Dubrovnik Aquarium

The Walls of Dubrovnik (Croatian: Dubrovačke gradske zidine) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the citizens of the afterward proclaimed maritime city-state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), situated in southern Croatia, since the city’s founding prior to the 7th century as a Byzantium castrum on a rocky island named Laus (Ragusia or Lave). With numerous additions and modifications throughout their history, they have been considered to be amongst the great fortification systems of the Middle Ages, as they were never breached by a hostile army during this time period.[2] In 1979, the old city of Dubrovnik, which includes a substantial portion of the old walls of Dubrovnik, joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The oldest systems of fortifications around the town were likely wooden palisades. Today’s intact city walls, constructed mainly during the 12th–17th centuries, mostly a double line, have long been a source of pride for Dubrovnik. The walls run an uninterrupted course of approximately 1,940 metres (6,360 ft) in length, encircling most of the old city, and reach a maximum height of about 25 metres (82 ft). The bulk of the existing walls and fortifications were constructed during the 14th and 15th centuries but were continually extended and strengthened up until the 17th century. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/ancient-city-walls/

With beautiful views over Dubrovnik Old Town and Lokrum Island, Banje Beach is located in front of the eastern entrance to Dubrovnik Old Town (Ploče Gate), situated on the seashore of hotels Excelsior and Argentina. The beach has its reception, restaurant and sleek and minimalist cafe bar on the waterfront with often snobbish clientele. You can rent your deck chair and parasol, jet ski, speed boat, and god knows what else – it keeps changing from summer to summer. Banje is well known among visitors to the town so it can be very crowded in the summer seasons. https://www.dubrovnik-travel.net/banje-beach/

The origins of the Museum go back to 1872, when the Patriotic Museum was founded, for in its holdings it had a smallish collection of artworks of a cultural history character. More systematic collection of material began after World War II, thanks to the urging of the curator and first manager of the cultural history department, Dr Božo Glavić, to whom goes the credit for moving the collection into the Rector’s Palace and setting up the first in situ display, opened to the public in 1950. During the course of time, the collection turned into first a distinct department of the Dubrovnik Museum, and then into the Cultural History Museum, a component of Dubrovnik Museums. The holdings of the museum consist of material of distinctly cultural, historical and artistic value, with about ten thousand objects created over a time span from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 20th century. It has been systematised into fifteen collections featuring painting, printmaking, furniture, textiles, ceramics, metals, icons, glass, photographs and photographic materials, miscellanea, documents, postcards, the writer Ivo Vojnović, old weaponry and numismatics. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/cultural-history-museum/

Fort Lovrijenac or St. Lawrence Fortress, often called “Dubrovnik’s Gibraltar”, is a fortress and theater located outside the western wall of the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia, 37 m above sea level. Famous for its plays and importance in resisting Venetian rule, it overshadows the two entrances to the city, from the sea and by land. Early in the 11th century the Venetians attempted to build a fort on the same spot where Fort Lovrijenac currently stands. If they had succeeded, they would have kept Dubrovnik under their power, but the people of the city beat them to it. The “Chronicles of Ragusa” reveal how the fort was built within just three months time and from then on constantly reconstructed. When the Venetian ships arrived, full of materials for the construction of the fort, they were told to return to Venice. The Croatian leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place in Lovrijenac. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/fort-lovrijenac/

Just a breath away from Dubrovnik stands the mysterious island of Lokrum. It’s one of the World’s seven cursed islands. Lush Lokrum is a beautiful, forested island full of holm oaks, black ash, pines and olive trees, only a 10-minute ferry ride to Lokrum from Dubrovnik’s Old Harbour. It’s a popular swimming spot, although the beaches are rocky. Boats leave roughly hourly in summer (half-hourly in July and August). The public boat ticket price includes the entrance fee, but if you arrive with another boat, you’re required to pay 120KN at the information centre on the island. The island’s main hub is its large medieval Benedictine monastery, which houses a restaurant and a display on the island’s history and the TV show Game of Thrones, which was partly filmed on Lokrum. This is your chance to pose imperiously on a reproduction of the Iron Throne. The monastery has a pretty cloister garden and a significant botanical garden, featuring giant agaves and palms from South Africa and Brazil. Near the centre of the island is circular Fort Royal, commenced during the French occupation in the early 19th century but mainly used by the Austrians. Head up to the roof for views over the old town. To reach the nudist beach, head left from the ferry and follow the signs marked FKK; the rocks at its far end are Dubrovnik’s de facto gay beach. Another popular place for a swim is the small saltwater lake known as the Dead Sea. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/island-of-lokrum/

