Dubrovnik – A Few Miles More

Avoiding high season crowds in Dubrovnik’s Old City

At the risk of mixing popular memes…

How to beat the crowds in Dubrovnik — …but ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY HAVE TO ENDURE!

The word ‘spectacular’ is somehow insufficient when used to describe the Old City of Dubrovnik, and, in a country rich in ancient architectural splendour and blessed with abundant natural wonders, it is still unsurprising that it is the number one tourist destination in Croatia. As reported online by CroatiaWeek “In the first 9 months of 2015 an impressive 822,542 tourists visited the famous walled city. […] On 2 October 2015 the city recorded its 3,000,000th overnight stay, hitting the number 20 days earlier than last year.”

Most visitors arrive via international flights (nearly 85% of arrivals come directly from overseas airports rather than domestic Croatian airports), and on 7th August 2015 Dubrovnik airport welcomed it’s millionth traveller of the year (see EX-YU Aviation News, always an interesting source of information on air traffic in the region).

Smaller numbers of people arrive by car, primarily by heading south through Croatia along the Jadranska Magistrala (D8, the Adriatic Highway), and also on national and international ferries to Dubrovnik’s port of Gruž.

A third group of tourists arrive by cruise ship, and their sudden mass influx can cause considerable congestion. On the 17 August 2015 pedestrian crowded at the entrances into Dubrovnik’s Old City looked like this:

Dubrovnik crowds at the summer season peak — Source: Dubrovački dnevnik. If you follow the link you’ll find more images and a video, but I think you get the idea.

That’s a lot of people to share your experience of Dubrovnik with, but there are a couple of things you can do if you’re not a fan of crowds.

Firstly, you could just avoid visiting in July and August. This is the peak of the tourist season which runs from March until the start of November (although the City Council are trying to promote year-round tourism through such as their Project Winter).

However, for many people, especially those tied to school summers breaks, this is, of course, not possible, and in any case, you might want to be in the city for the annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival which runs from mid-July to nearly the end of August.

The second action to take in order to avoid high season crowds is to plan ahead carefully. Read up on what you really want to see the most, because there’s plenty of choice in the Old City. There are some links at the bottom of this post to the better online resources I found for Dubrovnik when planning last summer’s vacation in Croatia.

Assuming you still want to visit the Old City during high season, one of the best tools for planning the timing of your visit is provided free of charge by the Dubrovnik Port Authority, which you can access here.

All you have to do is select the year and the month of your visit…

…click on “Prikaz izvejšća”, and details of all the cruise ships scheduled in port that month will be revealed (in English).

The listing is colour-coded for quick reference identification of days when cruise ship visitor numbers are expected to be especially high (red), average (yellow) or lighter than usual (green). However, if you’re fixed to specific dates it also tells you the hour the ships dock and the time when they depart. From this information you can make a judgement about when will be the best times to avoid the city gates, busier thoroughfares and the walls, as well as when restaurants are likely to be most crowded during the day.

The Costa Deliziosa viewed from Štikovica — The view from Štikovica as the Costa Deliziosa approaches Dubrovnik’s Gruž port at 06:31 AM. Time to… relax and have a coffee before driving down to the Old City.

Keep in mind that whilst the Port Authority has now limited the number of cruise liners able to visit each day, that also means that there is more than enough space for docking at Gruž rather than anchoring off-shore and having to make a more time-consuming transfer to land. Rapidly disembarking passengers are only a 10 minute courtesy coach/public bus/taxi journey from the Old City.

Most cruise ship passengers will arrive at Pile Gate (it’s generally just the smaller cruise vessels that anchor in front of the Old City harbour, which means passengers are usually counted in tens or the low hundreds rather than by the thousand, and the Ploče Gate is therefore potentially quieter), so it makes sense to know in advance when the throng will be greatest here.

The following set of images demonstrate that it is possible to avoid the worst of the high season’s crowds; they were all taken before 08:00 AM on Saturday 1st August 2015.

We parked in the shade of the reasonably priced underground car park at Ulica Baltazara Bogišić (much less expensive than around the Old City walls and plenty of spaces) and walked the 450m down Zagrebačka ul. to Ul. Srednji Kono where we crossed to Ul. Iza Grada.

