Day 2 - Old Towns, Terracota Tiles and Lightfinger's Brothel
- SElliott
- Feb 12
- 11 min read
Well, last night went! We got back to our cabin around quarter past nine and I think I was asleep by half past! Thankfully the email from the tour director, Renan, came as we arrived in the cabin so we knew what time breakfast was. I didn’t wake until just before the alarm was due to wake us, which was at 6am. No lie-ins allowed on this holiday!
Breakfast was a buffet style continental breakfast (well, what we British call continental) with lots of different fresh fruit, small croissants, ham and cheese. I enjoyed mine!
After breakfast Mum and I went to the front of the yacht on the lounge deck. There we sat on the sun loungers and watched the world go by whilst updating our holiday diaries. It was nice, cool but with sun and a light breeze. I wouldn’t want to be out there in the heat of the day though!
This morning we were getting a coach into Dubrovnik Old Town before returning to the yacht for lunch and to see what we were doing this afternoon (more about that later).
The Illyrians first settled here in the 3rd century and there has been a settlement on this site ever since. Although its first name was “Ragusa” it was often called “Dubrovnik” and this become its official name in the 16th and 17th centuries. Navigation and trade were its most important activities in the Middle Ages and, from the 13th century, Dubrovnik was an important Mediterranean sea power even rivalling Venice at one point for its reputation as a trading port.
In more modern times Dubrovnik has been called the “Pearl of the Adriatic” by the English Poet Lord Byron and is often referred to as the “Athens of Croatia”, due to its rich cultural heritage.
On the way to the Old Town, the coach went down some quite thin, thankfully one way, roads. There were some lovely views. I had decided to video the trip in case I missed a good view – I’m glad I did. We arrived at the Ploče Gate on the East side of the old town where we got off the coach and met our local guide, Ivana.
The Ploče Gate overlooks the harbour of Dubrovnik old town and we had some lovely views over the limestone walls and terracotta tiles that make up the buildings of the old town.
Originally the town was fully built in timber from the local Holm-oaks, which gave it its name (Dubrovnik meaning “town of old Holm-oak”). However, in the 13th century there was an earthquake, and a subsequent fire, nearly destroying the whole town. The Croatians learnt from this and rebuilt the town in stone, using the local limestone, complete with walls.
Once the town had been fully rebuilt, which took until the latter half of the 16th century, the Croatians looked at the walls with pride until, in the words of our guide, one asked “what are they supposed to protect us from?”
“Trebuchets.”
“Trebuchets? They were so 15th century.”
“Oh”. And there you had it, the city had built itself lovely, strong defensive walls which were sadly rendered slightly useless due to the advent of gunpowder! In fact, they were only put to the test militarily in the 1990s during the Croatian War of Independence. In this test they performed admirably, being more effective than some of the contemporary structures in the City’s outskirts, and it is testament to their resilience that not more of the old town was destroyed.
However, large parts of the old town were damaged or destroyed, especially the honey coloured tiled rooftops. During the rebuild many countries offered aid and Germany offered to provide tiles for the rebuild totally free of charge! The Croatians (and according to our guide) said yes please! Unfortunately, when the tiles arrived they were the wrong colour – terracotta instead of honey! This didn’t bother the Croatians – they were free! However, when UNESCO declared the town a World Heritage Site they wanted the Croatians to change the tiles back to their original colour. The Croatians asked “who’s going to pay for it?” “You are.” “No we ain’t!” An agreement was reached that, if they have to carry out repairs or replacements they will use the original coloured tiles.
We entered the old town through Polče Gate and passed into an outer courtyard area which overlooked the Old Port. Dubrovik came to prominence as a trading town providing a link between the Mediterranean and Balkan states. Originally part of the Byzantine Empire, it came under Venetian authority in 1205. However, the taxes charged by Venice became quite….”annoying”. By this time Dubrovnik had consuls in many cities across the world, all happy and eager to bring news and gossip back to their mother city (consul in this case being a synonym for “spy”). From their consuls, the city council found out that the Sultan in Constantinople (Istanbul today), was amassing an army and that the Venetians were losing the war they were fighting with the Republic of Genoa. So the Croatians, being the canny lot they are (I’m starting to like them) sent gifts and delicacies to both sides! They also worked their magic on the King of Croatia and managed to induce him to sign a contract stipulating that Dubrovnik was a Free Town. So, in 1358, Dubrovnik achieved relative independence and started to rule itself as a Free State. Soon the Ottomans signed a trading treaty and promised protection to the state in exchange for annual tithes.
