City walls of Dubrovnik

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City walls of Dubrovnik

The city ​​wall of Dubrovnik ( Croatian Dubrovačke gradske zidine ) in the Croatian city ​​of Dubrovnik (formerly Ragusa or Republic of Ragusa ) is the best-preserved defensive medieval fortification system in Europe. About two kilometers long, it circles the old town of Dubrovnik from all sides and has become a landmark not only of the old town, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Croatia since 1979 .

history

Old town Dubrovnik, in the foreground the city wall

The construction of the wall began at the end of the 8th century and already proved itself in the years 866–867 during the fifteen-month siege by the Saracens in the Byzantine-Arab wars . The further construction of the wall, as it is still today - despite a catastrophic earthquake in 1667 - began in the 12th century and lasted until the end of the 17th century. Various Croatian, Dalmatian and Italian builders and architects of the time participated in the construction, such as Nićifor Ranjina (in 1319), Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (1461–1464), Giorgio da Sebenico (1465–1466), Paskoje Miličević (1466–1516) ), Antonio Ferramolino (1538) or Mihajlo Hranjac (1617) and others.

The importance of the defensive system results from the listing of numerous sieges of the city in history:

Furnishing

The wall is between four and six meters wide on the land side, and one and a half to three meters wide on the lake side. In some places it reaches a height of up to twenty-five meters. From the mainland side, the actual wall is preceded by a smaller, sloping wall, which served to protect against cannon fire. In the past there was also a deep protective ditch here.

In the city wall there are two well-fortified main entrances to the old town: the Pile Gate in the west and the Ploče Gate in the east, both from the 15th century, both with drawbridges. There are also two gates that served as entrances to the city ​​port - the Ponte Gate (Vrata od Ponte) from 1476 and the Fish Market Gate (or Peskarija Gate; Vrata Ribarnice) from 1381; In 1908, a small gate in the north wall was finally broken through as access to tennis courts for officers of the Austrian army.

Minčeta fortress

The striking points of the fortification include five fortresses:

  • Minčeta Fortress (Tvrdava Minčeta) from the 15th century on the north-northwest side
  • Fortress Sveti Ivan (Tvrdava Sveti Ivana; also fortress of St. John or similar) from the 14th to 16th centuries in the southeast, which protected the city harbor
  • Bokar Fortress (Tvrdava Bokar) from the 15th century in the west, which was supposed to defend the Pile Gate and is the oldest still preserved casemate fortress in Europe
  • Fortress Revelin (Tvrdava Revelin) from the 15th century in the Northeast, which protected the Ploce Gate
  • Fortress Lovrijenac (Tvrdava Lovrijenac) from the 14th to 16th centuries in the west, built on a 37 m high cliff, intended for the defense of the western part of the city against attacks from both sea and land

The first three fortresses are integrated into the city wall, the latter two stand alone.

To improve the defense system, the following additional elements were also added to the wall: two round and two large angular towers, twelve square towers and five bastions; the upstream second wall on the mainland side was equipped with one large and nine smaller semicircular bastions . The city wall was equipped with over 120 cannons. They were cast in local workshops that were then famous for their arts; Ivan Rabljanin , who worked in Dubrovnik, was one of the best-known cannon founders of the 16th century .

and display information about the image
Mediterranean panorama of the 1,940 m long city walls of Dubrovnik with further fortifications and extensions

Web links

Commons : Dubrovnik City Walls  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

annotation

  1. ↑ Some sources (such as City Walls Of Dubrovnik. (PDF; 829 kB) In: geographica.hr, accessed on May 17, 2019; English) give slightly different information on these defense elements, whereby none of the sources indicate which year serves as the basis .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old City of Dubrovnik. In: whc.unesco.org, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  2. ^ Dubrovnik. In: britannica.com, accessed May 17, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b The city walls ( Memento from February 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: diu.hr, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English).
  4. ↑ a b c City wall in Dubrovnik old town - fortress walls Croatia ( Memento from September 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: dubrovnik.li, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Chronology of Dubrovnik from 600 AD until 1808 ( Memento of September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: dubrovnik-online.com, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English).
  6. ^ Dubrovnik City Walls. In: dubrovnik-guide.net, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  7. ↑ a b c City Walls Of Dubrovnik. (PDF; 829 kB) In: geographica.hr, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English).
  8. ↑ The city center of Dubrovnik ( Memento from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: visitdubrovnik.hr, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  9. ^ Fred Singleton: A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985, ISBN 0-521-27485-0 , p. 68 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  10. ^ John VA Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, p. 8 ( preview in Google Book Search).
  11. ↑ e.marcial: 2011 Ragusa, Croatia. (No longer available online.) In: worldcapitalinstitute.org. January 25, 2011; Archived from the original on May 9, 2011 ; accessed on May 17, 2019 (English).
  12. ↑ 1205-1526 Republica Ragusina. In: nicos.de, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  13. ↑ Barisa Krekić: Contributions of Foreigners to Dubrovnik's Economic Growth in the Late Middle Ages. In: Robert L. Benson (Ed.): Viator. Medieval and Renaissance studies. Volume 9. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 1986, ISBN 0-520-03608-5 , p. 388 ( preview in Google Book Search)
  14. ↑ Barbara Jelavich: History of the Balkans (= History of the Balkans. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Volume 1; The Joint Committe on Eastern Europe publication series. Volume 12). Cambridge University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-521-27459-1 , p. 121 ( preview in Google Book Search).
  15. ↑ Dubrovnik and Ragusa, two sonorous names for an eventful history ( Memento from September 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: dubrovnik24.de, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  16. ↑ a b c d City Walls. (No longer available online.) In: sitiunescoadriatico.org. UNESCO , archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved May 17, 2019 (English, source: Dubrovnik-Neretva County Tourist Board).
  17. ^ Dubrovnik. In: porta-croatia.de, accessed on May 17, 2019.
  18. ^ Dubrovnik City Gates. In: dubrovnikcity.com, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English).
  19. ^ City walls and fortresses ( Memento from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: cromaps.com, accessed May 17, 2019 (Croatian).