Audio tour Dubrovnik. The old town.

There are only a few places on our Earth where a person feels as if they have arrived on another planet. This is how those who get to Dubrovnik feel, a city made of stone, protected from the north by the Srdj mountain, and from the south by the crystal clear sea with numerous necklaces of islands. Byron called this city "the pearl of the Adriatic." George Bernard Shaw said that "whoever is looking for heaven on earth should look for it in Dubrovnik."

In the Middle Ages, Dubrovnik was a city-state called the Republic of Ragusa. In addition to the city itself, its territory included the Dalmatian coast from Neum to Boka Kotor, the Peljesac peninsula and the islands of Lastovo, Mljet and a number of other small islands around the capital.

Having emerged as a center of maritime and land trade with the Balkans, the Dubrovnik Republic reached the peak of its power in the XV-XVI centuries, when it became one of the main intermediaries in the economic relations of the Ottoman Empire and European states.

 At different periods of its history, Dubrovnik recognized nominal suzerainty Venice, The Ottoman Empire and Austria, however, remained virtually independent. The governance structure of the republic ensured that it was impossible to concentrate power in one hand, which is why Dubrovnik is sometimes called the first in the Europe is a democratic state. The motto of the Ragusa Republic was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", which in Latin means "Freedom is not for sale for all the gold of the world".

The fateful day in the history of Dubrovnik was April 6, 1667. At 8 a.m., one of the two most devastating earthquakes in Croatia over the past 2,400 years occurred. During it, stones from Srdj Mountain flew at the city, destroying everything in their path. The resulting tsunami destroyed the port, the ships standing in the port were smashed against the shore by the waves. The ground cracked and the sky was darkened by the rising dust. The fire that started after the earthquake did not subside for twenty days and destroyed a large number of material and cultural values.

As a result of the earthquake, 68% of the urban development was destroyed, several thousand people died: the figures are 3000, 5000 and more, while only 2-3 thousand managed to escape. Almost the entire aristocracy of the city and the prince were among the dead.

After such a cataclysm, the republic has not fully recovered. The earthquake was the beginning of its decline. In 1808, Dubrovnik was conquered by the French Empire Napoleon and officially annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

After the earthquake, the government of the Dubrovnik Republic adopted a law that defined the appearance of the city for the next centuries. Instead of Gothic and Renaissance facades, houses in the Roman Baroque style appear. This appearance has been preserved to the present day. We suggest you walk through the streets of this beautiful city with our audio guide and get to know it better.