From the overlook we passed the Fort Revelin on our way down, through the inner Polče Gate into the old town. The town is supposed to be a vehicle-free area after 9am, although we saw quite a few vehicles travelling about, and any supplies have to be carried or, as we saw, trundled in in hand carts like those advertised in Britain for use at music festivals. The streets are quite steep so whoever’s doing the deliveries must be strong and fit!
On the way to the main street we passed a number of interesting features. As we walked down the street we passed a section of the wall which had been damaged due to a great earthquake in 1667 and had partially collapsed. The wall had been rebuilt but with small holes in. Originally I thought that it would have been for scaffolding timbers, like in the UK, but it wasn’t. They are there to let the wall breathe – it hasn’t collapsed due to an earthquake since so they’re working so far! We also passed two churches (of the over 40 in the old town) which had a stairway and passage going up between them. It was here that the women of the town would congregate on Sundays to chat and exchange gossip in their traditional flowy dresses. Below the stairway is where the young men of the town would congregate. So, to prevent naughty peeping (again in the words of our guide), part of the balustrades were filled in at the bottom.
We followed the road to a square at the end of the main street, Placa – Stradun, known as Luža Square. This is where the regular cloth market used to take place and has a number of landmarks including the customs office where you would pay your taxes (and one of the few buildings left standing after the 1667 earthquake), the church of St Blaise (the patron saint of the town, known locally as Sveti Vlaho), and the bell tower (rebuilt in the 20th century). Central to the square is Orlando’s column, a cylindrical column from where announcements were made from to the citizens of the city. On one side of the column there is a statue of a knight whose wrist to elbow measurement gave rise the local measurement for cloth – the Dubrovnik Elbow.
The Church of St. Blaise is the one of the few buildings in the Old Town to be decorated on the outside. This is partly because it burnt down in the 18th century and was rebuilt in the prevalent style of the time, the baroque style. On the apex of the roof overlooking the entrance are three statues – St. Blaise holding the city in one hand whilst blessing it with the other, Faith holding a golden cross and Hope standing with an anchor at her feet. The majority of buildings in the old town are not decorated for two reasons:
1. Not everyone could afford the same level of decoration so it wasn’t fair to those who couldn’t.
2. So that the people of Dubrovnik couldn’t show off how wealthy they were – otherwise any occupiers would raise the tax rates!
I like these people more and more!
From Luža Square we walked down Pred Dvorom to the Rector’s Palace. The Rector was the leader of the city and was elected for a term of…wait for it….one month! He could be in power for a maximum of 2 months. This was due to the town’s unofficial motto “Be nice to everyone! Trust nobody.” After all, there’s not much damage that can be done in 1 month! The official town motto, which is inscribed above the senate chambers in the Rector’s Palace, is “Leave your private affairs at home when dealing with public ones”. This building is decorated – by many decorators! It is a theme in Croatia that every town wants to show off the skills of their people – so no one architect designed buildings in many cities. One of the capitals at the top of the porch columns was quite detailed and shows off the city’s healthcare. Dubrovnik is where the first quarantine happened in the 12th century, with the first hospital opening two centuries later closely followed by the first pharmacy. The fact that the guide was most proud of was that, due to the healthcare facilities in the city, the city was untouched by the Black Death which ravaged Europe in the 14th century.
From the Rector’s Palace (I find it strange that they call the head of the city the Rector – that’s what we called our head teacher at school) we passed through Gundulić Square and walked down one of the many narrow streets in Dubrovnik, Od Puča. The square is where, at noon every day, the pigeons are fed which can be quite a sight, or so we were told. However we leave before then so we’ll miss it.
Dubrovnik Old Streets
As we walked down Od Puča we were told a bit more about the architecture of the buildings. When they were built, stone drainage channels at the top of the buildings were built in and directed in such a way that the water would be channelled into internal cisterns. This way the town could have enough water to keep them supplied during a siege. We then made a slight detour to look at some of the oldest graffiti, dated in the 16th century, which reads, in Latin, “Peace to you. Anyone who plays with a ball here will court death”. Historians think that this is someone warning the children of the city not to play football in the nearby square! Quite polite for a death threat.
We ended our tour at the opposite end of Placa (Stradun) next to a large sixteen-sided fountain called “Large Onofrio’s Fountain”. This is named after Onofrio della Cava, a Neapolitan architect and engineer who is responsible for the aqueduct, water works and fountains that were built in the 15th century to supply water to the city. The town’s fountains were the main source of potable water until the end of the 19th century.
When we were let loose (which was very brave of them), Mum and I decided to follow a “Game of Thrones” walk which I had downloaded on my phone. Neither of us have watched the hit TV series and, whereas Mum is on the second book of the series, I haven’t even started. They are with us though! If we have time. However, the walk incorporates a lot of the landmarks around the city and my neighbours had asked me to send some pictures back to them.
