Good morning Door Friends! This morning our ship is in the port at Dubrovnik, Croatia and after a short bus ride we were dropped off in a beautiful garden, complete with a sidewalk florist (oh, that is another post) Our guide is ready to take us through the city gates of Dubrovnik. What doors will we find here? Dubrovnik is another designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, so we know it will be grand! My first photo really has a door in it, can you see it?

Here is the door from the other side. The walls of this city are quite thick! There is only one door in and one door out of the city, which was completed in the 13th century and remains unchanged to the present day.  Tall ramparts surround it and the main promenade is called the Stradun. The statue is St Blaise, the patron saint of Dubrovnik. There are over 30 statues of him in the historic city. Will we find them all?

Once inside the city we had the opportunity to go to the top of the ramparts and walk around the top of the walls. Notice the streetlights? We’ll see more of them later with a new look!

Also, notice the lack of growth on the top of the hill and the rocky areas? In 1991, Dubrovnik was under siege from the Serbs for 7 months and on and off again for three years after. Our tour guide experienced this as a child and her story will be related in another post. However, there is little growth because the hill was set on fire during the siege for the city…………they were going to burn them out!

This is the Stradun, the main thoroughfare of  the Old Town.

And this is what the side streets look like……very narrow, but full of shops and restaurants…………

I loved that they took the street lamps and used them for advertising their shops as well!

Here we see Saint Blaise on top of the St Blaise Church. He is the patron saint of Dubrovnik for two reasons. First, an old man told the local priest in church during prayer, that the Venetians were going to invade the city. So the city prepared for them and the Venetians passed them by, this time………The old man, the priest said, was an apparition of Saint Blaise. Second, a woman brought her only child, who was choking on a fishbone to Blaise, who was a physician. He saved the child, but soon after was martyred, because he would not denounce his faith. For this reason his feast day is celebrated yearly on February 3rd, when the relics of the saint; his head, a bit of bone from his neck, his right hand and left, are paraded through the city. He is patron saint of all illnesses of the throat.  The faithful flock to the church to have their throats blessed to keep them from any throat ailment or sore throats during the year. In many of the statues of him in Dubrovnik, he is holding the city in his left hand. He was also on Dubrovnik’s state seal and coinage up until Napoleon’s time!  Napoleon was everywhere! The earthquake of 1667 tumbled the church, but a statue of St Blaise inside the church was untouched. The church was rebuilt in 1717.

In front of St Blaise Church is the marker of the ancient knight, Orlando, also known as Rolando. He was used as a symbol of a city under protection of the Hungarian-Croatian King. The statue is also where the town folks gathered to hear the latest proclamations.  Penalties were also carried out here in view of everyone.  The measure from his elbow to the hand was used as a measurement of a piece of cloth, so everyone was using equal measure! New markers were eventually made at the bottom of the statue, so his arm wasn’t always in need of repair!

As I was listening to all the details of Dubrovnik, a man pushed a trolley in front of me and was unloading fresh bread for delivery to a local restaurant. I love bread! I could have eaten all that myself!

The Sponza Palace is on the left and in the background is the Dubrovnik Cathedral. The palace served a variety of public functions including a customs office and warehouse, armory, treasury, bank and school. It survived the 1667 earthquake without damage and an inscription over the door reads in latin, “Our weights do not permit cheating. When I measure goods, God measures me.”

Here is another Saint Blaise!

This is the Dubrovnik Cathedral along with St Blaise!

We find St Blaise even shopping!

And now on to more doors………..this one is recommended by Trip Advisor……………

I would like to have some of those cannonball looking stones overhead the door for my garden……..

Or, I could get one from here if the gate was open………this must be where they kept the stock of cannonballs, in case they were needed……….. And it has a cat guard!

This little cubby hole looks interesting, but I’m not putting my hand in there……I’ve seen the movie……………

Well, I could sit and rest here awhile……..I don’t think I’d be the first or the last.

Walking through the gate to go out of the city at the far end……..

It’s a maze of doors inside doors………

Here’s our man with the trolley again, still delivering goods that arrive at the pier!

Looking back at the city from this side, gives you the full picture…..

We had such a great time in Croatia! Of all the 25 countries I have been to, Croatia is number one on my lists of favorites! I am writing several posts on Dubrovnik, there is so much more to see. Next, is the story of survival during the Serb siege of the city in 1991 as related to us by our young guide. You won’t want to miss that! See you soon!

Have a great door week! Look here to see what others are doing for Norm’s Doors!

It’s easy to do Norm’s Doors. Photograph some doors and post them to Thursday Doors on Thursday!

PS All photos were taken on our IPhones this year……..we are traveling lighter!