Adventures with Julia

October 10, 2017

This morning we woke up to Croatian TV news about all the fires at home and the evacuation orders.  Even our friends, Jayna and Craig, have evacuated from Rough N Ready to Reno.  That means many more people we know must have evacuated too.  We have all of you in our thoughts and prayers.   Today is the anniversary of my mother’s death, so I am praying for her too.

Our guide today is a lady named Maris.  We walked with her to the entrance of the city and sat on the walls while she gave us the history of the city from 400Bc forward to current history.

 

 

 

 

The interesting part of the story is that Dubrovnik is so well preserved because it never had to fight other countries.  As an independent city-state it remained neutral and used diplomacy to avoid conflict.  It also paid tribute to the ottomans and at other times to the Venetians.

It was a huge supplier of salt in the region and used that trade to maintain control of its power.

 

 

 

 

It got the name “Dalmatian Coast” from the indigenous Delmati Tribes who were here as early as 400BC.  The Greeks showed up in the 3^rd c BC and were followed by the Romans in the 1^st c BC.

Rome fell in the 5^th c AD and the Byzantines dominated the area until the beginning of the 13^th c.

The Venetians ruled the area from 1205 to 1358, when the Croatian-Hungarian Empire conquered the Venetians.  Dubrovnik became an independent Republic at that time and stayed that way for the next 5 centuries until 1808.

 

 

 

Did you know that the word salary comes from salt?  Beginning in the 13^th century people traded with salt as payment and gradually came to use the word salary instead of salt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The golden age of Dubrovnik was the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The city-state was very rich, powerful and successful.

 

 

 

Then Vasco de Gama sailed around Africa and sealed Dubrovnik’s fate.  It gradually lost importance as a trade center.  Meanwhile, Venice went into banking and manufacturing to overcome their loss of trade.   In 1667, a 7.6 earthquake struck Dubrovnik and killed 3,000 and destroyed a third of the city.  It never completely recovered.

 

 

 

 

The Republic grew weak and to protect themselves, the city gave a small piece of land to the Ottomans so they could have sea access.  In doing so, the ottomans protected Dubrovnik from the Venetians.  But times change and history does too.

First the French moved into Dubrovnik without a fight.  They convinced the nobles that they just wanted to pass through and go on to fight somewhere else.   The Dubrovniks agreed, the French moved in and did not leave.   Not long thereafter, the area became part of the Astro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 and then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later the Federation of Yugoslavia until 1991, when it declared independence.

 

 

The Yugoslav war from 1991-1995 was very painful for everyone in the region.  Now that it is over, everyone just wants peace.  Over 200,000 people died, including 15,000 Croatians.  The people I spoke with said they only wanted to defend their independence and have nothing to do with Serbia.

Finally, we walked into the city and visited a number of old buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few survived the earthquakes of 1667 and 1979, but 80% are new since 1667 and reconstruction is still going on from the 1979 quake.

 

 

The points of interest included Sponza Palace just inside the walls.  It is the only building that survived the 1667 earthquake without damage.

 

Then there is St Blaze Church built in the 18^th Century.  Blaze was skinned alive and then beheaded in 316 in Armenia by the Romans.  Over time he came to be known as the protector of throats and his relics arrived in Dubrovnik.  While we were there, a priest was blessing the throats of people, so I got in line too.

We saw the Rector’s Palace, built after the quake in gothic renaissance style.  The designated rector, a member of the local council, was the official governor of the city for one month, during which time he had to live in the palace without his family and administer to the citizens.

 

 

 

 

He was not allowed to make decisions for fear he would become too powerful.

 

 

Once his month was over, he went back to being a regular member of the city council, and another council member would become rector.

There were 30 noble families in the city and they basically ran everything.  Each family had their own church plus a few more, so there were 47 churches in all.   One of them was the Assumption of Mary Cathedral, built in the 18^th century.

The outside was pretty non-descript, but inside is a major painting by the famous Italian artist, Titian.  It adorns the central Altar.  Around the corner is the treasury Room containing hundreds of relics from the 13-16 centuries when trade in relics was in as much demand as salt and gold.   We saw the only Jewish synagogue, which has 45 members; the Jesuit Stairs, which were built to resemble the Spanish Steps in Rome and the Clock Tower, which has two figures inside that ring the time, Maro and Baro.

The walls of the city were built between the 13^th and 17^th centuries of Croatian limestone.  They are 2 kilometers long, 25 meters high and 6 meters thick.    I must say this was a very impressive place.  After walking all around the inside of the old city, we walked clear around the top of the walls and then took the cable car to the top of the hill behind the city for another view.

 

By sunset we were back in our room and glad to  put our feet up.

Later we walked back into the city for dinner in a place called Proto.  We finally got the muscles we had been caving since we learned that they are raised in the area.  They were just ok…small and overloaded with garlic.  Oh well, we will try again. Friends who were here recently told us to try the ice-cream, so we each got a cone from a sidewalk store.  It was good and helped get rid of the garlic taste.

Soon it was time to attend the performance of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in the Rector’s Palace Atrium.  They were not the best symphony we ever heard, but the music was pleasing and the orchestra was fun to watch, especially as we had seats in the front row just in front of the concert master.

The walk back to the hotel seemed very long, but we made it and went right to bed.  I must say I am getting very tired of walking on cobbles everywhere we visit old places.  Thank goodness we are wearing walking shoes and not sandals.