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Dubrovnik
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Dubrovnik (Latin Ragusa), population 43,770 in 2001, 49,728
in 1991 is a port and one of the most prominent tourist resorts
on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Croatia,
and the center of the Dubrovnik-Neretva county, positioned
at 42:39N Latitude and 18:04E Longitude.
Dubrovnik was founded by joining two small towns: Laus (name
comes from the Latin word for rock) which was on a small island
off the southern Dalmatian coast, providing shelter for the
Italic refugees from the nearby city of Epidaurum; and Dubrava
(named after the Slavic word dub for oak), a settlement of
the Slavic immigrants at the foothill of the forested Srd
hill. The strip of wetland was later reclaimed as a landfill,
unifying the city around the newly made plaza (today Placa
or Stradun).
A view of Dubrovnik from the southThe city was fortified and
two harbors were built on each side of the isthmus. Its maritime
trade grew as it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state
that rivalled Venice in the Middle Ages. Supported by its
wealth and skilled diplomacy, the Latin/Slavic Ragusa/Dubrovnik
achieved a remarkable level of development during the 15th
and 16th century.
Dubrovnik was one of the centers of the development of the
Croatian language and literature, home of numerous poets and
playwrights such as Ivan Gundulic and Marin Držic. Notable
were also the painters Lovro and Vicko Dobricevic, not to
mention scientists such as Ruder Josip Boškovic and Marin
Getaldic.
Inhabitants of Dubrovnik often proudly quote the Irish playwright
and man of letters, George Bernard Shaw, who visited the city
in 1929: "If you want to see heaven on earth, come to
Dubrovnik".
The city was ruled by aristocracy, and marriage between members
of three different social classes was strictly forbidden.
The nominal head of state was the Duke, (Knez) or during Venetian
suzerainty the Rector. Real power, however, was in the hands
of two Councils (Vijece) that were held by the nobility.
A view of Dubrovnik city coreThe government of Dubrovnik was
liberal in some other ways. It abolished the slave trade in
1418 and became the first state to recognize the independence
of the newly formed United States of America. The city's old
flag has the word Libertas (freedom) on it, and the entrance
to the Lovrijenac fortress just outside the city walls bears
the inscription Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro,
meaning "Liberty is not sold for any kind of gold".
The patron saint of the city is Sveti Vlaho, whose statues
are seen around the city. It has a importance similar to that
of St. Mark Evangelist to Venice. The old city is a World
Heritage Site.
History
From its establishment in the 7th century AD, the town was
under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the Crusades,
Ragusa/Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (1205–1358),
and by the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358 it became part of
the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom.
Having been granted complete self-government, bound only
to pay a tribute to the king and provide assistance with its
fleet, Dubrovnik started its life as a free state. The Ragusan
Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries,
when the Dubrovnik thalassocracy rivalled Venice and other
Italian maritime republics. After 1492, the city received
a group of Sephardim expelled from Spain and Portugal. They
used their contacts with other Sephardim in the Turkish Empire
and Europe for commercial benefit.
In 1526 Dubrovnik acknowledged the supremacy of the Turkish
Sultan (annual tribute was paid to the Sultan). A crisis of
Mediterranean shipping and especially a catastrophic earthquake
on the April 6, 1667 that killed over 5,000 citizens, including
the Rector, and leveled most of the public buildings, ruined
the well-being of the Republic. With great effort the Republic
recovered a bit, but still remained a shadow of the former
Republic.
With the January 26, 1699 peace agreement, the Dubrovnik
Republic sold/gave two patches of its coast to the Ottoman
Empire so that the Venetians wouldn't be able to attack them
from land, only from the sea. The northeastern land border,
the small town of Neum, is still the only outlet of today's
Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Adriatic sea. The southeastern
border village of Sutorina later became part of Montenegro
which has coastline to the south.
In 1806 Dubrovnik surrendered to French forces, as that was
the only way to cut a month's long siege by the Russian-Montenegrin
fleets (during which 3,000 cannon balls fell on the city).
The French lifted the siege and saved Dubrovnik for the time
being. The French army, led by Napoleon, entered Dubrovnik
in 1806. In 1808 Marshal Marmont abolished the Dubrovnik Republic
(est. 15th century) and amalgamated its territory into Illyrian
provinces.
In 1815, by the resolution of Congress of Vienna, Dubrovnik
was annexed to Austria (later Austria-Hungary), and remained
annexed until 1918, when it became part of the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia from 1929). At the
very beginning of the World War II, Dubrovnik was first part
of the Independent State of Croatia. From April 1941 until
September 1943 Dubrovnik was occupied by the Italian army
and after that by the Germans. In October 1944 Partisans liberated
Dubrovnik from the Germans and it became part of the second
Yugoslavia in 1945.
Despite the 1970s demilitarization of the old town by the
Yugoslav People's Army in an attempt to prevent it from becoming
a casualty of war, following Croatia's independence in 1991,
the same army bombarded the old city on December 6, 1991,
causing some damage. The rest of the city was less fortunate
in the siege that lasted from October 1991 until May 1992.
Casualty estimates in the conflict on this area vary. Some
Serbian sources put it at 88 on both sides, while the Croatian
Red Cross counted 114 killed civilians.
As of 2003, most damaged buildings in the city have been
repaired.
Miscellaneous
Dubrovnik hosted the tenth and final Congres Internationaux
d'Architecture Moderne in 1956.
External links
Dubrovnik Online, travel guide for Dubrovnik and the surrounding
region (http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/)
Dubrovnik - in English (http://about.dubrovnikbedandbreakfast.com/index.htm)
Official web pages of the city (http://www.dubrovnik.hr/)
Dubrovnik Summer Festival (http://www.dubrovnik-festival.hr/default.asp?ru=2)
Dubrovnik, Konavle, Boka kotorska (http://www.hr/darko/etf/et111.html)
Special Report Dubrovnik after war Recovery and remembrance
(http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/110201/110201g.htm)
Dubrovnik e-zine (http://www.dubrovnikportal.com/)
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The English word Argosy is derived from ragusye which means
vessel of Ragusa (old name of Dubrovnik).
This article is licensed
under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article "dubrovnik'.
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