The Pile (pronounced Peelay) Gate which we entered is the main entrance. The stone bridge leading to the gate is from 1537
After entering, the first thing one sees is the Great Fountain of Onofrio, built in 1428 -44. People were filling their water bottles from the water flowing out.
Immediately I set out to walk the walls – SPECTACULAR! The walls were built in the 10th century with modifications in the 13th. The walls and ramparts are 6363 feet long and in some parts reach a height of 82 feet. In addition there is an outer wall with ten semicircular bastions. .
The Mincenta Tower was completed in 1464. It is a semicircular tower with a second tower on top, probably the most visited and most photographed part of the Old City.
The views, into the walled city and out to the rest of the city and to the sea were wonderful.
People really do live here as the laundry, satellite dishes, gardens, and recreational space indicate.
The walls provide all amenities. I had a café latte looking down to the harbor. A couple from New Zealand and a young woman from Chicago who were in town from a cruise ship shared my table and provided interesting conversation.
It was amazing to realize how badly damaged the city had been in the 1991-2 attacks by Serbian and Montenegran forces. Shells stuck 68% of the 824 buildings in the Old City; there were holes in two of three tiled roofs. Nine historic palaces were completely gutted by fire and others suffered major damage. Repairs and rebuilding are being done with traditional techniques and traditional materials where possible. The city walls are again intact and other repairs are occurring as quickly as possible, although some unrepaired buildings remain. In 1995 after a peace agreement was reached, UNESCO and the European Union set up a special commission for reconstruction of the city which helped a lot.
After circling the walls I descended to street level and wandered a bit through the city. Bought a t-shirt, which I definitely don’t need, and a couple of other small souvenirs and enjoyed seeing interesting buildings along the narrow streets. Along one of the small streets there was the reconstructed building housing the work of local artist Ivo Grbic and posters discussing the destruction of his studio and house in the first bombardment on Dec. 6, 1991.
It was fascinating reading about what happened from his perspective, and I was taking pictures of the posters when the artist himself appeared at the doorway, pointing to a 1991 picture of him and at himself noting the picture was of a younger person. I asked if I could take his picture; he seemed to understand and graciously agreed.
Reached the harbor and had a sandwich for lunch at an outdoor café before catching the 2 p.m. ferry to Lokrum Island, a nature reserve and botanical garden which is a 15-minute boat ride from Dubrovnik.
The name “Lokrum” comes from the Latin for “bitter fruit,” a reference to the many orange and lemon trees. In 1991 the island suffered more than 50 direct artillery hits which damaged many plants and resulted in the loss of the library’s collection of botanical treatises and research files.
I spent a couple of hours exploring the forested area, the botanical garden, the “dead sea” (a lake of seawater), and monastery ruins. Note that "up" on this map is west. I confidently headed the wrong direction to start with.
There were a number of peacocks on the island.
This is the lake, trapped sea water.
Many walking paths
On the 4:15 boat back to the Old City I met an English couple touring on a sailing ship (about 190 passengers) and three English women on holiday. Interesting conversation made the short cruise time go very fast.
As I was walking through the Old City to return to the Pile Gate and exit, I saw two of the Star of the North Band group and stopped to chat. They were on their way to take the cable car up the mountain to see the view of the city, and I decided to join them. We walked up 113 steps to the Buza Gate and exited the walled city in order to get to the cable car starting point. After waiting half an hour we finally headed up. Unfortunately, it had clouded over. We could see everything fine, but the views were not in sparkling sunshine. Another problem was that the view down at the city was marred by the cable for the cable car running through the middle of it! Unintended consequences – able to get easily to the top, the view damaged. However, as the pictures of the city and Lokrum Island earlier in the blog show, one could manuever around and take reasonably good photos from the side and with judicious cropping.
I returned to the city, down the 113 steps, and walked to the Pile Gate. Waited a few minutes for the No. 4 city bus and returned to the hotel about 7:30. Had been touring for 10 hours so was legitimately tired. Ate dinner at the hotel, too exhausted to go anywhere else, returned to the room, and worked on my blog until 11:15.
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