Live Music on Peristil Square: A Guide to Evenings at Lvxor, Split

Peristil is the central square of Diocletian's Palace, closed on three sides and ringed by the Corinthian columns the emperor raised at the start of the fourth century. It is faced in stone that returns sound instead of swallowing it.

Lvxor plays on that square every evening from 1 April to 31 October. Here is everything worth knowing before you come.

When the live music plays

From 1 April to 31 October the music plays every evening from 8 until 11, outdoors on the square itself. From 1 November to 31 March it plays on Friday and Saturday at the same hour, indoors under the stone vaults. The kitchen takes orders until 11.30 and the house is open until midnight, so dinner and the music overlap without anyone being hurried.

The music plays for guests at the tables and on the cushions on the steps.

What gets played

The set is acoustic: world music and older standards, songs like What a Wonderful World. The line up is guitar and voice, sometimes with double bass and saxophone. There is no stage, and the musicians play sitting on the steps of the square.

The room where the music plays in winter is a protected monument of the highest category in Croatia, with an interior from 1941.

Where you sit

Guests sit on deep red cushions beside small wooden tables on the ancient steps of the square. The cushions are outside all day, for as long as Lvxor is open, and on summer evenings they fill early, so it pays to arrive before the music starts. There is more on what an evening on the steps looks like in our guide to cocktails on Peristil.

On the steps we serve drinks, pizza and starters, from a morning coffee to Dalmatian wine and cocktails in the evening. The full menu is served at the tables indoors.

Do you book for the music?

No. You do not book for the music, because it is not a ticketed event but a programme that finds the people already sitting there. A reservation is for a table in the restaurant, not for a place in front of the musicians.

If you want a table indoors at that hour, especially in July and August, reserve ahead.

Live music and events on the square

Lvxor's acoustic set plays to the schedule above. Alongside it, events are staged on Peristil through the summer: klapa singing, folk dancing, sometimes a historical tableau with an emperor and Roman soldiers.

All of it can be watched sitting down from the cushions on the steps, with a glass of wine or a cocktail. The live music in front of Lvxor plays from 8 until 11, every evening from 1 April to 31 October and on Friday and Saturday from 1 November to 31 March.