An extraordinary life among the walls of Dubrovnik. You won't hear a baby scream here

Dubrovnik is rightly nicknamed the Pearl of the Adriatic. However, his beauty is also his curse. Although the Croats pour a lot of money from tourist visits, crowds of hungry eyes are slowly destroying it and Croatia had to limit its entry into the center of Dubrovnik in the summer. Due to the rush, he is in danger of losing his inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which he has been proud of since 1979.

In 2009 alone, 539 boats brought 749 thousand tourists here by sea. Due to a UNESCO warning that Dubrovnik could lose its status, the local town hall limited access to the city in June. The number of tourists there must never exceed four thousand people.

"In the two-year horizon, we may lose up to a million euros due to quotas, but in the longer term we will earn much more," the mayor Mato Franković explained some time ago (read more about the topic here).

Another peculiarity of Dubrovnik is connected with the huge tourist onslaught. The old town between the walls really has only 800 inhabitants. "Before the war in 1991, there were 3,500 locals living in old Dubrovnik. People knew each other, talked between houses or on the doorstep, exchanged and rented food between the windows, "says guide Ana Orlovićová.

"That time is gone forever, these moments are gone. You won't hear children's screams here, most of the locals are old people who are emotionally attached to the city and leaving them is not so easy for them, "says Orlovićová.

The population of people among the walls of Dubrovnik is aging. The average monthly income of Croats is 800 euros (less than 21 thousand crowns), so it is no wonder that 85 percent of apartments and flats in Dubrovnik are rented or owned by foreign owners who use them as a summer residence or rent them through AirBnB.

"The price per square meter in Dubrovnik is around three thousand euros, in old Dubrovnik it climbs to five to ten thousand euros per square meter. Living here is very expensive and those who sell their apartment here live in another part of Croatia as rich, "adds Ana.

The city behind the walls

Tourists can perceive how life is in Dubrovnik, for example, when visiting the walls. The high walls are about two kilometers in circumference and grip the old town like a massive stone ring. You can get to the polished streets only through two gates - western Pile and eastern Ploče. For 150 kunas (approx. 520 crowns) we climb the steep stairs just behind Pile. The entrance is from the main street Stradun (from the Italian stradone - large, wide street - editor's note) near the Onofrio's fountain.

The orange roofs of Dubrovnik were created only after the war in 1991. The ones in the color of the sandy coast are older.

And this is where I thank myself for not being here in the summer. Even a smaller number of tourists can be felt on the narrow sidewalks in some parts of the walls, and one has to wait for a good picture.

However, it is worth it, suddenly we have a view of the old town as a beautiful stone complex with white houses and orange roofs. One house seemed to fall out of the eye of another. It looks a bit kitschy, cats are lying on the doorstep and drying clothes are flying between the windows.

"After the war ended in Dubrovnik, most of the city had to be repaired. That's why the brighter orange. The roofs, which have the color of sandy ground, are original. After all, the war and the inscription in UNESCO are also the reason why the houses are like each other, "guide Ivana Radicová shows us the stone facades and bottle-green shutters.

I'm researching which house had to be repaired after the war and which was original. But it's hard. "Thanks to UNESCO, the construction went very fast, but everything is exactly as it was before the siege of Dubrovnik," explains Ivana.

From the walls I can see the handfuls of local natives up to the kitchen and I admire in my heart how lax they are to the constant microscope of thousands of tourists every day. They got used to him. Or they just ignore him.

"But what still works great here are our 'city cameras,'" Ivana laughs, pointing to older women watching the bustle of small windows. I remember this smiling phenomenon from Sicily.

The city lives quietly but briskly. We pass the ruins, which allegedly did not arise during the war, but remained as a monument to earlier construction. After the locals left them or did not finish them, they slowly fell into disrepair and now cats, especially those, found refuge in them.

There are many small gardens with pomegranates and olive trees around the walls, we also pass a café and a jewelry stall that the locals have set up in front of their doors, a Christian school or a basketball court. The whole walk is a good cardio workout and ends at the giant round Tower Minčiny on the west side, which is known from the series Games for Thrones.