Minčeta Tower, Dubrovnik Old City Walls — Taking in the view of the Minčeta Tower at the top of the northern ramparts from Ul. Iza Grada

From here we continued to stroll a further 500m downhill, past Buža Gate, and round Revelin Fort to the Ploče Gates.

Ploče gates stone bridge Dubrovnik — View of the stone bridge between the Ploče gates and beyond to the Old City harbour and St. John’s Fort.

About 07:30 AM in Dubrovnik — The Old City Harbour from the Revelin Fort moat bridge just before the outer gate at Ploče.

The national flag of Croatia and the Libertas flag of Dubrovnik fly in the morning sun at Ploče Gate — The outer gate at Ploče where a drawbridge was once located.

St. Blaise (Sv. Vlaho) looks down over the inner Ploče gate.

Into the Old City of Dubrovnik. The Chapels of Announcement and of St. Luke on Ul. Svetog Dominika.

Dubrovnik Old City Clock Tower at 07:45 AM

The Orlando statue and column in front of St. Blaise's Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaho). — The Orlando statue and column in front of St. Blaise’s Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaho).

St. Blaise's Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaha) — St. Blaise’s Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaha)

Big Onofrio's Fountain (Velika Onofrijeva Fontana) — Big Onofrio’s Fountain (Velika Onofrijeva Fontana)

If you plan to walk the approximately 2km (1.24 miles) length of Dubrovnik’s city walls – and, if you’re physically able to do so, you really should – a little consideration of timing can also pay dividends. In the heat of the summer going as early as possible (or later in the afternoon) will make for a much more comfortable experience (there’s a reason why paramedics sit in the shade at strategic locations along the route), and once again, an early start can beat the worst of the crowds.

If you choose the early start option there are three entrance points to the main city walls, as can be seen on the ticket below.

Most people will scale the heights from the entrance just inside Pile Gate (#1 above), so you might be tempted to enter at the St. John’s Fort entrance (#2) or the St. Luke’s Fort entrance (#3). However, this of course means that whatever your pace, you’ll eventually catch up with an increasingly packed congregation of fellow sightseers.

For high season entry I’d recommend starting along the prescribed anticlockwise route at the Pile Gate when it opens (there are different opening times at different times in the year)… and not standing in the queue that will form by the gated entrance steps. You’ll need a ticket to get in (keep it safe and handy as they do occasionally check as you pass other entrances), and these are purchased from a separate office set into the wall just to the left of the Pile Gate exit. Being at the front of this queue might save you an extra couple of seconds!

Once again, it is possible to avoid high season crowds, even in the middle of summer. These pictures were all taken before 09:05 AM:

A view down Stradun from the top of the steps up to the Walls near Pile Gate

Dubrovnik Walls in August — The view looking out from the walls above Pile Gate before the crowds arrive

Looking back along the southern seaward walls of Dubrovnik

A view from the north walls over St Luke's Gate in the east, and beyond to the Old City harbour, St. John's fort and Lokrum island. Note the Star Pride just below the horizon carrying a scheduled 177 cruise passengers. — A view from the north walls over St Luke’s Gate in the east, and beyond to the Old City harbour, St. John’s fort and Lokrum island. Note the Star Pride just below the horizon carrying a scheduled 177 cruise passengers.

As for the rest of the Old City’s main attractions, it’s going to be pretty difficult to avoid rubbing shoulders with fellow visitors in the high season, particularly during overlapping cruise ship landings.

Side streets away from Stradun (Placa), Ul.Pred Dvorum and the Old City harbour may offer a modicum of respite, but otherwise a) be patient, and accepting of the fact that there’s a good reason why so many people want to visit this place, and b) have your midday escape options planned.

More online information.

Dubrovnikcity.com – includes an interactive map with icons linking to text pages describing many of the city’s main attractions

Dubrovnik Tourist Board – opening times and ticket prices for the Old City walls plus brief page notes on the forts and other main sites of interest.

