Dubrovnik has been the first stop of my trip through Croatia, driving my way back to the Netherlands. It is an amazing city, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 it is also renown as “pearl of the Adriatic”.
The city has its origins in the VII century with the name of Ragusa, then growing to become a prominent maritime republic on the Adriatic and finding in the city of Ancona a strong ally against the otherwise overwhelming power of Venice over the Adriatic Sea.
Its golden age came to an end with a disastrous earthquake in 1667, which killed over 5000 citizens and basically leveled most of the city buildings.
The current look of the town is actually due to this earthquake: after the destruction of most of the buildings, the city gave itself a modern urban development plan, defining quite precisely the style of the new buildings which were to be built at the sides of its main street the “Stradun”.
Notwithstanding the fact that Dubrovnik never fully recovered its power and importance, the heart of the old town is still something absolutely stunning for its beauty: levigated stones paving the streets scatter and reflect the light in absolutely stunning way, which makes the town dazzling in the day and totally spectacular at dusk and night.
Here follows some pics from my stop… I hope you’ll like them!
Ludovico Verducci: my photography blog 