Friday, July 22
And it was a very good night's sleep; we didn't wake up til nearly 1000.
There's a little coffee and pastry shop just up the "street" from our apartment called Sugar & Spice. After we had breakfast in the apartment, we stopped in there for coffee (kava s mlijko) and some banana bread. It's a good thing (for me anyways) that the two languages - Slovenian and Croatian - are so similar. I'd read that Up until about 50 years ago, the entire group of languages was referred to as "Serbo-Croatian" and that the differences were accounted for as "dialect". Take it from me, you don't want to say that out loud in this part of the world. Fortunately, my pronunciation is so bad, people can't really distinguish whether I'm trying to speak Slovenian, Croatian or something else. Little matter, so long as I get my coffee I'm fine.
Today it's going to be just me, Marg and what seems to be about 10,000 other people from today's cruise ships; we're all just wandering the city.
The tours came in waves ... with small stickers on their shirts that indicated which numbered group they were with. We went to the Pile Gate and saw the organization. Buses would pull up, a group would get off, and start with a guide. The group leader or guide had a paddle with the group's number shown. Group number 12 would leave, and group number 13 would form up. Each group would follow the preceding group on a pre-determined route with pre-determined spacing. Groups were divided by language; we heard English, Italian, French, Croatian.
The old city is fairly simply laid out. The main street (the spine of the city) is the Stradun (Placa). Wide and paved with marble, it's lined with shops and restaurants. At one end, the Pile Gate which is the hub of tourist activities. At the other end is the gate to the Old Port; near this gate is the Sponza Palace (Sponza-Povijesni Arhiv).
The Sponza Palace is the former customs house, but now houses a gallery for temporary art exhibits and a war memorial. The war memorial room devoted to the Dubrovnik Defenders and has a photo of each of the dozens of people killed defending the city during the 1991 siege. The building itself dates from 1522 and is one of the few remaining original examples of the 16th-century architectural style; much of the rest of the city was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667.
The square's elaborate bell tower shows phases of the moon and - just as in the Piaza San Marco in Venice - has a "digital" clock that reads in 5-minute increments. Word is, though, that this one pre-dates the one in Venice by several decades.
Opposite the Sponza Palace is Crkva Sv. Vlaha (in English - St. Blaise). Between the two is the Luža with a statue of Orlando facing the Sponza. It's said that the length of the right forearm of the statue was the official unit of measurement in Dubrovnik. And for easy reference, there's a line carved into the top step of the statue's pedestal.
Knežev Dvor (pronounced exactly the way it reads) is just up from this square. Dubrovnik was overseen by a "rector" elected by the nobility. To prevent corruption, the rector's term of office was only one month. It was from the Knežev Dvor that the rector guided the city.
All around the square and up the small laneways people were selling handicrafts.
Just up from the Knežev Dvor is the Katedrala. On his return from the Third Crusade, King Richard the Lionhearted was shipwrecked on Lokrum Island - about 800 metres off the wall of the Old Port. Richard promised God that he would build a cathedral if he survived ... he did ... and the citizens of Dubrovnik convinced him to build the cathedral here in the city. The original church was also destroyed in the earthquake of 1667 and today's church dates back to the 18th century. These old churches are really big on relics - bits of saint's bones and the like (usually small fragments encased in silver reliquaries made into the shape of a hand, foot or whatever.
The Emperor Constantine's mother Helen claimed to have acquired the true cross during a trip to the Holy Land ... and brought it back. In turn, the Byzantine Emperors distributed fragments to the various Balkan Kings. The treasury of the Katedrala claims to have one of these fragments. The Katerdrala also claims to have in its possession the actual swaddling clothes in which the baby Jesus was wrapped (probably by way of St. Helen the mother of Constantine again).
Having visited many, many churches on previous trips (mostly because that's where so much of the art is still actually "in situ") I'll say right now that I find these Slavic churches to be generally much darker places. Maybe it's because for so many years they lacked the resources to properly store and keep their treasures. The Katedrala was a very dark place.