Dubrovnik-travel.net – a clear map of the old city making the marked main attractions easy to find. Beneath the map are links to expandable pages on each of the main attractions. Hunting around this website also reveals more historical background pages.

Recommended accommodation.

Try the relaxing studios at More Beach House in Štikovica on Zaton Bay.

Stećci in Dalmatia

Lovreć

We came across our first Stećci on a baking day in late July when it was almost 40°C (around 100°F), and we’d retreated to the car to enjoy the Dalmatian landscape with the benefit of air-conditioning. Travelling back from Imotski to Omiš on the D60, we were about 4km (2.5 miles) from Lovreć when we noticed a sign to our right announcing these 14th century monuments.

Ancient monuments Croatia — The Lovreć Stećci can be found alongside the D60 road at 43°28’22″N, 17°01’48″E

There is no formal parking here, and although fairly quiet this is a fast road, so we reversed onto a piece of hard standing on the opposite side (note the silver car in the image below). As is often surprisingly possible in Croatia, we had the site to ourselves, but what were we looking at?

Unique cultural monuments in Croatia — A Lovreć Stećak – “the standing thing” – with free open access to the public at the time of writing

Stećci is the plural for a Stećak. They are elaborately sculpted tombstones created between the 12th and 15th centuries, which can only be found in the Balkan countries that claim parts of the former territory of the medieval Bosnian Kingdom.

The medieval Bosnian Kingdom [Source: Optimus Pryme (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons]

Today that means that most Stećci (c.60,000) are found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but where modern borders now extend across the ancient boundaries it is also possible to find Stećci in Croatia (c.4,400), Montenegro (c.3,500) and Serbia (c.4,100). [Note that these figures are derived from UNESCO, and that the given numbers of Stećci outside Bosnia-Herzegovina don’t appear to match the stated total of 10,000.]

They are often engraved with epitaphs in the Bosnian Cyrillic text of the Bosnian Church from the period, and decorated with a variety of motifs that renowned scholar and campaigner Marian Wenzel has firmly identified as being part of a wider Bosnian tradition of artistic accomplishment. “Her work deciphering inscriptions on the tombstones demolished the myth that they were raised by adherents of the allegedly Bogomil Bosnian Church and she demonstrated conclusively that the Stećci were one aspect of a fashion followed by Catholic, Orthodox and Bosnian Church followers alike.” wrote one of her obituarists.

Despite the sometimes frayed relationships between the four countries in which Stećci can be found, in 2009 Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia jointly nominated them to the UN World Heritage List as a shared cultural heritage.

There are two Stećci necropolises in Lovreć municipality. The one we visited is called Kamenjak, and comprises 13 ridge topped tombstones (or “sljemenjak” in reference to the distinctive ‘gabled’ design), 14 chests and 2 plates. The carvings are mostly quite distinct, even after so many years of exposure to the elements, with religious/symbolic single and double spiral motifs, and scenes from everyday life, most strikingly of deer hunting and horseback pursuit, and possibly human conflict.

C.14th Stećci motifis at Lovreć, Croatia — Human figures on the Lovreć Stećci

As an insight into a unique regional, historical cultural phenomena, the Lovreć Stećci are well worth stopping for before time, traffic pollution and neglect diminish the opportunity. Inspired by our first experience of these funeral monuments, we went searching for more Stećci a few days later.

Brotnice

Whilst staying near Dubrovnik we took a drive down to Konavle municipality, and heading left off the main highway (D8, the Jadranska Magistrala), turned up into the hills approaching the mountainous border with Bosnia-Herzegovina. Only a few minutes away from the coastal tourist strip of Župa Dubrovacka and Cavtat, the comparative isolation of this area belies the fact that you are travelling in one of the wealthiest regions of present day Croatia. The rugged landscape reveals pockets of agriculturally based old wealth, and has a fascinating history that includes Roman settlement and attempts to hold back the Ottoman empire, (but we’ll save that for a future post). On our day out we went to find the Brotnice Stećci.

As you can see above, the road is well surfaced. Many of Croatia’s roads are excellent, and here we drove along newly asphalted sections and the parked road laying machinery that was extending the metalled surface inland, almost reaching our destination. The winding route led us past fields of pumpkins and groves of olives, but meeting any other traffic was an almost non-existent event.