The Rector’s Palace (Croatian: Knežev dvor) is a palace in the city of Dubrovnik that used to serve as the seat of the Rector of the Republic of Ragusa between the 14th century and 1808. It was also the seat of the Minor Council and the state administration. Furthermore, it housed an armoury, the powder magazine, the watch house and a prison. The rector’s palace was built in the Gothic style, but it also has Renaissance and Baroque elements, harmoniously combining these elements. Originally it was a site of a defence building in the early Middle Ages. It was destroyed by a fire in 1435 and the town decided to build a new palace. The job was offered to the master-builder Onofrio della Cava of Naples, who had previously built the aqueduct. It became a Gothic building with ornaments sculpted by Pietro di Martino of Milan. A gunpowder explosion badly damaged the building in 1463. The renewal was offered to the architect Michelozzo of Florence. But he was rejected in 1464 because his plans went too much in the style of the Renaissance. Other builders continued the work. The capitals of the porch were reshaped in Renaissance style probably by Salvi di Michele of Florence. He continued the reconstruction from 1467 on. The building suffered damages from the earthquake of 1520 and again in 1667. Reconstruction was in Baroque style. A flight of stairs and a bell were added in the atrium. In 1638 the Senate erected a monument to Miho Pracat (by Pietro Giacometti of Recanati), a rich shipowner from Lopud, who had bequeathed his wealth to Dubrovnik. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/rectors-palace/

In 1872, the Patriotic Museum was founded in Dubrovnik; in the middle of 1873, the first museum display was made in the commune building. Among the exhibits, which were mainly from the period of the Dubrovnik Republic, the archaeological objects nevertheless stood out, for example, an Egyptian mummy, Greek vases and ancient amphorae. The donors were collectors, leading members of patrician families, sailors and Dubrovnik people living elsewhere. Foremost among them were the great benefactors and donors the Amerling brothers, who had been passionate advocates of the museum’s founding; they gave most of the Egyptian, Oriental and Japanese objects, birds, minerals and rarities of all kinds. In 1882, Arthur Evans, world-renowned archaeologist and initiator of archaeological research in the Dubrovnik area, gifted to the museum three Roman funerary inscriptions from Cavtat, the first entries into the book of donated and purchased objects. At the time the science of archaeology was being founded in Croatia in the early 20th century, lovers of antiquities gathered around the Dubrovnik branch of the Croatian Antiquarian Society in Knin and the Braće Hrvatskog Zmaja started to investigate the ruined Church of St Stephen, and after that it served as a temporary lapidarium for pre-Romanesque sculpture. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/archaeological-museum/

The Ethnographic Museum has its origins in the collection of traditional culture that began to be formed in the first decades of the twentieth century. Its holdings were very much enlarged with specimens of traditional attire and lace donated several times by that great benefactor of the museum, Jelka Miš (1875 -1956). In the course of time, the collection grew into the ethnological department of Dubrovnik Museum, and in 1950 opened its first display of original ethnographic folk handicrafts from the local area on the second floor of Fort St John. At the end of the eighties, the ethnographic department was relocated to the building of the Dubrovnik Republic’s granary, popularly known as Rupe/The Holes, which derives from the name for the underground grain storage areas carved out of bedrock or tufa. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/ethnographic-museum/

