A
Croatian city rightfully called the '
Pearl of the Adriatic' for its idyllic location on
that coast, its beautifully preserved walls, and its proud heritage as an independent maritime republic. Sadly, Dubrovnik became one among the familiar images of the
Yugoslavian wars when it was besieged for over six months in
1991, but the wartime damage has been restored, and with it, Dubrovnik's status as the country's major attraction.
The History
Dubrovnik is believed to have been founded in
614 AD by settlers from the Roman settlement of
Epidaurus, now known as
Cavtat and a resort in its own right, taking refuge from
Avar and Slav nomads; the earliest church on the site of today's
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin appears to have a similar date. Like the other cities along the
Dalmatian coast, Dubrovnik became a dependency of
Venice during the medieval era; unlike them, it was freed from Venice in
1358, and remained a
city state until the time of
Napoleon.
The Republic of
Ragusa, as Dubrovnik was known in Europe until the twentieth century, had obtained its wealth by trading in silver from the mines at
Srebrenica, and competed for Mediterranean commerce with her former Venetian masters throughout the
Renaissance: the large merchant ships known as
argosies took their name from the Republic. Like Venice, she declined as a trading power after
sea routes to Asia were opened and made the overland routes through the
Ottoman Empire obsolete.
Ragusa maintained her independence by a
tribute arrangement with the Ottomans and centuries of intricate diplomacy, undeterred by the occasional death in prison of her ambassadors to
Constantinople. She shared the political system of her rivals Venice and
Genoa, ruled by a Rector with the assistance of the patrician class.
Superficially Italianate, Ragusa was nonetheless a leading centre of the Croatian language, and was the home of
Marin Držić (
1508-
1567), a playwright who occupies a role in Croatian literature comparable to
Shakespeare's. His fellow
Dubrovčanin Ivan Gundulić (
1589-
1638), the author of the epic poem
Osman, is almost as revered.
Much of medieval Dubrovnik was destroyed by the earthquake of
1667, and today's old town, thanks to energetically enforced municipal ordinances, still remains the product of the Baroque reconstruction, give or take a stray
satellite dish. A nobleman by the name of
Marojica Kaboga had been in prison when the earthquake struck for murdering his father-in-law in front of the
Rector's Palace; he emerged from the rubble, found that most of his fellow patricians had headed for the hills and so organised the city's defence, for which his portrait still hangs in the palace today. There's got to be a
zombie movie in there somewhere.
Dubrovnik was occupied by the French in
1808, during the
Napoleonic Wars, and handed over to the
Habsburg Monarchy in the peace settlement of
1815. When the Monarchy dissolved during
World War I, Dubrovnik's incorporation into Yugoslavia was never seriously contested, and the city became one of the Adriatic's leading resorts, declared a
World Heritage Site by
UNESCO in
1979.
Dubrovnik and the War
Although the area was demilitarised according to UNESCO requirements, Dubrovnik still became a target of
Belgrade's army, the
JNA, during the war in Croatia; there's some speculation that the JNA's top brass had offered
Montenegro the prize of looting the region to cement their allegiance as junior partners. The JNA's operation, initiated on
October 1, 1991, swept north along the coast through Cavtat and the village of
Konavle before beginning to shell Dubrovnik on
October 21.
The siege received much attention in the Western media, which used the images of the historic harbour under fire to back up their portrayal of Belgrade's forces as barbaric, in a way reminiscent of the press reaction in
1914 to the Germans' sack of the Belgian university city of
Leuven.
Pavle Strugar, the Montenegrin commander of the siege, has since been indicted, alongside several subordinates, for
war crimes.
The Croatian government was hardly ignorant of Dubrovnik's propaganda value, and a convoy of yachts was organised to draw attention to its plight, spearheaded by the
Slavija-I which carried on board
Stipe Mesić, now Croatia's president, and the well-known singer
Tereza Kesovija, whose home in Konavle had been burned down, with 700 others, in the Montenegrin attack.
A Serb-Croat agreement was concluded on
September 30, 1992, in which the JNA withdrew from the Croatian coastline and Croatia evacuated the northern Bosnian town of
Bosanski Brod, possibly reflecting a secret deal between
Slobodan Milošević and the Croatian leader
Franjo Tudjman to co-operate in the partition of
Bosnia.
Reconstructing Dubrovnik was a priority for the government, knowing full well the role tourism would play in the Croatian economy; in today's old town, the abundance of fresh
roof tiles, and the memorial to the defenders of Dubrovnik in an anteroom of the
Sponza Palace, is the most apparent testament to the privations of the war.
