In the spring of 1818, Emperor Francis I and his wife Caroline Augusta embarked on a journey through Croatia and visited the new regions that came under the Austrian crown after the fall of Napoleon. Upon his arrival in Split on May 12, the emperor was delighted by the remains of Diocletian's Palace, especially its Peristyle and Mausoleum. He also toured the remains of Roman monuments in Solin and viewed the antiquities collections of Carlo Lanza and Vicko Solitro, as well as the antiquities collected in the old Archbishop’s Palace. Accompanying the emperor, as His Majesty’s antiquarian, was the young Anton Steinbüchel, who published two articles in respected journals of the time in which he described the journey. He emphasized the antiquities they had seen, included transcriptions of certain inscriptions and sketches of reliefs, and called Salona the “Austrian Pompeii”. The logical consequence of the emperor’s observations and political ambitions, as well as the expert opinions of his associates, was the establishment of the Archaeological Museum in Split on August 22, 1820.

The museum did not initially have its own building, rather its collections were held in rented warehouses. In 1836, a building which would become the Museum’s primary department was constructed outside the eastern wall of Diocletian's Palace. Although the number of objects increased, the Museum had to leave the building and then change locations in the city several times. Finally, in 1868, it returned to the building along the Palace wall, and over time, due to lack of space, four more so-called departments (actually warehouses) were rented, because the museum’s collection now encompassed thousands of individual items. Due to their inadequate storage, as well as the impossibility of properly displaying and studying them, Don Frane Bulić invested all of his energy to ensure that the Museum could be suitably accommodated as soon as possible, and in 1891 he requested an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I. After years of debate over the site and approval of funding, construction of a new museum finally began in March 1912, and was completed in June 1914. The museum was designed by Austrian architects August Kirstein (1856-1939) and Friedrich Ohmann (1858-1927), who already had experience working on similar buildings. The First World War and events in Split immediately afterward delayed the relocation, furnishing and opening of the Museum. Thus, the Museum opened with little fanfare in 1922. The old building remained until 1928, when it was demolished.

The permanent display in the old building was very comprehensive. Viewing and study were further hampered by the fact that the exhibits were held in four other locations in the city. The new building had a spacious exhibition hall for smaller objects, a garden with lapidarium for stone monuments, and a cellar used for storage. This facility met the Museum’s needs until the 1960s, when its expansion was proposed and plans were made to construct an annex in its rear garden. However, this was never done, while the need for various repairs led to the remodelling of the attic into offices, the creation of two smaller exhibition halls on the ground floor and the partial construction of storage depots in the cellar. These works were completed in 1998. The issue of housing a large number of objects, mostly stone monuments, remained unresolved.

In the new building, the permanent display consisted of modern and practical display cases (which had lower compartments to store materials). This display was revised and updated on the Museum’s 130^th anniversary in 1951. The celebration of the Museum’s 150^th anniversary was an opportunity to install a new permanent display, based on the idea of architect Ante Svarčić. It opened on October 15, 1970. The removal of exhibits in July and August 1991 during Croatia’s Homeland War and the need for an updated presentation style resulted in  the third and then fourth permanent display, which was inaugurated on 18 December 2000. It was designed by architects Vinko Peračić and Sandra Mateljan.

The Museum launched its first excavations in Salona in October 1821, and the results served as an incentive to continue. Although the Emperor ordered the discontinuation of excavations in 1838, they were resumed in 1846 under the leadership of Francesco Carrara, who also conducted excavations in Gardun. After Carrara’s departure from the post of director in 1853, the Museum’s activities died down until the arrival of Francesco Lanza, the son of the first director, Carlo Lanza. However, it was only after the Museum’s top post was assumed by Mihovil Glavinić in 1872 that its activities gained considerable momentum. Since then, research has been expanded to increasingly encompass areas outside of Salona, and especially in Narona. In 1884, Don Frane Bulić became the Museum’s director. Thanks to his efforts, the excavations in Salona experienced a golden age, while the Museum also concentrated on exploring many other Dalmatian sites.

