{"id":123092,"date":"2024-11-20T09:14:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T17:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelthefourcorners.com\/?p=123092"},"modified":"2025-07-04T18:38:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T01:38:48","slug":"dubrovniks-timeless-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelthefourcorners.com\/dubrovniks-timeless-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubrovnik’s Timeless Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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If you can squeeze in only two seaside overnights in Croatia, make them the breathtaking coastal cities of Dubrovnik and <\/b>Split<\/b><\/a> in the southern historical region of Dalmatia. A mere 127 miles apart, each offers stunning vistas with time capsule-like “Old Cities.” And, if you can overlook the hordes of tourists, which lately seems to be the nature of European travel, both will give you a glimpse of past centuries and capture your imagination.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>

Today, I wrap up my 19-part Balkans series with a post about Dubrovnik, one of Croatia’s most visited and best-preserved historical sites. Since Croatia’s devastating Homeland War in the early 1990s, many vacationers have discovered this “Pearl of the Adriatic.” The wildly popular HBO series Game of Thrones was shot here, putting Croatia on the map for many people.<\/b><\/p>

Travel is a deeply personal experience, but Dubrovnik’s historical city center offers something for every curious visitor.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Date of Visit:<\/b> September 28, 2022<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/div>Our Destination Rating 4.9<\/span><\/cite>\t\t\t\t\t
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As we approached Dubrovnik, I flipped open my guidebook<\/a> for an impromptu history lesson. Like Split and eight other historic sites in Croatia, the Old City of Dubrovnik is a UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/a>. What was life like for the medieval seafarers and merchants who built this beautiful city? I imagined how they must have lived in fear of the marauding Ottoman armies and Venetian naval power. This city-state was at the intersection of Christianity and Islam. It survived through diplomacy, bribes, and intelligence-sharing. But what was most surprising to me was that unlike Split<\/a>, Pula<\/a>, and Zadar<\/a>, the ancient Romans never settled in Dubrovnik. Despite my 11th-hour history prep, when I first saw Fort Lovrijenac across from Dubrovnik’s imposing city walls, wouldn’t you know, a scene from Game of Thrones<\/i><\/a> came to mind.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you binge-watched that fanciful HBO series (2011-2019), it’s hard to forget “The Red Keep” and dreamy “Blackwater Bay” below the castle.<\/p>

On the set, Fort Lovrijenac was the castle of Bran Stark, the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, who resided in Kings Landing, the fictional capital city of Westeros.<\/p>

In the real world, it’s an 11th-century fort that defended the western side of Dubrovnik against a Venetian attack that never came. I should have pictured invading Venetians (or Ottomans), not dragon attacks.<\/p>

The truth is that computer-generated imagery of virtual worlds is often more memorable than history books. Hollywood props like the Iron Throne are also powerful visuals.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fort Lovrijenac (Fort of St. Lawrence) was featured in \u201cThe Game of Thrones.\u2019\u201d Image by JAG.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Iron Throne (Image AI generated)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Did you know there are six replicas of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones that HBO hid around the world for fans to find in a scavenger hunt before the show’s eighth season?<\/p>

HBO gifted an Iron Throne to Dubrovnik, which is now located on the Island of Lokrum and is part of a Game of Thrones visitor center.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In reality, dragon-free Dubrovnik was known as the Republic of Ragusa from 1358 until 1808. Its medieval walls are perched high above the turquoise Aegean Sea. During the Middle Ages, the city-state weathered three major earthquakes (1520, 1639, and 1667), and from 1990-1991, it was unconscionably shelled by Serbian and Montenegrin troops in Croatia’s fierce Homeland War. Croatia painstakingly repaired the damage, and thankfully, much of the Old City looks as it did in the late 1600s and 1700s after the earthquake repairs. For a summary of Dubrovnik’s turbulent history, see the Sidebar.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Map of Dubrovnik \"Old City\"<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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