Srdj offers wind and breathtaking views

For further views, we take a cable car, which has been operating in its new form since 2010 and which takes tourists every day, if it is not too windy, to the 412-meter-high Srdj mountain, located north of Dubrovnik. The station is located on a gentle hill above the walls of old Dubrovnik. We do not stand in any queues, we enter the cabin and we quickly go to the top of the mountain, where you will also find a café, souvenirs or toilets.

The one-way trip to the hill takes about ten minutes and costs 85 kunas (approx. 295 crowns), the return one for 150 kunas (520 crowns). The very top of the mountain is bare, although it is overgrown with oak forests from the north and south. Hence the name Dubrovnik (dubrava - editor's note).

In addition to the restaurant and café, you can visit the fortress or the giant stone cross on Mount Srdj, which was built by the locals.

When tourists get tired of the beautiful views of the old town, the island of Lokrum, but also the bay and the new dock, they can walk around. Just below the station, the locals had a huge stone cross built, which can be seen from almost every place in Dubrovnik.

A few steps north you will find a museum dedicated to the battles of Dubrovnik in 1991 and the remains of the French fortress Fort Imperial, built during the Napoleonic Wars between 1806 and 1816. The hill not only protected the Croats from strong winds, .

“Many tourists ask whether they prefer the cable car or the walls. You can't choose smartly. If you are lucky with the clear weather, you can see the whole city and the island of Lokrum from here. But who didn't cross the walls of Dubrovnik as if it weren't, "says Natasha, another of the local guides. I really give it to her, even though our group is not one of the happiest today, because a haze is still lying over the city in the morning and all the photos are like a "curtain".

An island full of rabbits where you can't sleep

Third we go to the island of Lokrum, which lies east of the city. The boat ride takes only a weak quarter of an hour and locals and tourists suddenly find themselves in another world, away from the warm polished paving and perfect sheds of the same houses. Lokrum is like a green paradise, albeit quite small, because it occupies less than a square kilometer.

The port pier on the island of Lokrum is adjacent to the tourist information center.

Smokers are unlucky here, as are people who would like to camp on the island, or dog owners. Hundreds of rabbits and peacocks live freely on the island, walking around tourists in peace.

You will also find evergreen nature full of pine and holly oaks. And small, pebbled paths that lead to the botanical garden, eucalyptus grove, scattered cafes, restaurants, forts, bathing places, a monastery or the local Dead Sea. It is separated from the Adriatic only by a rock and an opening in it and in the season it serves as a natural pool for children.

Dead Sea in Lokrum.

“Especially families with children like to spend a day or afternoon here. In the season, everyone likes to go swimming here, because you will not find many beaches in Dubrovnik. And the Dead Sea is ideal for children, it is bordered on all sides and hidden in the shade between the trees, ”Natasha explains as we carefully cross the grazing rabbits.

"Not tourists, but rabbits are the problem of Lokrum," he notes, leading us to the remains of a Benedictine monastery. The Benedictines were the first to settle and manage the island around 915. From the stories that relate to them in Lokrum, they freeze. "The monastery complex is first mentioned in the files around 1023. The Benedictines administered the whole island and until the fifteenth century the abbey also served as a hospital and poorhouse," says our guide.

But in the 18th century, the monks were forced to leave the island. "They were expelled from the island at the end of the century, but before they left, the island and everyone to whom it would ever belong was cursed. The night before they left the island, they surrounded him in hoods with lighted candles holding the flame down. They whispered prayers and sang songs. Since then, no one has been allowed to spend a single night here, ”describes Natasha.

The only inhabitants of Lokrum who stay on the island without any worries.

The curse of the monks is said to have overtaken all the owners of Lokrum. Until World War II, the island brought only misfortune and death. These were, for example, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who bought the island in 1859 and was executed, Rudolf of Habsburg, who died in Mayerling, or King Alexander of Yugoslavia.

It is said that the English King Richard the Lionheart in Lokrum once failed when he returned from a crusade. For being saved on the island, he had the Croats build a cathedral in Dubrovnik.

It is no coincidence that you will also find a replica of the famous Iron Throne from the series Game of Thrones in the monastery complex. Here, too, a lot was filmed, as evidenced by short footage from the filming and excerpts from interviews with the actors of the Game of Thrones. So before you leave this island for the night, don't forget to take a picture of the throne. Like hundreds of other tourists.

The island of Lokrum is located east of Dubrovnik.

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