The Franciscan Church and Monastery is a large complex belonging to the Order of the Friars Minor. It consists of a monastery, a church, a library and a pharmacy. It is situated at the Placa, the main street of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Church and bell tower of the Franciscan church The earliest monastery was built in the 13th century outside the walls. A new monastery inside the walls and close to the Pile Gate, was built in 1317, but its construction took centuries. Parts of the complex were rebuilt several times. The church was destroyed by the earthquake of 1667. Amongst the losses was a statue by Pietro di Martino da Milano. The only element remaining is the decorated portal overlooking the beginning of the Placa, the main street of Dubrovnik. It was sculpted in 1498 in Gothic style by the workshop of the brothers Leonard and Petar Petroviċ. The almost life-sized Pietà in the central lunette, decorated with flamboyant leaves, is flanked by the figures of St. Jerome (holding a model of the pre-earthquake church) and St. John the Baptist. On top of the lunette stands the figure of the Father Creator. The interior of the church was reconstructed in Baroque style with a single nave. The marble pulpit survived the earthquake of 1667. The main altar with the statue of the resurrected Christ between four twisted marble columns was created by the sculptor Celia from Ancona in 1713. The five side altars were sculpted by the Venetian Giuseppe Sardi between 1684 and 1696. The decorations on the altar of St. Francis were painted in 1888 by the painter Celestin Medovic. The poet Ivan Gundulić is buried in this church. The monastery was built in 1360 in late Romanesque style by the master Mihoje Brajkov of Bar. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/franciscan-church-and-monastery/

The Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik was founded in 1945. The building now occupied by the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik was originally conceived and built (1935 – ­1939) as the showcase residential mansion of Dubrovnik ship owner Božo Banac, and in 1948 it was converted into exhibition premises and museum. It was designed by the well­known Croatian architects Lavoslav Horvat and Harold Bilinić in the neo­Renaissance­cum­Gothic style, along the lines of masterpieces of Dubrovnik urban and villa Renaissance architecture (the Rector’s Palace, the Divona/Sponza, the Sorkočević Villa and so on). Through the conversion works, nine exhibition rooms were created, along with two storerooms and some smaller working areas. Together with the large terraces looking on to the sea and its garden, the Museum has 900 square metres of indoor and over 1100 square metres of outdoor exhibition space. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/museum-modern-art/

The Sponza Palace (Croatian: Palača Sponza), also called Divona (from dogana, customs), is a 16th­century palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its name is derived from the Latin word “spongia”, the spot where rainwater was collected. The rectangular building with an inner courtyard was built in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style between 1516 and 1522 by Paskoje Miličević Mihov. The loggia and sculptures were crafted by the brothers Andrijić and other stonecutters. The palace has served a variety of public functions, including as a customs office and bonded warehouse, mint, armoury, treasury, bank and school. It became the cultural center of the Republic of Ragusa with the establishment of the Academia dei Concordi, a literary academy, in the 16th century. It survived the 1667 earthquake without damage. The palace’s atrium served as a trading center and business meeting place. An inscription on an arch testifies to this public function: https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/sponza-palace/

The Maritime Museum was founded in 1949 at the initiative of the Yugoslav (today the Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts; since 1987 it was been a part of the Dubrovnik Museums. The main part of the holdings arose from numerous donations of Dubrovnik citizens to the Patriotic Museum in the first half of the 20th century and objects from the exhibition Dubrovnik Seafaring through the Ages, which was put on in 1941. Since 1952, the museum has been located on the first and second floors of Fort St John (sv. Ivan). In the past the fort guarded the entrance into the city port, and was one of the most important points of the city's defences. The construction works started in 1346, today's appearance being completed at the end of the 16th century. In the 19th century it was rebuilt into two floors, and at the places where there had been artillery embrasures, windows were installed. The museum systematically collects, studies, exhibits and publishes the museum material from the maritime past of the Dubrovnik region, all the way since Antiquity. Today it has holdings of over five thousand objects classified into fifteen collections. http://www.tzdubrovnik.hr/lang/en/get/muzeji/5591/maritime_museum.html

The Old Synagogue in Dubrovnik, Croatia is the oldest Sefardic synagogue still in use today in the world and the second oldest synagogue in Europe. It is said to have been established in 1352 but gained legal status in the city in 1408. Owned by the local Jewish community, the main floor still functions as a place of worship for Holy days and special occasions, but is now mainly a city museum which hosts numerous Jewish ritual items and centuries­old artefacts. Located in one of the many tiny streets of the Old Town of Dubrovnik, it is connected to a neighbouring building which has long been owned by the Tolentino family, who have been caretakers of the synagogue for centuries.[2] The internal layout is different from other European synagogues and has gone numerous refurbishments throughout the centuries, and has a mixture of designs from different eras. The building has sustained damage several times, with the great earthquake in 1667, World War II, and the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s. The damage has since been repaired as closely as possible to its original design, and the synagogue reopened in 1997. The small museum contains many artifacts from throughout the Jewish community’s history in the city. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/jewish-synagogue/