What to See
Dubrovnik's charm is the maze of alleyways to either side of the old town's main street,
Stradun, which don't exactly lend themselves to planned
walking tours. Better to head up a stairway and duck under an arch or two, head back downhill if you get thoroughly lost, and don't always count on finding the same chapel
twice.
Rather than plunge straight in, however, the best introduction to Dubrovnik is to walk along the walls, to which the steps are conveniently located just inside the
Pile Gate where the buses pull up. Climb to the top of the
Minčeta Fortress, which you'll come to recognise in miniature porcelain form in every
souvenir shop worth its name, skirt around the top of the harbour, and peer into one or two
back gardens if that's your cup of tea.
The lad on the kiosk in the Minčeta with his radio permanently tuned to the incongruous sound of
Eminem should have been kicked out by the time you get there.
Most of Dubrovnik's other trademark monuments are along Stradun or the adjoining square,
Luža, which is dominated by
St. Blaise's Church -
St. Blaise, or
Sveti Vlaho as the locals know him, is the city's patron saint and as ubiquitous in Dubrovnik as is the
Lion of St. Mark in former Venetian cities throughout the Mediterranean. The steps of
Sv. Vlaho are the location, on summer Sundays after the church service, for performances of the neighbouring island of
Korčula's traditional dance, the
Moreška.
Dubrovnik's ideal for small-scale
cloister-hopping, with the
Franciscan and
Dominican monasteries within a few minutes' walk of each other; the Dominicans have a particularly impressive treasury of Renaissance
martyrdoms, although you'd need to drop into the Cathedral of the Assumption, the other side of Luža, for the
reliquaries supposed to contain the sacred body parts of miscellaneous saints. A waxy-looking
St. Sylvan is interred in a transparent case under one of the main altars of
Sv. Vlaho.
Turn right off Luža, into
Gundulićev trg - Gundulić Square, dominated by his statue with reliefs of scenes from
Osman across its pedestal - and up the copy of the
Spanish Steps, and you'll come to
St. Ignatius' Church, a grand Baroque edifice and a hidden treasure in a quiet, dusty square. Turn left off Luža instead, and you'll find yourself in the tranquil old harbour, the perfect viewpoint for the Adriatic
sunsets or the clouds gathering above the wooded island of
Lokrum.
The city museum is housed in the Rector's Palace, and Marin Držić's house, on the south side of Stradun, fills in the cultural side of Dubrovnik's heritage. An English-language
audio guide is available in the house on request, although doesn't warn the visitor to mind their head on the Renaissance ceilings and the life-size
mannequins of Držić characters dangling from them.
During the summer, the city hosts the
Dubrovnik Summer Festival of drama and classical music; the annual centrepiece is a performance of
Hamlet in Croatian at the
Lovrijenac Fortress, just outside the walls, which bears over its entrance the typically Ragusan slogan
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro - '
Liberty is not sold for any kind of gold.'
Lovrijenac makes for a suitably craggy surrogate
Elsinore, and the title role's generally taken by one
Goran Višnjić, better known as
Luka Kovac in
ER, who somehow worked one of his
Hamlet speeches into the episode with the
dominatrix.
After All That, I Think I Need a Drink
Eating and drinking in Dubrovnik is a matter of location; the
Café Cele, slap bang next to St. Blaise's, is as good as any, although there are numerous bars tucked into the streets off Stradun and on a morning when the
cruise liner is in town it's
every man for himself. Between the two palaces,
Gradska Kavana, with its waistcoated waiters, is one for the
Habsburg nostalgists, and a handy refuge if the wind starts to whip the wrong way.
The street above Stradun,
Prijeko, alternates almost entirely between restaurants and
pizzerias, but a quick wander turns up the same fare in more congenial surroundings: opposite the Cathedral, for instance, or in the cloister of what used to be the convent of
St. Clare.
Perhaps the most atmospheric one of all is a nameless café south of Stradun clinging on to the rock and looking on to nothing but Lovrijenac and the sea; but as with much else in Dubrovnik, it's to be happened upon, and not directed to.
Sources:
Francis W. Carter, Dubrovnik: A Classic City-State, for Ragusa's golden age, or for a quick introduction to the region, Marcus Tanner's Croatia.
Laura Silber and Allan Little, The Death of Yugoslavia, on the war years.
Personal experience.
Cletus the Foetus says: Also, it's worth mentioning that while Venice had the merchants, Ragusa had the sailors, and that it was Ragusans who brought coffee to Britain. Also, the Republic of Ragusa was the first foreign nation to recognize US independence.
Omnidirectional Halo says: It's worth noting that Montenegro has since officially apologized profusely to Croatia for the shelling and relations are now very good between the two countries.