Dubrovnik

The Dubrovnik city walls, built in stages from the 13th to the 16th century with continuous reinforcement against the Ottoman threat, reach up to 6 meters thick and 25 meters high in places, making them one of the best-preserved urban fortifications in the world. The Republic of Ragusa, an independent merchant city-state that thrived from the 14th to the 18th century through skillful diplomacy between Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Vatican, was never militarily conquered throughout its entire existence — a rare feat in the Mediterranean it largely credited to these supposedly impregnable walls. The full 1,940-meter walk offers an unbroken view over the red-tiled rooftops, more than two-thirds of which had to be rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake and again after the Serb-Montenegrin siege of 1991-1992.

Main entrance at Pile Gate, a 5 min walk from the parking lot or main bus stop.

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The Stradun, a 292-meter pedestrian thoroughfare linking the city's two historic gates, was laid out in the 12th century on the site of a marshy channel that once separated the fortified island of Ragusa from the Slavic village of Dubrava on the mainland, before the two merged into a single city. Entirely rebuilt after the catastrophic 1667 earthquake that destroyed nearly three-quarters of the city, the Stradun then adopted a strict architectural uniformity — identical baroque façades, vaulted commercial ground floors — which gives the street its famously photogenic visual harmony today. Its limestone paving, polished to the point of reflecting light like a mirror in the rain, is the result of more than three centuries of uninterrupted foot traffic.

Pile Gate or Ploče Gate, the old town's central pedestrian thoroughfare.

Old town audio guide

Dubrovnik's cable car, opened in 1969, entirely destroyed during the city's 1991 siege, then rebuilt and reopened in 2010, climbs in just four minutes to the top of Mount Srđ (412 meters), offering a 360° panoramic view over the old town and the islands of the Dalmatian archipelago. It was from this strategic summit that the Croatian army successfully resisted the Serb-Montenegrin siege of 1991-1992, an episode commemorated in the small Museum of the Croatian War of Independence, housed in an early-19th-century Napoleonic fort crowning the hill. The panoramic restaurant at the top, especially popular at sunset, rounds out one of the best time-to-spectacle excursions in the city.

Base station a 5 min walk from Ploče Gate, a 4-minute ride up to Mount Srđ.

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Sea kayaking along the Dubrovnik city walls, an activity popularized in the 2000s, lets you see the ramparts and Fort Lovrijenac from an angle impossible to get from land — the historic viewpoint of would-be attackers who tried for centuries, in vain, to take the city by sea. Tours are usually run at sunrise to avoid tourist boat traffic and catch particularly photogenic low-angle light on the white stone, and frequently continue on to nearby Lokrum Island, exploring several sea caves hidden along the rocky coast that are invisible from the walls themselves. No prior experience is needed, as double kayaks let beginners keep pace with the group.

Departs from Banje Beach, just outside Ploče Gate.

Dubrovnik kayak tour

Lokrum Island, just 10 minutes by boat from the old town, was according to legend the spot where Richard the Lionheart washed ashore in 1192 after a storm on his way back from crusade, vowing to build a church on the first shore he reached — a vow local lore says was honored by funding Dubrovnik's cathedral instead. Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, future and short-lived Emperor of Mexico, had an exotic botanical garden laid out here in the 19th century around the ruins of an 11th-century Benedictine monastery, where free-roaming peacocks — whose descendants still populate the island — can still be seen today. The small salt lake at its center, nicknamed the 'Dead Sea', offers calm swimming, while Game of Thrones filmed several Iron Throne scenes here.

Regular ferry from the old harbor (10 min crossing), departures every 30 min in season.

Lokrum excursion

Dubrovnik Cathedral of the Assumption, rebuilt in its current baroque style after the devastating 1667 earthquake, was, according to local legend, partly funded by Richard the Lionheart in gratitude for surviving a shipwreck near Lokrum Island in 1192. Its Treasury, one of the richest in Europe for a city this size, holds 182 gilded Byzantine and Gothic reliquaries, three of which contain relics attributed to Saint Blaise, the city's patron saint since he supposedly appeared in a dream to a local priest in the 10th century to warn of an imminent Venetian attack. An Assumption of the Virgin attributed to Titian's workshop adorns the high altar, evidence of the close artistic ties between Ragusa and Venice despite their constant political rivalry.

Right in the old town center, on the Stradun, 2 min from Pile Gate.

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The Rector's Palace (Knežev dvor), the seat of political power in the Republic of Ragusa for four centuries, housed the elected Rector, the state's nominal head, whose term — deliberately limited to a single, non-renewable month — barred him from leaving the palace for its entire duration except on ceremonial occasions, a remarkably early constitutional system designed to prevent any lasting concentration of power, centuries before modern theories of separation of powers. The current building, rebuilt several times after gunpowder explosions and the 1667 earthquake, blends Gothic and Renaissance elements in its arcaded façade, notably its finely carved capitals depicting allegorical scenes. Now a museum of cultural history, its state rooms bear witness to the refinement of this merchant aristocracy.

On the Stradun, right next to the cathedral, in the heart of the old town.

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Fort Lovrijenac, built in haste in just three months according to legend after the Ragusans learned Venice planned to build its own fortress on this same strategic promontory, stands on an isolated rock 37 meters above the sea. Its walls, up to 12 meters thick on the landward side but only 60 centimeters facing the sea, illustrate the sophistication of Ragusan military architecture. The inscription carved above the entrance, 'Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro' (freedom is not sold for all the gold in the world), sums up the Republic's ideal of independence. Since 1970 the fort has hosted the Dubrovnik Summer Festival's annual performances of Hamlet, its silhouette serving as a natural set for Shakespeare's play.

5 min walk outside the walls from Pile Gate, a separate entrance from the main city walls.

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The Elafiti Islands, an archipelago of thirteen islands northwest of Dubrovnik of which only three (Koločep, Lopud and Šipan) are inhabited, take their name from the ancient Greek 'elaphos' (deer), referencing an old legend about deer once roaming these now car-free lands. Lopud, the most touristically developed, still holds the remains of no fewer than thirty churches and monasteries built between the 15th and 16th centuries, a testament to the wealth of the noble Ragusan families who kept summer residences here, many of which remain romantic ruins overgrown with Mediterranean vegetation today. Šunj beach on Lopud, south-facing and sheltered from the wind, is considered one of the finest sand beaches on the entire Dalmatian coast.

Ferry or boat excursion from Gruž port, several daily departures to Koločep, Lopud and Šipan.

Elafiti cruise

Trsteno Arboretum, founded from 1494 by the noble Ragusan Gučetić family around their summer residence, is the oldest arboretum of its kind in this part of Europe, predating by several decades the great Italian Renaissance gardens that were partly inspired by it through the intense trade and cultural exchange between Ragusa and the Italian courts. Its two monumental Oriental plane trees, planted in 1492 according to local tradition and now over 60 meters tall, rank among the oldest and largest living trees in Europe. The Renaissance aqueduct feeding a fountain adorned with statues of Neptune and nymphs, along with the citrus terraces and 19th-century French-style pleasure garden, served as the backdrop for King's Landing's royal gardens in Game of Thrones.

30 min by car or bus northwest of Dubrovnik, on the coastal road toward Split.

Trsteno Arboretum tour