Dubrovnik Old Town — the UNESCO-listed medieval city on a limestone promontory at Croatia's southern tip, its orange-tiled roofs and honey-coloured baroque buildings encircled by walls that drop directly into the turquoise Adriatic — is one of the most beautifully situated historic cities in Europe and the jewel of the Croatian coast. The city's medieval and Renaissance architecture survived intact (apart from the 1667 earthquake and the 1991–92 siege) because Dubrovnik was, for centuries, the independent Republic of Ragusa — a maritime trading city-state that used diplomacy, wealth and extraordinary skill to maintain independence from both Venice and the Ottoman Empire from the 14th to the 18th century. The freedom, pragmatism and republican values of this compact city-state are written into every corner of its architecture.
The Old Town's main artery — the Stradun (Placa), a broad marble-paved thoroughfare running from the Pile Gate to the Old Harbour — is one of Europe's finest civic spaces: flanked by identical baroque palace facades rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake, lined with café terraces and ending at the Orlandov stup (Orlando's Column, the symbol of Ragusan freedom) and the Clock Tower. The marble has been worn to a glass-like smoothness by centuries of feet, and its grey and white surface reflects the light in a way that changes the character of the street from morning's cool blue to noon's white glare to afternoon's amber warmth.
The City Wall Walk
The walk along Dubrovnik's city walls — a 2km circuit at heights of 25 metres above the Adriatic, with views over the Old Town's roofscape on one side and the open sea on the other — is the single best experience in Dubrovnik and one of the finest urban walks in Europe. The walls, built between the 12th and 17th centuries to their current form, are between 1.5 and 6 metres thick and reach 25 metres in height at the Minčeta Tower on the northern corner. The walk takes 1–1.5 hours at a comfortable pace and reveals successive extraordinary panoramas: the Old Harbour with its fishing boats and excursion vessels, the tiled rooftops of the historic neighbourhoods, the island of Lokrum across the water, and — from the western sections — the sheer scale of the fortifications against the Adriatic below.
Game of Thrones & Old Town Heritage
Dubrovnik's global visibility was transformed by its use as King's Landing in HBO's Game of Thrones (seasons 2–8) — the Pile Gate, Fort Lovrijenac (the Red Keep exterior), the Minčeta Tower (the House of the Undying) and numerous Old Town streets all appeared in the series, and guided Game of Thrones walking tours now constitute a significant proportion of the city's tourist infrastructure. The Rector's Palace — the former seat of Ragusan government, where a different rector (elected monthly from the noble families, to prevent any one person accumulating power) presided over the republic's affairs — is the finest Renaissance building in Dubrovnik and now a museum of republic history. The Dominican Monastery, with its extraordinary Gothic-Renaissance cloister and a painting collection including a Titian and a Palma il Vecchio, is the most rewarding of the city's ecclesiastical buildings.
Lokrum & Practical Visiting
The island of Lokrum — 15 minutes by ferry from the Old Harbour, uninhabited since a Benedictine monastery was dissolved in the 19th century — provides the best escape from the Old Town's summer crowds: a forested island with a botanical garden, peacocks roaming the monastery ruins, naturist beach on the eastern rocks and a salt lake (Mrtvo More, the Dead Sea) connected to the Adriatic by an underground channel. The ferry runs every 30–45 minutes from the Old Harbour. Dubrovnik's summer crowds (July–August) are substantial — the city operates a visitor quota and cruise ship limits have been imposed to manage the congestion. Visiting in May–June or September–October gives the best compromise of weather and crowd levels.
