Dubrovnik Things to Do Tips by TheWanderingCamel

No visitor to Dubrovnik can fail to be impressed by the walls that surround the oldest part of the city. Begun in the 13th century and made even more formidable in the 14th and 15th centuries as the threat from the Ottomans increased, they rise to a height of 25 metres and more, with numerous bastions and towers along their length. 6 metres on the landward side (the main threat to the city was considered to be from the Turks who would come from the east, the Ottoman Empire boundaries were only a couple of kilometres over the mountains ), 3 metres thick on the seaward side and over 2 kilometres long, they are considered by many to be the finest city walls anywhere in the world.

The biggest tower is the Minceta Tower at the highest point of the city. The Bokar Tower was built in 1453 to protect the Pile Gate and the little port that lay in the bay below. Fortress Lovrijenac is not part of the walls but protects the western end of the city from its position on a high rocky crag. Two more fortress towers - St John and St Luke - protect the seaward corners and in between there are numerous squared forts and round bastions. The protection they offered the city was such that these walls were never breached - the terrible months of the bombardment of the city by Serbian forces and the damage that wrought seem very far away now and the restored walls seem as impregnable as they ever were once more.

The high road to the south offers particularly good views though there are very few stopping places. Taking a boat ride also offers excellent closeup views of the walls and several of the towers and bastions.

Click for panorama photo

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Nowadays two gates allow entrance through Dubrovnik's massive walls - the Pile Gate and the Ploce Gate. Once there were four but the others, the Peskarija and the Ponta Gates have long-sice been filled in.

Most visitors enter through the Pile Gate, on the city's western approach. A stone bridge crosses the now-waterless moat (there's gardens here now). A wooden drawbridge comes next before you actually walk through the huge gate. Even then there is a double gate - the outer one built in the mid-16th C and, finally, the inner gate which was built in 1460.
Across the city, the eastern gate, the Ploce Gate, also has two two separate gates - the inner one just 2 metres wide, and a wide, outer gate that leads onto a stone bridge. Niches over both bridges hold statues of the city's patron saint - Sveti Vlaho. St Blaise.

St Blaise - Sveti Vlaho in Croatian - was an early Christian bishop who was martyred in 316AD. He became the patron saint of Dubrovnik in 972 following his appearing in a vision to warn the Rector (the city's elected governor) of an attack the Venetians were planning on the city. The warning gave the city time to prepare and to repel the attack. Following this St Blaise was adopted as the city's patron saint and you will find images of him, usually holding a model of the city in his hand everywhere, most importantly, in his own church, right on the Placa, the city's main square.

The statue over the Ploce Gate is the oldest representation of the saint in Dubrovnik.

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The views of Dubrovnik from the walls make all the effort worthwhile.

Queues can be long (get there as early as you can, or wait until late in the afternoon - both times are better for photos anyway).

If the middle of the day is the only time you can make it, it will be hot - and there's no shade (wear a hat and carry some water though you will find drink sellers along the way).

There are lots of steep sections and stairs along the 2km long walls (wear sensible shoes and take it easy if the hips and the knees aren't what they used to be)

Your reward will be wonderful views of the city, the harbour, the sea and the area all around. The terracotta roofs of the city spread out before you, broken by domes and towers. You'll find yourself looking right into the gardens and houses you can only imagine lie behind the walls of the narrow streets below and the hour you have allowed yourself may well stretch to two or more.

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Directions: The ticket office is up the stairs immediately to the left as you enter the Pile Gate.
Audio guides are available for a small charge
Keep your ticket - the wall is in two sections and you will be asked to show it to access them both.

Dubrovnik is made for walkers. Opening out from the main gates is the wide main thoroughfare known as Stradun (or Placa) that runs all the way from the Pile Gate to the Ploce Gate effectively dividing the city into two halves. Once the division was even more apparent - it marks the line of a sea passage that passed betwen the mainland and a small island just offshore. The channel was filled in in mediaeval times and the wide street paved with white limestone. The stones we walk on today were laid in 1468 - no wonder they are worn so smooth. The rich and powerful made the seaward side of the city their own and today this is is where you will find the city's grandest buildings such as the the Rector's Palace and the cathedral. The steep streets and stairways of northern side of Stradun were where the ordinary citizens lived.

Don't restrict your exploration of Dubrovnik to just Stradun and the main tourist sights. Take some time to wander in the shade of the side streets, to climb some of the steep stairs and to explore the quiet alleys. As well as lots of small restaurants and everyday shops you'll find a city going about its daily life - children playing, neighbors talking, washing drying overhead. The further away from the tourist-filled Stradun you take yourself, the more you will see of this side of Dubrovnik.

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Just about the first building you'll pass as you enter Dubrovnik through the Pile Gate is the Church of Sveti Spas (Holy Saviour), one of the few buildings in the city that date from the years before the great earthquake of 1667 that destroyed more than three-quarters of the city. The church was built between 1520 and 1528 in thanksgiving for the city surviving a previous earthquake and legend says the women of the city, both rich and poor, carried the stones for its construction, and also that they strengthened the mortar between them with milk and egg white. Whether it was those ingredients that kept the building standing or not, isn't it fitting that a church built in gratitude for surviviving one such calamity should survive a later similar catastrophe?

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One of the first things you'll see as you enter the old city of Dubrovnik through the Pile Gate is a monumental domed fountain. This is the Velika Onofrio Fontana (Onofrio's Large Fountain. Like the Sveti Spas church opposite, the fountain is a survivor of the earthquake in 1667 which destroyed so much of the city. Named for its Italian designer, Onofrio de Cava, the fountain was built in 1444 as part of the city's water supply. Back then there would have been a constant parade of people coming to collect their daily water supply from one of the fountain's 16 mask-decorated spouts. These days, its role is more as a tourist photo opportunity and meeting place than essential city service but the water is still cool, fresh and safe to drink - if you can get near it.

