SATURDAY, MAY 18
MARCO’S WALKING TOUR
We met Marco, a typical, very tall, dark and handsome Croatian man, at the playground by the Pile Gate, or entrance bridge to Dubrovnik’s Old Town. Marco, born and raised inside the Old Town Walls, was our “free” tour guide. Educated as a historian, he had a wicked, snarky sense of humor and a talent as a guide.
Our group was larger than any we’d gone with before. A new reality for us: we were joining up with more tourists. Cruise ships, three a day even in May, bring loads of visitors to Dubrovnik and they plug the passageways and narrow pedestrian streets in Old Town. A light rain later in the day would spare us the large groups, moving like cattle behind colored umbrella-toting leaders; the herds scattered to safety in cafes. Better rain than tourists, we say.
DUBROVNIK HISTORY
Marco began with Dubrovnik’s history, a republic for 500 years before it peaceably surrendered to Napoleon in the 1800s, choosing the French over the Russians. Their back door neighbors, the Serbs, chose the Russians.
Dubrovnik, though now part of Croatia, was it’s own entity for most of its history. The city was founded by two peoples; the Greeks/Romans and the Croats who were initially separated by a canal. When the canal naturally filled in, the city was united, physically, socially and politically.
CITY WALLS
The massive city wall, designed to protect Dubrovnik from invaders, has forts at its corners and two, gated entrances. It took hundreds of years to complete the six meter thick walls. The walls were surrounded by an ocean moat, but the water receded over time. To protect from entry via the port, chains, invisible from the sea at night, were strung from one side to the other.
The people of Dubrovnik boast that their city never needed to be defended. The wall may have contributed to this unusual peaceful history, but in most part it was due to their role as diplomats. Like the Venetians, they (the ruling families) served as middlemen, brokering deals between the East and West. They never took lands surrounding the city that they didn’t need or pay for, understanding that owning too much territory made a city a good grab for potential conquest.
500 YEARS OF PEACE COMES TO AN END
In December of 1991, the city’s over 1,000 years of peace and security ended with the bombardment by the Yugoslavian People’s Army (or JNA, made up of Serbian and Macedonian forces). Some 600 shells were fired at the city, and 68% of the buildings were destroyed. The international community condemned the attack and by May 1992, Croatian independence was recognized. But the JNA moved on to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
WHY NEUM MATTERS
In the course of the tour, Marco managed to unintentionally answer many of our questions from Mostar and about the former Yugoslavia. One had to do with Neum, the Bosnian-Hertzogovinan town 60 kilometers from Dubronvik that is only 12 kilometers wide and cuts into the Croatian coast.
To begin with, he told us that Neum, though part of Bosnia Hertzogovina has a population that is 93% Croatian, and the name of the city in Serbo-Croatian, means, No Brain. Very strange. He laughed and said it wasn’t the only city in the region with that name.
I assumed Neum was part of a negotiated settlement after the recent war, but in fact, it has officially been part of Bosnia since after the First World War, a decision made then based on Neum’s alliances that dated back to the 17th century. Dubrovnik, in a characteristically clever move, sold this tiny parcel of land at the bottom of the Neretva River Canyon to the Ottomans in the 17th C., a sale designed to encourage the Ottomans to do battle with the Venetians, via this passage to the sea, while the people of Dubrovnik watched.
Since the war, Marco explained, Bosnia-Herzegovina has become a very complicated country with three presidents — Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian — making for some messy, governing situations.
WAR PHOTO LIMITED GALLERY, OLD TOWN
After the tour, we visited the War Photo Limited Gallery, which included excellent and thorough exhibitions with images from several wars. The gallery began with the the Iran/Iraq war, but our main interest was the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Many images, maybe 100 or more, covered all aspects of the war from Mostar to Serbian troops in Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania. There were photos of Kosovo’s refugees, the fighting in Montenegro and Macedonia, and the concentration camps.
By the end of the day, we had a much clearer idea of the horrors of this complex war that began after Slovenia, followed by Bosnia and other countries, declared their independence from the Yugoslavia. A pro-Yugoslavian army formed and the conflicts that followed devolved into brutal ethnic and religious wars, and the murder of many innocent civilians.
BACK IN OLD TOWN
Just inside the main gate is a large fountain, built in the 1500s, that is an example, like the wall itself, of the engineering expertise of the people who lived here. Originally constructed of stone piping, it carried the fresh mountain water for 12 kilometers. People still place bottles under the spouts to the catch the fresh water.
One important reason Croatia chose France over Russia is that it was Catholic and had been closely aligned with Italy. But, there is one spectacular and tranquil Orthodox church in the Old Town, with the typical Orthodox symmetry and patterning.
Another gem is the monastery, near the main entrance, and it’s adjoining pharmacy, which is the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Europe. They are famous for their rose creams. The monastery’s stone corridors were full of tourists when we visited, but it was easy to imagine the peacefulness when only the monks walked the open courtyard, rose gardens and sat near the stone fountain.
Inside the city’s old administration building and courthouse or The Rectors Palace is the Historical Museum of Dubrovnik, which houses an odd collection of furniture, paintings and objects of war. The building itself is stunning, begun in the 12th Century it has an open, center courtyard, fine stone work in the dazzling white stone. Part of the museum experience is a walk into an old prison cell, and a peek at a meeting room still in use.
The most popular spots in Old Town are the Game of Throne stairs and courtyard. An interesting tidbit provided by Marco…the courtyard’s home owners forced the film company to pay $300 euros per day per window to film their buildings. And the company paid. If they hadn’t paid, residents threatened to throw things out the windows or simply open their blinds during filming.
Dubrovnik is hauntingly beautiful from the port to the back wall with its small windows revealing the ocean, narrow, winding stone passages designed for the movement of donkeys and people. Cats sleep in window sills and on the stone stairs, flower plants brightening windows and stairways. And they have great ice cream. We stopped at Peppinos (the Italians have profoundly influenced the Croatian culture) for unusual and yummy taste combinations.
