Dubrovnik City Walls: where every stone holds a story 📯✒️
When arriving to Dubrovnik, as you approach Old Town, the drive becomes a leisurely descent - even your thoughts seem to slow down. Nearing the walls feels like stepping into the beginning of a tale, a poetic anticipation of something extraordinary is about to unfold. One of Europe's most monumental fortifications stands before you: an amazing construction, spanned from the 13th to the 17th century. The walls form an irregular polygon, stretching for 1940 meters, encircling the city with fortresses, citadels, bastions, gunpowder magazines and countless smaller towers whose names are too numerous to recall.
The first to greet you is the impressive round Minčeta Fortress, the most beautiful among them all commanding the City with its size and majestic crown, elegantly reminiscent of a fairy tale. Minčeta was named after the noble Menčetić family who donated their land for its construction. The tower was built in two phases. Initially square, but in the 15th century it acquired its rounded appearance through the design of the renowned European architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo from Florence. The work was finalized by the famous Croatian master Juraj Dalmatinac, giving the tower the monumental shape it boasts today.
The walls are a symbol and a visible reminder of the once small yet immensely powerful Dubrovnik Republic - a maritime force that sailed authoritatively across seas and oceans, a state known for its astute diplomacy and shrewd trade. It reached its zenith in the 15th and 16th centuries, being counted among the most developed states of the Western world. Aside from implementing high urban standards for a Renaissance city, such as sewage, fire services, nursing homes, orphanages, hospitals, pharmacies and introducing quarantine, Dubrovnik was also the first in Europe to abolish slavery at the beginning of the 15th century, long before others. Orphanage in the monastery of St. Clare from 1432 was one of the first such institutions in the world. In a word, Dubrovnik was exceptional. The Statute from 1272 reflects the city's personality and true identity with legal meticulousness - a legacy that has endured for centuries.
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Multi-Dimensional Creator / World Explorer / Philanthropist
1moIt’s sucks to charge for everything but honestly I get it…the fountain is meant to be a place of peace/respite and it’s hard to enjoy it w/ such crowds, maybe this will help! 😊