Valamar Blog

The Dubrovnik Stradun is the central street of the city of Dubrovnik and in itself a great tourist attraction. If you are to visit Dubrovnik and take a stroll down the famous Stradun, remember one thing – the surface you are walking on, the cobbled street surrounded by buildings’ façades on both sides was once under the sea.

 That’s right. A long time ago, Stradun used to be a sea channel, that is the channel that in those days separated the two settlements (cliffs) upon which the city was founded in the early Middle Ages. After the channel was filled up, Stradun became a street. Although there are different theories about the way Stradun came to existence, upheld by the scientists who wrote about the Dubrovnik history, this is a prevailing opinion and the majority of literature about Dubrovnik adopts it as relevant.

 Stradun or Placa is a fairly wide street whose smooth cobbled surface is walked over by thousands of tourists throughout the year. It is worth mentioning that its present appearance dates back to the period when the buildings that were devastated in the terrible earthquake that shook Dubrovnik in 1667 were reconstructed. Not so long ago, Stradun itself suffered other damages. It was during the Homeland war in 1991, when an unprecedented culturecide was perpetrated, with numerous missiles landing on the famous Plac.

 The streets remember and they write stories, and while we disappear they remain as witnesses of past times, years and centuries long gone. Aside from the mentioned painful memories, Stradun has nevertheless lived a lot more of those beautiful, peaceful and brighter moments. Countless destinies left their traces here. Main streets and squares have always been the jugulars of any city; the places where you can best feel the “pulse of the city”, get in tune with its primordial rhythm. And what can we sense by feeling the pulse of Dubrovnik? Stradun is inviting us to take a walk on it and feel precisely what I am talking about - its rhythm.