Pumpkin fields near Brotnice, Konavle, Croatia

Beware of Killer Rabbits and huge blue skies near Brotnice, Konavle, Croatia

The signposting helped to get us to the vicinity of our quest (although I’m still not sure about the purpose of the rabbit ‘warning’ sign), and we eventually ended up down an unpaved track in a farmyard where a local resident re-directed us to our destination, He also noted that we should drive all the way as the final section of track would be crawling with “poisonous snakes”. Of Croatia’s 15 species of snake only 3 are venomous, and of these only the Horn-nosed Viper (“Poskok” in Croatian) is of potentially serious concern, but I digress as, despite liking snakes, we didn’t see one.

The front of the 16th century St. Luke's church (Crkva Sv. Luka) — The front of the 16th century St. Luke’s church (Crkva Sv. Luka)

At 42°35’32″N, 18°17’58″E we found the small church of Sv. Luka. There’s plenty of free parking space here, and the chances are that you will have the place to yourself. At the entrance to the church yard you are greeted by a modern monolith with a slowly de-laminating text that reminds you that they don’t make them like they used to!

The 'Tombstone Path' sign at the entrance to St. Luke's — The ‘Tombstone Path’ sign at the entrance to St. Luke’s

As part of the ‘Tombstone Path’ (“Stazama stećaka”) of southern Dalmatia it provides the locations of other Stećci in the area, and contains the following description of the site:

THE CHURCH OF ST. LUKE AND THE VOZNIK QUARRY, BROTNJICE, MUNICIPALITY OF KONAVLE

The church is located south of Brotnjice on a medieval road that leads from Cavtat to the village. The church itself is roughly dated to the 16th century. The latest examination has identified 29 stećak, one of which is on pedestal and has a sljemenjak, 10 box-shaped and 18 slabs. We found decorations on eight stećak. The most richly decorated is the single stećak with decorations on all vertical sides. The decorations include depictions of hunting (a man on a horse and birds) a kolo, fantastic animals, deer, womem in unusual poses, a cross, a variety of trimmings and an inscription in Bosnian Cyrillic script that mentions Ratko Utješinok. It is one of the most beautiful stećak in the Dubrovnik area and is dated to the end of the 14th or first half of the 15th century. Of the remaining stećak five are decorated with motifs of rosettes, crosses, half-moons and women in long dresses.

Voznik, the stone quarry, Brotjnice – is located on the northwestern slopes of Osojnik Hill in Osoje. The cemetery with stećak is about 300 meters northeast of the church. It covers an area of about 80×100 meters and is bordered on the north and west by old paths and boundary markers. Evidence of the exploitation of the stones is apparent in the entire area – remnants of stone blocks, but also seven stećak that were broken during carving, four of which are slabs and three of which are box-shaped, Especially interesting is one box-shaped monument on which the final working of the decoration is visible. On one of the narrow sides, in a shallow hollowed-out niche, is the depiction of a horseman in relief; on the opposite side there is only a shallow niche without a figure; on the wider (Eastern) side there is a motif of and arcade in relief; and on its opposite side is a depiction of a kolo with nine human figures holding hands. Witnesses have described for us how in this case, and probably in other cases, the final work on the stećak was carried out in the quarry itself and not at the place where it would have been used and where it had usually been done until then – the cemetery. It is apparent that during the preparation of the stone pedestal great care was taken in working with the natural grain of the stone which is set in a southeast northwest direction. Recesses were cut into the stone so that the block could be separated from the base and then worked on. Regarding the area that encompasses the quarry and the number of broken and remaining stećci, it can be assumed that the quarry was used not only for the cemetery in Brotnjice, but also further afield. It can also be assumed that the stonecutter Ratko Utješinok and his grandfather Druško, who are mentioned on the sljemenjak at St. Luke, worked here.

More online information.

The Rural Dubrovnik Neretva website has more on other places to find Stećci in southern Dalmatia, and a 5′ 35″ video which is worth a look.