We had wished to walk at least a portion of the walls. However to do this you need to pay for a ticket and it wasn’t really worth it as we only had an hour left before we had to return to Polče Gate.
We started our walk by exiting the city by the second major gate, the Pile Gate. The name Pile is derived from the Greek word for gate “pylaj”. Pile Gate, like Polče Gate is made up of two gates, an inner and outer, with a wooden drawbridge and stone bridge crossing the moat. The moat is now dry and has been filled by some formal gardens. They looked nice from above.
Outside the gate is Brsalje, a square from which you can see both Fort Bokar, also known as Zvjezdan, and Fort Lovrigenac, or St. Lawrence Fortress.
Fort Bokar was constructed to be a defensive asset for the Pile Gate and, along with the Minceta Tower, is one of the main defence points of the Western land approaches to the city. The two storey casement fort stands on arched supports on the jagged rocks below which are detached from the main landfall of Dubrovnik. The fort pokes out a bit from the walls which would have given those manning it good all round views of any enemies that would approach by sea.
Fort Lovrigenac has been dubbed “Dubrovnik’s Gibraltar” and is outside the Western wall of the city, overshadowing the two entrances to the city – by land and by sea. The fort was built in the early 11th century by the Republic of Ragusa in 3 months! I’m glad I wasn’t one of the engineers working on it – think of the pressure! The reason for the hurry was that the Venetians were planning on building a fort of their own on the rock. If they succeeded, Dubrovnik would have returned to being under their power. However, the city beat them to it and, when the Venetian ships arrived filled with construction materials, they were told to return to Venice.
Unfortunately, although we could see visitors on top of Fort Lovrigenac, we didn’t have time to visit which was a pity as I enjoy visiting forts and castles. Maybe next time.
We continued the walk by returning into the Old Town and following the alleyways down, before climbing a flight of steps up to the Ethnographic Museum where we met a tour group who were doing an official “Games of Thrones” tour of the city. This was fortunate as they pointed out some sites that could be seen from this advantage point.
The first was Minčeta Tower (House of the Undying in the Game of Thrones). This was built in 1463 during a time when there was a looming threat of invasion by the Turks. The tower is the most prominent point of the defensive system of Dubrovnik.
The second was a slightly less salubrious Game of Thrones Location – Lightfingers Brothel! This building was originally used as the granary in Dubrovnik and was one of the few in the city to survive the 1667 earthquake. Strangely enough it was a gentleman on the tour who recognised it.
From the granary we continued our walk through the alleyways to the Jesuit Stairs (used as the setting for the Walk of Shame in Season 5 of Game of Thrones – I really must start watching these!). The stairs connect Gundulić Square with Uz Jezuite Street where the Jesuit College is located. The stairs were designed by Roman architect Petro Passalacqua in the Baroque style.
On the stairs were another two, at least, official Game of Throne tours and we picked our way between them to return through alleyways to the Rector’s Palace and Cathedral. Having a few minutes to spare we had a quick visit to the cathedral. The cathedral was funded by Richard I of England, who survived a shipwreck off the island of Lokrum, near Dubrovnik. However, his cathedral was destroyed in the 1667 earthquake and was replaced with a Baroque model church designed by Andrea Bufalini. It was a nice cathedral, not anything like the sprawling cathedrals that we have seen on our other trips. Instead of carved stone pillars and columns, it was plastered with columns and decorated pilasters.
As we returned to the coach we had to wait for a while next to Fort Reveline (the tour co-ordinator was also waiting there so we knew that we wouldn’t get lost). Fort Reveline is no longer in use as a fort, in fact the ground floor is now used for rehearsals of the Dubrovnik Philharmonic Orchestra, and we spent the remaining time listening to them rehearsing until they finished and we had to board the coach.
Upon returning to the ship, after stowing our belongings in our cabin, we headed to the restaurant for a buffet lunch which included macaroni cheese, salad & pork belly and with strudel to finish. Yum!
After lunch we got some unfortunate news. Although we were due to sail to Kotor in Montenegro the ship can’t get into Kotor so we will have to go there by coach tomorrow☹. Apparently, they had booked a slot but a big cruise ship had come along and paid more so bullied us out of it. So this afternoon is free time.
Due to the heat this afternoon Mum and I stayed on the ship where we went up on the lounge deck to write up our day diaries before returning to our, thankfully now air conditioned, cabin for a snooze. After we woke we went to the inside lounge to read books before dinner.
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