Dubrovnik Old Town

An Adriatic old town ringed by massive stone walls, nicknamed the "Pearl of the Adriatic".

Dubrovnik was once the heart of a small but rich sea-trading state called the Republic of Ragusa, which governed itself from the 14th century until 1808. Its merchants and diplomats were famous for keeping the city free without big armies. In 1979 UNESCO named the Old City of Dubrovnik a World Heritage Site because of its outstanding medieval buildings and fortifications. Today it is one of the most visited places in the Mediterranean.

The city walls

The walls took their present size in the 13th century, and people kept strengthening them until 1660. They include sixteen towers, several fortresses, bastions, moats and two drawbridges. In places the walls rise up to 25 metres high, and on the land side they are 4 to 6 metres thick. As cannons became more powerful, builders made the walls lower and much thicker. The round Minčeta Tower, at the highest point of the city, guarded the northern side, and today you can walk the whole circuit on top of the walls.

History

The town, then called Ragusa, was probably founded in the 7th century by refugees. It grew rich through sea trade and was especially wealthy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its flag carried the Latin word "Libertas", meaning freedom. In 1667 a terrible earthquake killed more than 5,000 people and flattened most public buildings, but the strong walls survived. In 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, the city was besieged for seven months and damaged by shelling, and it was carefully repaired afterwards.

Visiting today

Visitors enter through old city gates and stroll along the Stradun, the old town's famous stone-paved street. Walking along the top of the walls gives views over the red roofs and the blue sea, and more than 1.2 million people did so in 2019. Dubrovnik is also a famous filming location: it played the city of King's Landing in the TV series Game of Thrones and appeared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

On the globe

The model shows the old town as a cluster of buildings inside a ring of massive stone walls on the edge of the Adriatic. Zoom in to follow the walls all the way around the town.