The Museum’s fieldwork was rich and diverse, with ups and downs dictated by the World Wars and economic crises. By the mid-20th century, the museum had explored all major Salonitan sites: Manastirine, Marusinac, the Episcopal Complex, Kapljuč, the Theatre, Forum, Amphitheatre, Hortus Metrodori, etc. Three volumes of the renowned Forschungen in Salona (I/1917, II/1926, III/1939) and two volumes of Recherches à Salone (I/1928, II/1933) were published on the basis of these excavations. These works in Salona continued in the latter half of the century. The most prominent were those conducted from 1969 to 1972 in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), and the excavations on a section of the Split bypass in 1986-1987, which prompted a resounding response throughout Croatia. The most notable research work on the island of Vis included the excavations of the Greco-Roman necropolises at Martvilo (1926, 1976, 1979, 1980) and Vlaška njiva (1983). In Narona, exceptional results were accomplished in the excavation of the Augusteum in 1995 and 1996, while excavations on Palagruža (the ‘island of Diomedes’) have been ongoing since 1992. The Museum also participated in the excavations of medieval churches at the Gospin otok site in Solin in 1972 and the exploration of the south-eastern section of Diocletian’s Palace in 1992.

Particular importance has been accorded to excavations at prehistoric sites: the Dugiš (Otok) stilt house settlement near Sinj in 1955 and 1956, Škarin Samograd Cave in Mirlović Zagora in 1958-1960, and the tumuli around the source of the Cetina River in 1953, 1954 and 1958, around Bogomolje on the island of Hvar in 1981 and around Vid in 1977. In the field of underwater archaeology, shipwrecks were explored on the Cape St. John near Viganj in 1971 and 1972 and in Vela Svitnja Bay on the island of Vis in 1972, 1973 and 1977. There are many other sites in Dalmatia that have been excavated, or which have yielded finds that have been examined by the Museum’s curators.

Roman-era Salona has been the primary focus of the Museum’s work since its establishment, so in 1898 Bulić arranged for the construction of a unique house, the Tusculum, to accommodate researchers working in the field and as a place for visitors to rest. This building has become a museum annex, with a security guard and several professional staff members constantly on site. Bulić’s memorial room was furnished on its ground floor in 1984. In 2008, the entire facility was renovated, the original decorations on the walls were restored, and the room dedicated to Bulić was remodelled. The Museum’s extensive activities in Issa and Narona led to the establishment of branch collections, and the collection in Vid grew into an independent museum that was opened on 18 May 2007.

The Museum’s archaeological collections consist primarily of materials gathered in its own research work, but also artefacts purchased from private individuals. There were also humorous situations, such as peasants selling sarcophaguses based on their volume, because they had been used to hold liquids. If the sarcophagi had inscriptions, they charged for them based on the size of the letters! There were instances in which they wanted to sell inscriptions to Bulić unseen, because word had spread that he would memorize and publish the inscription and then refuse to purchase it. In the first half of the 20^th century the Museum purchased several large collections: the antiquities collections of Ante Lukanović from Šibenik in 1926-1927, the late Greek pottery collect ion of the Lučić-Roki family from Vis and the gem collection of Robert Graf (previously owned by S. Meneghelli from Zadar) in 1927, 1929 and 1930 various ancient artefacts from Asseria held by Mića Novaković in 1929 and 1930, prehistoric artefacts from Otišić held by Drago Stojsavljević in 1939, and the coin collections of Karl Stockert from Vienna in 1926-1927, Jerolim Machiedo from Hvar in 1934 (by Remigi Bučić) and the Kalogjera family from Blato on Korčula in 1936-1937. Between the two World Wars, the Museum attempted to buy back the antiquities collection of the Dojmi family from Vis, but the negotiations failed. In 1944, it was found devastated and its remains were turned over to the Museum. In the latter half of the 20^th and the early 21^st century, the purchase of larger and smaller sets and individual important artefacts continued.

As of 2020, the Museum had tens of thousands of diverse archaeological items divided into the following collections: Prehistoric, Greco-Hellenistic, Roman-Provincial, Late Antique, Medieval, Numismatic and Epigraphic; then the Underwater Archaeology Collection, the Salona Branch Collection and Site, the Issa Branch Collection and Site, the Artworks and Artistic Crafts Collection, the Early Modern Collection and the Modern Era Collection.

It is notable that the ratio of pieces obtained through purchase is higher compared to those obtained by excavations was higher during the tenure of director Mihovil Abramić (1926-1941). One may say that archaeology “came to him,” and not the other way around. However, his simultaneous neglect of the inventory logs is equally notable. Today this is seen as a shortcoming, because the basic data about the place and method of procurement for some of the objects are absent. This lapse in sound museum practices began to improve after his departure.

Bulić’s commanding personality made an indelible mark on the Museum’s history. In museological terms, his most important legacy is the systematic cataloguing of the Museum’s entire inventory, including books. To this end, Bulić established 13 catalogues categorized by the type of material. Bulić was one of the central figures in Split at that time. He was the superintendant of the Classical Gymnasium and a professor, conservator, president of the Bihać Historical Research Society, and a member, secretary or president of various committees and commissions; he also participated in political life and received many dignitaries. He continually received requests for information and assistance from Croatia and abroad. No task was too difficult for him, and he managed to carry out virtually all of them. Therefore, it was justifiably observed that he always performed the tasks of an entire academy.