In cross-section, Dubrovnik is shaped very much like a dish. As we moved away from the Stradun, we went up ... which meant stairs. I wanted to head up to Marg's "namesake" street Od Margarite - if for no other reason than to get a picture of her in front of some sort of street sign. Along the way, we found ourselves on the Jesuit staircase leading to St. Ignatius Loyola church ... the Jesuit mission to Dubrovnik.
We found Od Margarite running right along the base of the wall. We followed this along, exploring some of the more "remote" (i.e. non-tourist) parts of the city. I'm not sure how non-tourist it was though, what we heard was that most of the city's remaining permanent residents actually move out of their own places during the summer and rent to tourists. I'm not sure if I would have wanted a place this far from the Stradun ... looking down the alleyways leading to the central part of the city was a vertigo-inducing experience. Nothing but stairs, stairs and more stairs. Did I mention that the stairs are steep? And did I mention that they don't always conform to stand rise/run conventions? Everywhere you had to watch your step carefully. Falling down these stairs would likely be a ten-minute ride
Yesterday evening, during our first explorations of the city we'd seen a small gallery just around the corner from our apartment; on the outside were a number of posters with narratives about the bombing of Dubrovnik. Today, we went in to see the gallery and meet the artist Ivo Grbić.
Most of Ivo's works were silkscreened posters. Many were stylized depictions of the old city ... all were very nice. Marg - using her Slovenian - had some words with Ivo ... what I got from the conversation was that he liked Slovenes. In fact, I think that the only people he held any animosity towards were those who inflicted so much grievous damage to his beautiful city. Ivo is still in the same studio he had during the bombing of the city in 1991. On the exterior walls of his studio he's placed photos and narratives describing life in the city during the winter of 1991/1992.
Every summer, the Dubrovnik Festival brings performers from around the world to this city. Ivo had put together a book of character sketches of some of the major performers ... we bought one and asked him to sign it. It was a bit sad to watch him struggle with the pen; Ivo seems to have Parkinson's. Ivo also gave us a postcard (more photo actually) of him, wrapped in a blanket, wearing (as many in the city did at the time) a cooking pot on his head for protection, standing in the same street we were on - his sister's apartment in flames one floor above. The spirit of that man lives on, but time has taken its toll on his body.
After our visit with Ivo we went for lunch at a little pizza joint called "Mea Culpa". I figured that if the food was bad, they'd have already apologized for it.
This alleyways and back sidewalks of this city are built for wandering. And wander we did ... mostly in the area between the Stradun and the sea. There seemed to be something else to see around just about every corner.
In its day, Dubrovnik was known for tolerance. And given the area's recent history and political climate, St. Stephen's Orthodox Church stands as a testament to that tolerance.
The former Yugoslavia fractured along three main fault lines - Roman Catholic (Slovenes and Croats), Muslim (Bosniak) and Serb (Orthodox Christian). As an Orthodox church, Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva (St. Stephen's) still celebrates in a manner similar to the earliest traditions of Christianity. There are no pews; worshippers stand through the service. Inscriptions in the church are all in Cyrillic and the religious imagery is iconographic in style. It was very beautiful inside ... in fact, up to this point I would say one of the best-maintained churches that we've visited since leaving Italy.
By now it was getting quite late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the apartment for our afternoon siesta.
On "our" side of the city, Od Puča runs parallel to the Stradun and is filled with shops of every sort. Prijeko runs parallel to the Stradun on the other side and is lined with restaurants. It was to this area that we went looking for supper. All we had to do was pick one.
On our stroll back to the apartment we stopped in at Sugar & Spice and picked up a piece of chocolate/pistachio cake. Delicious!
We were thinking back to our conversation with Ivo and the many things we'd seen today. And so we went to You-Tube and watched several videos that had been shot during the siege of Dubrovnik. It was very sad to see the senseless destruction that had been brought to this beautiful and historic place. Even the Nazis had withdrawn from Rome to save the common culture. It's impossible for me to comprehend what madness must have come over the people responsible.
