CC Travel Blog

Mar, 2009

Dubrovnik is an important stop in Croatia, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979. Hailed as “The Pearl of the Adriatic”, in its heyday, Dubrovnik was a bustling, flourishing city protected by its mighty defensive walls.

Dubrovnik is a kingdom by its own and it paid the sultan to leave them alone during the time that the Islam attacks Balkans. When Venetians controlled Dalmatian, Dubrovnik paid them off again with 1200 gold coins a year. It is fair to say that throughout time Dubrovnik maintained its independence and freedom. Along the way to the fortified city, we saw a fortified wall, which was built by the Dubroniks to defend their independence. They inscribed a latin sentence on the wall that says “we will not sell our freedom for all the gold in the world.”

Dubrovnik was built in the 14th century under the foot of a hill. The hill grows lots of oaktrees, in their language, dub means oakwood, so the name Dubrovnik originates from the oakwoods.

We met our guide at the west gate of the city, Pile Gate. The entrance to the city was guarded by a chain bridge that was built from the 16th century. In the Dubrovnik Republic days, only about one thousand people, mainly the nobles lived inside the city. Every night the bridge closes to prevent people from coming in.

On the entrance gate and throughout the city, St. Glaise statue is everywhere. St. Glaise is the saint of the city, also called the saint of throat, whic protects people from fish bones. Since Dubrovnik is a city near the water, protection from fish bones is evidently desired. Every year on Feb 4th, St. Glaise day is commemorated here.

Although Dubrovnik was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1975, the reputation did not protect it from the bombing of the war in Yogoslavia. Near the Pile Gate entrace, there is a map showing damages of the war to the city. Black dots are bombs on the roads and black triangles are damages on the roof. Over 400 people died during the bombing, out of a reputation of 3500 in the city, which is quite tragic.

Made a turn we entered a square facing the main road, which is called Placa or Stadun. On the right of the square is the Big Onofiro’s Fountain, commemorating an Italian who brought fresh water into the city.

To the left of the square is an old church in its original form called Church of St. Savior.

Looking back to the gate direction and look up, there are some of the original aqueduct pipes, thanks to the Italian.

Within citywalls, Dubrovnik is not a big city, so the main street is a broad limestone street, polished by the visitors steps.

There are 13 narrow side streets along Stradun, and they are great opportunities to explore the city’s life and history.

We followed our guide to one side street and stopped at the middle. It was the blocked front door entrance of an orphanage. St. Claire Convent nuns took care of the babies until they were 6 which are up for adoption. Ophans were the tragic results of the secretive connections between nobles and commoners. If a noble married a commoner, the noble became a commoner and the family bored the shame; therefore, ineligitimate babies were brought to the orphanage dark at night and thrown into the building through the windown. The mother usually broke a coin (Dubrovnik had its own currency) and put half into the babies clothings in case she wanted to reclaim them later.

Dubrovnik is not a big city, walking on Stradun, we could see that some side streets have steps leading to the city gate the the fortress walls.

Residents in Dubrovnik don’t need a dryer since the Bora wind from the sea can dry their clothes in a few hours. When there is rain, well, too bad, laundry has to wait.

Along Stradun, there are mainly souvenior shops. I can imagine in busy travel seasons how busy this main street will become with tourists bumping shoulders. Our guide told us that the Kras chocolate is quite famous and delicious and is their national brand of chocolate. So hide all your Lindts and give this Kras a chance, it’s not bad at all! And it’s not the first time I heard this, the guide from Pula also said the same thing.

Soon we reached the end of Stradun, which is a square where Orlando’s column is located.

But before we explore the square, we were led to another side street where the only Jewish synagogue is. The synagogue is now a museum with limited opening hours. It was established when the Jews emigrated into Dubrovnik in the 14th-15th century due to the crusade in Spain. Along with the Jewish immigrants they took with them a 13th century Toran that is still kept in the museum. In ordinary days no service is provided in the synagogue due to the lack of rabi. Besides the Jews, the Orthodox also has a church in the city to serve the small population of believers. This tells me how liberal to live in Dubrovnik and why the kingdom can be so long lasting in the war days.

Back to the square and now we can carefully observe the Orlando’s Column. It was established to pay respect to the soldiers of Dubrovnik who defended the kingdom’s freedom in the past.

Behind the column is the St. Blaise Church. Although it is not the Cathedral, it is a very important church for the town and becomes more crowded than the Cathedral in normal days. Besides its convenient footage, the beautiful altar is also a reason for the big attraction.

Opposite the church across the Column is the Sponza Palace which demonstrates the Venetian influence in Dubrovnik’s architecture. Today the palace is the city’s archive museum and also houses a memorior for the young men who defended the city during the Yogoslavia bombing.

Next to the palace is the clock tower. The clock tower has two brassmen hitting the bell. The interesting design about the tower is that after the right time, the men hit the bell again 3 minutes later to remind the time.

To the right of the bell tower is the City Hall and the ground floor cafe. The cafe is the most popular cafe in Dubrovnik and their pastries are recommended.

Outside of the City Hall there is a bronze statue of Marin Drzic, who is a famous Croatian writer who wrote just like Shakespear but was before his time.

Next to the City Hall is another grand building called the Rector’s Palace. This is where the nobles run the government. In their system, 12 nobles found a council with 12 members. Each month, one member was randomly selected to run the government. The Rector would move to stay in the palace for the ruling month without his family, so that all his decisions were his own with nobody to counsel. The building was also where prisoners were kept and the storage place for gun powder. In 1500, the canon and gun powder blew up the building twice; each time the building was rebuilt to its exact shape. Today it is a museum for the dungens, the Rector’s artifects, Dubrovnik coins and chops, and furnitures from the 16th century.

Turn right from the Rector’s Palace is the Gundulic Square, where the farmer’s market greet us. Wild aspagarus just came out onto the market. Croatians love flowers, there are always a few stalls selling beautiful fresh flowers.

Pass the farmers market and make a left turn we saw a small replica of the Spanish Steps. On the top is the St. Ignatius Church, a beautiful boraque style church that is always quiet. It is a nice place for prayers to clam their minds, even in busy travel season.

Another left turn around the block we arrived at the Cathedral. The real Cathedral was damaged during a few earthquakes and the rebuild makes the altar look too contemporary for a Catholic church. But the painting on the altar is straight from Titan.

Our tour group has a Catholic priest and he noticed the unusualness of a painting at the corner of the church. In most paintings, Jesus usually share a meal with his disciples, but in this one Jesus is feeding St. John.

From the Cathedral we walked outside of the city wall to a port with fish boats and a great view of the houses outside of the city. Across the port we saw a building with 5 windows, it is the quarantine house for Dubrovnik to prevent the spread of plaque. Visitors going into the city had to spend 40 days in the quarantine house because the disease took forty days to breakout. In Latin, the word for forty is quanta, which turns into quarantine in English.

Our tour ended at the port and we were given tickets to go to the city walls. The view of flat out orange roofs are fabulous. We walked all along the city walls, enjoying the breath-taking view of the fort, the city and the Adriatic Sea. Bora wind was very strong, at some spots I felt I was carried by the wind from the back and some spots I almost flew. You can hear the Bora wind from the video.

We looked down at the city and had a much better sense of the city layout.