Dubrovnik City Guide

City Walls, Old Town & Harbour

From the Pile Gate up onto the nearly two-kilometre city wall, with views over red roofs and open sea. Then through the old town: the Franciscan monastery with its 1317 pharmacy, the polished Stradun, Sponza Palace and the Rector's Palace. In the afternoon on to the Old Port with the boat to Lokrum, across to Fort Lovrijenac and, if you like, up the Srđ by cable car.

1. Pile Gate – The Pile Gate is the main entrance to the old town and the point where every bus ends. Over a stone bridge and the old drawbridge you pass through two gates one behind the other, watched over by the city's patron St. Blaise. Behind them the Stradun opens up all at once, and just to the left the Large Onofrio Fountain of 1438 splashes away. Before 9am you still have room here; from midday the groups squeeze through the archway.
2. City Walls – The wall running nearly two kilometres around the old town is the highlight full stop: up to 25 metres high, metres thick on the landward side and walkable all the way round. You follow the ring in one direction, now above the red tiled roofs, now straight above the open sea, passing the mighty Minčeta Tower at the highest point. Allow an hour and a half to two hours and set off early (from 8am) or late - there is almost no shade up there. The ticket also covers Fort Lovrijenac, so keep it.
3. Franciscan Monastery – Just behind the Pile Gate sits the Franciscan monastery with one of Dalmatia's loveliest cloisters: paired Romanesque-Gothic columns from the 14th century around a quiet garden of orange trees. In the side wing, one of Europe's oldest continuously working pharmacies has been operating since 1317, and next to it a small museum shows old apothecary jars, manuscripts and instruments. A calm counterweight to the bustle on the Stradun - half an hour is enough.
4. Stradun (Placa) – The Stradun is the roughly 300-metre main street linking the Pile Gate with the Ploče Gate - and the place where the whole city meets in the evening. After the earthquake of 1667 the row was rebuilt to one design, which is why façades, doorframes and window arches match down to the detail. Centuries of footsteps have polished the pale limestone mirror-smooth, so it gleams like water in low light. It's at its best early, before the crowds, and after sunset.
5. Sponza Palace – At the eastern end of the Stradun stands Sponza Palace, built between 1516 and 1522 as the customs house and mint of the Republic of Ragusa. It is one of the few buildings that came through the great earthquake of 1667 almost untouched - Renaissance arcades below, Gothic windows above. Today it houses the city archives, and on the ground floor a quiet memorial room honours the defenders of the city during the siege of 1991/92. The courtyard is free to enter and costs you five minutes.
6. Rector's Palace – The Rector's Palace was the seat of the Rector of the Republic of Ragusa - a man who governed for just one month at a time and was barely allowed to leave the building during it. That is how the city stopped anyone from growing too powerful, for centuries. Above the entrance the old warning still stands: forget private affairs and take care of public ones. Today the Gothic-Renaissance building houses the Cultural History Museum, and in summer the courtyard with its open staircase becomes a concert stage.
7. Old Port & boat to Lokrum – The old port on the east side of the old town was for centuries the heart of the Ragusan merchant fleet, sheltered by Fort St. John and the Kase breakwater. Today excursion boats bob here instead of trading ships: Lokrum in a quarter of an hour, on to the Elaphiti Islands or across to Cavtat. The Lokrum ferry runs about every half hour - check the last return carefully, because nobody is allowed to stay on the island overnight. If you'd rather stay put, have a coffee on the quay and watch the boats.
8. Fort Lovrijenac – West of the city, Fort Lovrijenac sits on a 37-metre rock above the sea - the Ragusans called it their Gibraltar. Above the gate stands the line that explains the whole republic: freedom is not to be sold for all the gold in the world. Up on the ramparts you look back at the old town with its complete ring of walls, and that is the best view in Dubrovnik. Your city wall ticket gets you in at no extra cost, but count on a lot of steps.
9. Cable car up the Srđ – To finish, if you still have the energy and the budget: the cable car pulls you up the 412-metre home mountain Srđ in four minutes. From the terrace at the top the walled old town lies below you like a model, with Lokrum and the Elaphiti Islands beyond - the postcard view, best just before sunset. Honestly, around 30 euros for the return trip stings; if you have time, take the switchback path on foot (about an hour uphill, hardly any shade). At the top the Napoleonic fortress holds a small museum on the siege of 1991.