And it was a very good night's sleep; we didn't wake up til nearly 1000.
There's a little coffee and pastry shop just up the "street" from our apartment called Sugar & Spice. After we had breakfast in the apartment, we stopped in there for coffee (kava s mlijko) and some banana bread. It's a good thing (for me anyways) that the two languages - Slovenian and Croatian - are so similar. I'd read that Up until about 50 years ago, the entire group of languages was referred to as "Serbo-Croatian" and that the differences were accounted for as "dialect". Take it from me, you don't want to say that out loud in this part of the world. Fortunately, my pronunciation is so bad, people can't really distinguish whether I'm trying to speak Slovenian, Croatian or something else. Little matter, so long as I get my coffee I'm fine.
Today it's going to be just me, Marg and what seems to be about 10,000 other people from today's cruise ships; we're all just wandering the city.
The tours came in waves ... with small stickers on their shirts that indicated which numbered group they were with. We went to the Pile Gate and saw the organization. Buses would pull up, a group would get off, and start with a guide. The group leader or guide had a paddle with the group's number shown. Group number 12 would leave, and group number 13 would form up. Each group would follow the preceding group on a pre-determined route with pre-determined spacing. Groups were divided by language; we heard English, Italian, French, Croatian.
The old city is fairly simply laid out. The main street (the spine of the city) is the Stradun (Placa). Wide and paved with marble, it's lined with shops and restaurants. At one end, the Pile Gate which is the hub of tourist activities. At the other end is the gate to the Old Port; near this gate is the Sponza Palace (Sponza-Povijesni Arhiv).
The Sponza Palace is the former customs house, but now houses a gallery for temporary art exhibits and a war memorial. The war memorial room devoted to the Dubrovnik Defenders and has a photo of each of the dozens of people killed defending the city during the 1991 siege. The building itself dates from 1522 and is one of the few remaining original examples of the 16th-century architectural style; much of the rest of the city was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667.
The square's elaborate bell tower shows phases of the moon and - just as in the Piaza San Marco in Venice - has a "digital" clock that reads in 5-minute increments. Word is, though, that this one pre-dates the one in Venice by several decades.
Opposite the Sponza Palace is Crkva Sv. Vlaha (in English - St. Blaise). Between the two is the Luža with a statue of Orlando facing the Sponza. It's said that the length of the right forearm of the statue was the official unit of measurement in Dubrovnik. And for easy reference, there's a line carved into the top step of the statue's pedestal.
Knežev Dvor (pronounced exactly the way it reads) is just up from this square. Dubrovnik was overseen by a "rector" elected by the nobility. To prevent corruption, the rector's term of office was only one month. It was from the Knežev Dvor that the rector guided the city.
All around the square and up the small laneways people were selling handicrafts.
Just up from the Knežev Dvor is the Katedrala. On his return from the Third Crusade, King Richard the Lionhearted was shipwrecked on Lokrum Island - about 800 metres off the wall of the Old Port. Richard promised God that he would build a cathedral if he survived ... he did ... and the citizens of Dubrovnik convinced him to build the cathedral here in the city. The original church was also destroyed in the earthquake of 1667 and today's church dates back to the 18th century. These old churches are really big on relics - bits of saint's bones and the like (usually small fragments encased in silver reliquaries made into the shape of a hand, foot or whatever.
The Emperor Constantine's mother Helen claimed to have acquired the true cross during a trip to the Holy Land ... and brought it back. In turn, the Byzantine Emperors distributed fragments to the various Balkan Kings. The treasury of the Katedrala claims to have one of these fragments. The Katerdrala also claims to have in its possession the actual swaddling clothes in which the baby Jesus was wrapped (probably by way of St. Helen the mother of Constantine again).
Having visited many, many churches on previous trips (mostly because that's where so much of the art is still actually "in situ") I'll say right now that I find these Slavic churches to be generally much darker places. Maybe it's because for so many years they lacked the resources to properly store and keep their treasures. The Katedrala was a very dark place.
