Highlights of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik, Croatia

The second part of our Croatian itinerary had Dubrovnik as the base. Similarly to Split, we gave ourselves only one full day for exploration of Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a meal and a stroll, so managed to acquire a certain level of familiarity with the town.

Objectively, Dubrovnik has to be considered an impressive walled town, well deserving its fame as “the Pearl of the Adriatic”. And yet, for me, it left less of an impression than Split, with whom it shares the honor of becoming a World Heritage site in only the second year since the list had been started. This could be due to the town plan: the core of Dubrovnik is mainly about two parallel east-west streets with public spaces at the both ends; small streets run perpendicular to those and turn into stairways that run up to the elevated parts of the town center in the north and south; the northern elevation roughly retains grid structure, with auxiliary east-west streets as subsequently higher terraces; the south side attempts to depart from the grid but only a little. The ordered geometry inside the magnificent walls is mostly due to the erstwhile medieval stronghold having had been largely destroyed by an earthquake in the 17th century and rebuilt alongside post-Renaissance sensibilities afterwards. But it did create a bit of a visual dissonance for me: the wide-angle views of Dubrovnik are ever stunning, while at close inspection the town feels somewhat contrived. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).