Vestibul

The Vestibul features four towering stone walls that frame a perfect square, open directly to the sky. It served as the grand entrance to the private imperial apartments of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Once shielded by a silk curtain and a dome, this space functioned as the threshold between the public courtyard and the emperor's living quarters. In the eighteenth century, local families built small houses against these ancient walls, and some of those stone structures remain lodged in the masonry today.