resourced church rather than a persecuted minority in hiding. That institutional continuity is arguably Salona's most underrated legacy: when the city fell in the early 7th century, its Christian identity — its saints, its relics, its bishopric — migrated with the refugees into Diocletian's Palace and became the founding church of Split. The cemeteries you can still walk today are where that continuity begins.