The Museum constantly performs its educational and cultural mission by exhibiting materials and maintaining monuments in the field. Its exhibition halls and excavation sites in Solin have been visited by many scholars, artists, crowned heads, politicians and ecclesiastical dignitaries, as well as school-age children, university students, and ordinary citizens. This is demonstrated by the signatures in the visitor logs, including those of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, former French Empress Eugenia, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Ivan Meštrović, George Bernard Shaw, Ante Trumbić, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Evans, Josip Broz Tito and Queen Margaret of Denmark.

The Museum’s staff grew quite slowly, and the post of director was not paid until Abramić’s tenure. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Museum had only two employees: a servant in Split (Jakov Kalaš) and a part-time watchman at the excavation sites in Solin (Ante Žižić, since 1898; he was employed full-time in 1905). In 1905, the Museum hired a temporary and then permanent assistant (Ivan Znidarčić). Bulić, although he was the director, did not draw a salary, because as of 1896 he was receiving a pension after being dismissed from the post of superintendent of the Classics Gymnasium. He constantly attempted to find someone else to help him, both in the preparation of documentation and restoration of artefacts, as well as for archaeological research. He only managed to get Mihovil Abramić hired as his deputy in 1920, while in 1923 Antun Grgin joined the staff as curator. He was succeeded by Cvito Fisković in 1936. The number of archaeologists gradually increased after World War II, and especially in the last two decades of the 20^th century. As of 2020, the Museum has 10 curators on staff. A similar situation proceeded with restorers and draftsmen: the first preparator (Ante Ercegović) was hired in 1926; then a stonemason in 1945, a photographer (Dragutin Stühler) in 1948, an architect in 1988, and so forth. Today, the Conservation and Restoration Department has 8 people on staff. The library was initially administered by Bulić, and later cataloguing was assumed by the Museum’s support staff, i.e., one of the curators. The Museum only hired a professional librarian in 1950 (Neda Anzulović), while an additional librarian joined the staff in 1993.

The Split Museum takes pride in the fact that the ranks of its curators and directors include members of science academies, university professors and the winners of national awards, both Croatian and foreign, and that it has contributed significantly to the work of the Croatian Archaeological Association. This was achieved thanks to the Museum's extensive holdings and an inspiring atmosphere rooted in its reputation and tradition.

Also noteworthy is the Archaeological Museum’s close collaboration with the Conservation Office and the Bihać Association dedicated to historical research of the wider region. Conservators appointed by the Central Commission for the Investigation and Preservation of Monuments in Vienna had been active in Dalmatia since 1856. In the wider Split environs, this task was performed by Bulić as of 1883; he was appointed to head the Provincial Conservation Office of Dalmatia after its establishment in 1913, and he was joined by Ljubo Karaman in 1919. The office had its headquarters in the Museum and this union of sorts would last until 1945, when it became completely independent. In addition to the Conservation Office, the Museum also served as the headquarters of the Bihać Association, which was headed by Bulić until his death. Established in 1894, the association also exhibited a permanent collection of its artefacts in the Museum. As the work of the Bihać Association was came to a virtual halt at the beginning of World War II, a controversy arose over whether its inventory belonged to the Archaeological Museum or the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments, which ended with the transfer of most of the Bihać collection to the latter museum between 1953 and 1957.

Until 1910, when the Ethnographic Museum was established, there was no other museum and gallery institution in Split besides the Archaeological Museum. The latter therefore also collected this type of evidence of the past, even though such materials were otherwise not under its purview. This is due primarily to the enthusiasm of its directors, who were interested not only in archaeology but also history, old and rare books, maps, archival materials, artworks... Among the earliest directors, the father and son Carlo and Francesco Lanza certainly stand out, as they had their own collections. Also noteworthy was the industrious and versatile Francesco Carrara and, of course, Frane Bulić. Thanks to this approach to heritage, an entire art gallery was collected in the Museum, in which the oldest work is the triptych of the Madonna and Child with the Saints (ca. 1325). This is followed by works of art from all periods up to the 20^th century, including works by Jacobello del Fiore, Angel Ossaman, Emanuel Vidović and Vlaho Bukovac.

Unlike this collection, which mostly remained in the Museum, many objects and monuments that did not fit in the Archaeological Museum in terms of their dating and theme were ceded to other institutions after World War II, mostly to the Split City Museum and the Ethnographic Museum, but also the Maritime Museum in Split and the Heritage Museum in Perast.

