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Old City of Dubrovnik
Site number:
95
Type of site: Cultural
Date: 13th century
Date of Inscription: 1979, 1994
Location: Europe, Croatia, County of Dubrovnik-Neretva, Adriatic Coast
Video:
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Description: The Old City of Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast, from the 13th century onwards became an important Mediterranean Sea power-the 'Pearl of the Adriatic'. Even though the city was severely damaged in 1667by an earthquake, Dubrovnik has been able to maintain its stunning Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces and various fountains. The 1990s saw more damage due to the armed conflict, consequently the area has become the focus of a key restoration programme co-ordinated by UNESCO. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available.
  Dubrovnik is an historic city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Croatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. Since 1979, the historic centre of Dubrovnik has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Ragusa was founded in the 7th century on a rocky island named Laus, which provided shelter for Latin refugees from the nearby city of Epidaurus, today's Cavtat also Ragusavecchia. Some time later a settlement of Slavic people grew at the foot of the forested Srđ hill. This settlement give to the city its slavic name "Dubrovnik". The strip of wetland between Ragusa and Dubrava was reclaimed in the 12th century, unifying the city around the newly-made plaza (today Placa or Stradun). The plaza was paved in 1468 and reconstructed after the earthquake of 1667. The city was fortified and two harbours were built on each side of the isthmus. From its establishment in the 7th century, 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 Zara in 1358, it became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Between the 14th century and 1808 Ragusa ruled itself as a free state. The Republic had its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivalled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics. The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik has always been based on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages, as the Republic of Ragusa, it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Ragusa was one of the centres of the development of the Croatian language and literature, home to many notable poets, playwrights, painters, mathematicians, physicists and other scholars. Despite the demilitarization of the old town early in the 1970s in an attempt to prevent it from ever becoming a casualty of war, following Croatia's independence in 1991, the Serbian-Montenegrin remains of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attacked the city. Following the end of the war, the damage caused by shelling of the Old Town was repaired. Adhering to UNESCO guidelines, repairs were performed in the original style. As of 2005, most damage had been repaired. The inflicted damage can be seen on a chart near the city gate, showing all artillery hits during the siege. ICTY indictments were issued for the JNA generals and officers involved in the bombing. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/95
Source2: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/95/video
Reference: 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. 2. Ching-chih Chen's Global Memory Net.
 
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