Down at the other end of the Stradun, near the bell tower, you'll find the fountain's litle sister - known as Onofrio's Small Fountain. Far more delicate, this fountain is the work of a sculptor, Pietro di Martino, working to a design by Onofrio de Cava. It dates from 1442, two years earlier than its larger counterpart up the road.

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Dubrovnik's main thoroughfare, Placa (more usually known as Stradun) runs right through the old city - and it is thronged with people, day and night. It's wide, white limestone paving is worn smooth with all the footsteps that have passed this way over the more than 500 years since it was first laid down. The street is lined with cafes and shops - magnets for the tourists that crowd the city every day. The charming shop fronts are a traditional design - a wide arch with a narrow door and window in a single frame that allows the door to be closed whilst the window remains open to the street. It's known as na koljeno ("like a knee") and is to be seen all over Croatia. As you would expect, most of the shops along here cater for tourists with a variety of souvenirs, jewellery, boutiques and the like.

The lovely carved stone portal that opens in the long south wall of the the church of the Franciscan monastery flanking the street next to Sv Spasa Church just inside the Pile Gate, dates from 1498 and is the sole feature of the church to have survived the great earthquake of 1667. Take a few minutes to look in on its cool grey and white interior before you continue down the street.

At its end, Stradun opens out into the main square, Luza, which is dominated by the city's Bell Tower. If I were you at this point, I'd take a seat at one of the numerous cafes in the square - the perfect spot for some serious people-watching and a cool refreshing drink - sightseeing and shopping is thirsty work.

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So, you've walked down Stradun, and now you're here in Luza, the main hub of Dubrovnik's historic old city. Decision time - are you going to take a break from sightseeing and stop at one of the square's numerous cafes for a cold beer (Croatian beer is very good, wonderful on a hot day) or a coffee as you watch the passing parade - that's what the locals come here for - and soak up the atmosphere, or are you going to check out the various buildings and other features here? You'll want to do both of course, it's up to you which takes precedence.
Me - I'm heading for that cafe in the corner.

You'll find the pretty Sponza Palace tucked into the north corner of the square, its Gothic and Renaissanace style clearly showing the Venetian influence seen in so many of the city's buildings. Since it was completed in 1522 - this is one of the few buildings in the city to survive the earthquake of 1667, the palace has served as customs office, state mint, bank and treasury. Nowadays it's used to house the city's archives though the ground floor is used for exhibitions and is open to the public.

The Latin inscription on the palace loggia bears witness to the importance placed on honesty - FALLERE NOSTRA VETANT ET FALLI PONDERA - MEQUE FONDERO DUM MERCES, PONDERAT IPSE DEUS (Do not cheat or falsify the measures; while I am weighing the goods, God is weighing with me). The little statue facing the palace on the column in the middle of the square was a part of that too - this is Orlando, whose right arm, from fingertips to elbow was the Republic's official measure of length.

You can't miss the Town Belfry - look up when the clock strikes and you'll see the "Greenies" - bronze figures who strike the bell. Both these figures and the bell tower itself are modern replacements of the tower and figures that were first erected here in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The original figures can be seen under the loggia of the Sponzo Palace.

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Tenancy of the Rector's Palace was both an honour and a duty for the nobility of independent Dubrovnik. They served the city in a monthly rotation, leaving wives and family at home elsewhere in the city for their time in office and were virtually confined to barracks - allowed only to leave the Palace on official city business . This custom lasted for hundreds of years, until 1806, when the republic fell to Napoleon's army. All the clocks in the palace have been stopped at 5.45pm ever since in remembrance.

A palace has stood on this site since the 12th century, though the building we see today is a heavily restored medley of styles and periods, two huge powder explosions in the 15th century and and the earthquake in 1667 having wreaked considerable damage. Despite all that, it's a beautiful building with mellow stone vaulted arcades and a lovely inner courtyard. The courtyard is used for concerts during the summer months, and the museum includes the apartments of the Rector, th arsenal, courtroom and prison. The colonnaded front is particularly attractive, both for the decorative carvings on its pillars and for the shade it offers on a hot Dubrovnik day.

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Directions: Between Luza Square and the Cathedral
Open 9-7 every day in summer, 9-2 Monday-Saturday in winter
Entry charge for museum

St Blaise might be the patron saint of Dubrovnik but the city's cathedral, like so of its contemporaries, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Wherever you go in Dubrovnik, the huge grey dome of the cathedral can be seen, floating over all the other rooftops. It crowns the elegant cream stone Baroque buidling that replaced the 12th century cathedral that was destroyed in 1667 by the great earthquake that shattered so much of the city. The beautiful altarpiece depicting The Assumption of Our Lady (attributed to Titian) was saved from the wreckage of that earlier cathedral and now takes pride of place in what is a essentially a very restrained, and beautifully light, interior.

The adjoining Treasury contains an impressive collection of gold and silver reliquaries, all containing the usual gruesome bits of saints, who it seems were never destined to be allowed to lie in their graves in peace, but whose skeletons were broken up into innumerable pieces and parcelled up in precious metals and jewels to be marketed to the faithful in a tradition that started with the Emperor Constantine's mother's return from the Holy Land in the 4th Century. Most of those in Dubrovnik's Treasury were brought to the city from Byzantium by returning sea captains. They include the skull of St Blaise, now encased in a golden crown, plus a bone from his neck and bones from both hands. All are held in great veneration by the faithful who believe that St Blaise (a 4th century Armenian bishop) protects the city still.

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