When you exit the Old Town by this gate, you will see the circular St. John Fort on the right side. This street was named after the native house of Ruder Boskovic Croatian astronomer, poet, and scientist from the 18th century.
Buza Gate was opened in the city walls in Our special walking tours are available every day, all you should do is choose which time suits you the best. Automated page speed optimizations for fast site performance. Walls of Dubrovnik History. History of the City walls The City Walls are the main attraction of Old Town Dubrovnik with the complex system of forts, casemates, bastions, towers, and detached forts.
The walls are the main reason why Dubrovnik is well known as the Pearl of the Adriatic. The City of Dubrovnik is completely surrounded with defensive walls and forts, including the Old Port.
The walls run uninterrupted for meters feet in length, encircling most of the City, and reach a maximum height of about 25 meters 83 feet.
They were built through the history in times when there was a danger of foreign attacks over the City and the Dubrovnik Republic. The history goes back to the Middle Ages. In the 9th century, Saracens besieged the city for 15 months. The earliest settlement upon the islet od Laus was protected by walls.
These are the facts that the City was well fortified in that time. The City first spread over the uninhabited eastern part of the Laus islet. A history so rich cannot be ignored and although Dubrovnik could easily rest on its aesthetic laurels, read on to find out why it shouldn't. The name Dubrovnik derives from the Croatian word ''dubrava'' meaning oak grove.
The Latin name for the city is Ragusa or Ragusium in its elder form, deriving from the word Lausa. Although the name ''Dubrovnik'' was in use during the Middle Ages, it was adopted officially only in , following the collapse of the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire. There are two versions of history when it comes to the founding of Dubrovnik, one takes place on an island named Laus in the 7th century and another involves the Greeks in the 8th. Here is a brief take on them both. History has since long claimed that Dubrovnik was founded in the 7th century on a rugged island named Laus, a place which is claimed to have readily provided shelter for those seeking refuge from the numerous problems in the nearby city of Epidaurum modern day Cavtat.
The Epidaurum refugees who fled allegedly rebuilt their lives on the small island of Lausa, while populations of other settlers built theirs along the coastline as the years went by, naming their settlement ''Dubrovnik''. Despite their suspicions of each other, the two settlements eventually united under the name of Dubrovnik and the channel which once acted as the division between them was filled in, giving birth to the now famous Stradun.
A second theory came to light only in , when new archeological excavations discovered a sizeable 8th century Byzantine basilica which pointed to a large settlement during its time, completely contradicting the first, otherwise widely accepted theory about the island of Laus.
The scientific community supported the idea, claiming that construction on the site of Dubrovnik actually began before the Common Era Anno Domini. The findings have since been boosted considerably owing to various finds in the Port of Dubrovnik, these include Greek artefacts. Drilling below the main city road has also revealed naturally occurring sand, furthering speculation around the idea of the island of Laus and the filling in of a channel.
Dubrovnik has undergone a great many ''changes of hand'' over the centuries, until eventually becoming a self-governing, autonomous state which flourished in peace and prosperity for some five consecutive centuries, let's take a brief look at how it all began. The Ostrogothic Kingdom a Vassal state of the Byzantine Empire collapsed in the year , causing the then Roman populated Dubrovnik to fall under the rule and protection of the wider Byzantine Empire.
Following the seemingly endless Crusades, Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of the then powerful commercial power of Venice in before the Treaty of Zadar gave it semi independence as a Vassal state of the Kingdom of Hungary very many years later in Dubrovnik was a self-governing free state from the 14th century until and was seen as a potential threat by Venice. Due to tensions, Dubrovnik became a close friend and ally of Ancona, another maritime republic and another rival of Venice.
The unlikely alliance allowed both cities to successfully resist numerous attempts by the Venetians to turn the Adriatic into a Venetian Bay to secure greater control over all Adriatic ports. Owing to this, Ancona and Dubrovnik even managed to develop alternative trade routes. The Republic of Ragusa, unlike its neighbouring states, managed to maintain a workable trade relationship with the Ottoman Empire through its skilled diplomacy and was ruled by local aristocracy with two city councils, maintaining a strict system of social classes.
That being said, the Republic valued liberty and freedom above all and was a very early adopter of several progressive laws and public institutions. The very first pharmacy which still operates to this very day was opened in , 16 years after the introduction of an official medical service. The first quarantine hospital was established in and a controversial law was passed to abolish the slave trade in , an incredible years before the founding of the USA.
An orphanage for abandoned and illegitimate children was opened in and as the great European power of London bathed contently in its own sewage, Onofrio della Cava a Neapolitan architect and engineer constructed a 20 kilometre long water supply system, complete with an aqueduct, two public fountains and numerous mills, making Dubrovnik Ragusa one of the first places in Europe to elliminate many diseases associated with open sewage.
Onofrio's fountain can be seen today at the far end of Stradun close to the western entrance to the Old City near Pile gate. The Republic's economic wealth was due to both the land it developed and its impressive seafaring frade.
The city thrived through extensive trade with other maritime ports such as Genoa, Pisa and Venice. Its continental trade networks also extended its reach into the Balkans with the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 13 th century, Dubrovnik fell under the control of the most Serene Republic, staying under its control until Dubrovnik Hotels - Book Now!
Its European educated diplomats and its widespread commerce allowed it to expand its influence beyond the Adriatic. Machiavelli was a notable luminary so impressed by the city that he applied to work there.
City authorities were not impressed and turned him down. The city was reconstructed in the baroque style that has survived intact until today. Despite the reconstruction, the decline of the Mediterranean as a hub for trade meant that Dubrovnik, like other Mediterranean ports, began a steady decline. By the time Napoleon arrived at the gates in , the Republic of St Blaise was a shadow of itself. In , like much of the eastern Adriatic coast, Dubrovnik became part of the Habsburg Empire , where it would remain until
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