A special unit is the Museum’s vast Library, which was established in 1845. Initially, its books were obtained either by purchases or donations, and then later in exchange for the Museum’s journal Bullettino di archeologia e storia dalmata. Over time, books came to the Library from as far afield as the United States and China. Today it contains about 60,000 volumes, among them the particularly valuable Dalmatica and complete sets of various scholarly journals. Among its old and rare books, noteworthy are the eight incunabula and approximately 170 books from the 16^th century, as well as proclamations, old maps and a collection of prints. The Library also has an archival collection vital to the history of Dalmatia, containing the bequests of Don Frano Bulić, Mihovil Abramić, Luka Jelić, Francesco Carrara, Julije Bajamonti and the Pavlović-Lučić family.

In 1878, Mihovil Glavinić and Josip Alačević launched the Museum’s journal, Bullettino di archeologia e storia dalmata, which in 1920 changed its name to Vjesnik za arheologiju i istoriju dalmatinsku. The pages Bulletino/Vjesnik featured texts related to the territory from northern Dalmatia to Kotor Bay and spanning the period from prehistory to the 19^th century. Vjesnik was not limited to archaeology and history, as it also contained works about art history, preservation of monuments, restoration, literary history, etc.

Excluding the publications printed to accompany 1^st International Congress of Early Christian Archaeology in 1894, until 1973 the Museum’s publishing activities were limited exclusively to Bullettino, i.e., Vjesnik. Then an extensive guide to the Museum in Croatian and English was published, while in 1974 Nenad Cambi’s book on the Early Christian basilica in Stobreč was published. This was followed by various exhibition catalogues and books. Notable among the latter are the four books of the Salona series (I/1994, II/1995, III/2000, IV/2010) that were the fruit of many years of collaboration with French archaeologists, published by the École française in Rome, and then the three-volume Radovi XIII. Međunarodnog kongresa za starokršćansku arheologiju [Works of the 13^th International Congress for Early Christian Archaeology] in 1998 and the Corpus inscriptionum Naronitanarum I. in 1999. The “Catalogues and Monographs” series launched in 2008 is an entirely separate and noteworthy unit.

Due to specific spatial constraints, i.e., there is no separate hall for occasional exhibitions, the Museum did not organize exhibitions until the mid-20^th century, rather it took exhibits or copies thereof on loan, thus participating in various cultural events. Among the older examples, most notable are the Archaeological Exhibition in Vienna in 1893, the Austrian Exhibition in London in 1906 and the Archaeology Exhibition as part of the larger International Exhibition of Art in Rome in 1911. The museum organized its first solo exhibition in 1959 in the cellars of Diocletian’s Palace, and on that occasion it exhibited 25 ancient sculptures. This was followed in 1965 by the exhibition “Portrait Art of Salona”. The last two decades of the 20^th and the early 21^st century have seen something of a boom in exhibitions that seem to come one after the other. Some of them made guest appearances in other cities and even abroad, and to the extent possible the exhibitions were accompanied by catalogues, from simple pamphlets to monographs.

After organizing the 1^st International Congress of Early Christian Archaeology in 1894, the next gathering was organized by the Museum only in 1970, under the title Disputationes Salonitanae. Three more conferences under the same name followed, in 1979 (on the 100^th anniversary of Vjesnik), in 1984 (dedicated to Bulić) and in 1992 (dedicated to old Croatian Solin), as well as the 13^th. International Congress of Early Christian Archaeology, held in Split and Poreč in 1994. The proceedings of Disputationes II , III and IV were printed in Vjesnik (77/1984, 79/1986, 85/1992), while the proceedings of the first Disputationes and the 13^th Congress were published as separate editions (1993 and 1998).

The Museum communicates with the public through the Museum Events, the first of which was held in 1978 and the fifth in 1998. These combine performances, scholarly lectures, music, special exhibits and presentations of the Museum. Event IV in 1996 was entirely dedicated to ancient hairstyles in the form of photo sessions and exhibitions.

The Museum initiated the creation of the statue of Don Frano Bulić by the academy-educated sculptor Kažimir Hraste, which was unveiled in Solin in 1992. Another interesting detail is that in 1984 the feature film House on the Sand by director Ivan Martinac was partially shot in the Museum.

Keeping pace with modern museological trends, the Museum strives to get as close as possible to the broader public by organizing workshops for children and adolescents, publishing guides adapted to them. It is also active on social media and has its own Facebook page.

The Museum has received a number of awards for its successful endeavours.

 

Museum directors