In cross-section, Dubrovnik is shaped very much like a dish. As we moved away from the Stradun, we went up ... which meant stairs. I wanted to head up to Marg's "namesake" street Od Margarite - if for no other reason than to get a picture of her in front of some sort of street sign. Along the way, we found ourselves on the Jesuit staircase leading to St. Ignatius Loyola church ... the Jesuit mission to Dubrovnik.
We found Od Margarite running right along the base of the wall. We followed this along, exploring some of the more "remote" (i.e. non-tourist) parts of the city. I'm not sure how non-tourist it was though, what we heard was that most of the city's remaining permanent residents actually move out of their own places during the summer and rent to tourists. I'm not sure if I would have wanted a place this far from the Stradun ... looking down the alleyways leading to the central part of the city was a vertigo-inducing experience. Nothing but stairs, stairs and more stairs. Did I mention that the stairs are steep? And did I mention that they don't always conform to stand rise/run conventions? Everywhere you had to watch your step carefully. Falling down these stairs would likely be a ten-minute ride
Yesterday evening, during our first explorations of the city we'd seen a small gallery just around the corner from our apartment; on the outside were a number of posters with narratives about the bombing of Dubrovnik. Today, we went in to see the gallery and meet the artist Ivo Grbić.
Most of Ivo's works were silkscreened posters. Many were stylized depictions of the old city ... all were very nice. Marg - using her Slovenian - had some words with Ivo ... what I got from the conversation was that he liked Slovenes. In fact, I think that the only people he held any animosity towards were those who inflicted so much grievous damage to his beautiful city. Ivo is still in the same studio he had during the bombing of the city in 1991. On the exterior walls of his studio he's placed photos and narratives describing life in the city during the winter of 1991/1992.
Every summer, the Dubrovnik Festival brings performers from around the world to this city. Ivo had put together a book of character sketches of some of the major performers ... we bought one and asked him to sign it. It was a bit sad to watch him struggle with the pen; Ivo seems to have Parkinson's. Ivo also gave us a postcard (more photo actually) of him, wrapped in a blanket, wearing (as many in the city did at the time) a cooking pot on his head for protection, standing in the same street we were on - his sister's apartment in flames one floor above. The spirit of that man lives on, but time has taken its toll on his body.
After our visit with Ivo we went for lunch at a little pizza joint called "Mea Culpa". I figured that if the food was bad, they'd have already apologized for it.
This alleyways and back sidewalks of this city are built for wandering. And wander we did ... mostly in the area between the Stradun and the sea. There seemed to be something else to see around just about every corner.
In its day, Dubrovnik was known for tolerance. And given the area's recent history and political climate, St. Stephen's Orthodox Church stands as a testament to that tolerance.
The former Yugoslavia fractured along three main fault lines - Roman Catholic (Slovenes and Croats), Muslim (Bosniak) and Serb (Orthodox Christian). As an Orthodox church, Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva (St. Stephen's) still celebrates in a manner similar to the earliest traditions of Christianity. There are no pews; worshippers stand through the service. Inscriptions in the church are all in Cyrillic and the religious imagery is iconographic in style. It was very beautiful inside ... in fact, up to this point I would say one of the best-maintained churches that we've visited since leaving Italy.
By now it was getting quite late in the afternoon, so we headed back to the apartment for our afternoon siesta.
On "our" side of the city, Od Puča runs parallel to the Stradun and is filled with shops of every sort. Prijeko runs parallel to the Stradun on the other side and is lined with restaurants. It was to this area that we went looking for supper. All we had to do was pick one.
On our stroll back to the apartment we stopped in at Sugar & Spice and picked up a piece of chocolate/pistachio cake. Delicious!
We were thinking back to our conversation with Ivo and the many things we'd seen today. And so we went to You-Tube and watched several videos that had been shot during the siege of Dubrovnik. It was very sad to see the senseless destruction that had been brought to this beautiful and historic place. Even the Nazis had withdrawn from Rome to save the common culture. It's impossible for me to comprehend what madness must have come over the people responsible.
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