User:Saxum/Fortifications of Split

The fortifications of Split include a number of defensive walls, towers and bunkers built since the creation of the Diocletian's Palace in the late 4rd century up to the 20th century. The oldest fortified object in present-day Split is the Diocletian's Palace itself; the palace was constructed as a castrum, a Roman military camp featuring the emperor's chambers in the southern portion of the palace and housing for military personell in the nothern. The Palace had a

Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Italian Army quickly captured Split and anexed it into the Italian Kingdom. The Italians constructed a number of bunkers across Split and its surroundings, usually used as fortified machine gun nests for controling vital infrastructure and positions. After the Italian in surrender in September 1943, Split quickly came under the control of the Wehrmact.

Near the end of World War II, Split came under control of the Yugoslav Partisans and found itself in the new communist Yugoslavia. During the mid 1980s the Yugoslav People's Army began the construction of a underground missile base in Žrnovnica. The base measured sevan and a half thousand square meters of underground space fortified enough to whitstand a 20 kiloton nuclear strike. With the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence in 1991, the base came under the control of the of the Croatian Army, with parts of the base still in use today for storage of explosive ordanance such as the RBS-15 anti-ship missiles of the Croatian Navy.