The city gate was two miles away from the ship's port. They had arranged for buses to pick up and drop off at the Pile Gate, for a fee of course.
It was raining this morning, so we went inside the cathedral (Katedrala) to wait out the rain. The first cathedral was built in the 12th century by King Richard the Lionhearted of England. He was shipwrecked on Lokrum Island on his way home from the Third Crusade. He promised God that if he survived, he would build a church on the site where he landed. However, the city requested that he build it in Dubrovnik. It was the finest Romanesque church in the area before it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1667. The cathedral was rebuilt in the 18th century.
By the time we were finished in the cathedral, it had stopped raining. We bought our tickets for the walls. It was 50 kunas ($10) to walk the walls. We entered at the Minceta Tower, just inside the Pile Gate. We spent a couple of hours strolling the walls, enjoying the scenery, and taking pictures. The walls are as old as the city. When the Ottoman navy became a threat in the 15th century, the walls were fortified.
I have over a hundred pictures that I took while walking the walls. These are just a few of them!
After walking the walls, we went to the Dominican Monastery Museum (Dominikanski Samostan-Muzej). This was the church for the wealthy people. One of the rooms contains paintings from the Dubrovnik School of Painting of the 1500's. Many of the paintings from this time were destroyed during the earthquake of 1667. One of the surviving artworks is the triptych by Nikola Bozidarovic of St. Blaise holding a model of 16th century Dubrovnik. In another room is a painting by Titian of St. Blaise, Mary Magdalene, and the donor.
Dubrovnik is a very beautiful city. By the time we were ready to leave, another ship had arrived and the town was becoming very crowded.
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