Qualla: Walls of Dubrovnik https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Walls of Dubrovnik https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik Walls of Dubrovnik: Introduction https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit Hischwab, CC BY-SA 3.0. Carved into the limestone above the entrance to Fort Lovrijenac is a Latin inscription: "Non Bene Pro Toto Libertas Venditur Auro" -- Freedom is not to be sold for all the treasures in the world. For a city-state that spent centuries surrounded by Ottoman, Venetian, and Hungarian empires, the motto was not poetry. It was policy. The Walls of Dubrovnik are the physical expression of that defiance -- 1,940 meters of unbroken stone encircling the old city, reaching heights of 25 meters, armed at their peak with more than 120 cannons. They are among the most complete medieval fortification systems in Europe, and the reason Dubrovnik's old town survived to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

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Image: Hischwab | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Walls of Dubrovnik: A Refuge Built in Stone https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dubrovnik began as a refuge. When the Roman colony of Epidaurus fell, survivors fled to a rocky peninsula on the Dalmatian coast and began building. The first limestone fortifications appeared toward the end of the 8th century, though chronicles suggest some kind of defensive str...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-a-refuge-built-in-stone.mp3 0:06 2 full Walls of Dubrovnik: Gates, Moats, and Midnight Ceremonies https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit Miroslav.vajdic, CC BY-SA 4.0. Only two land gates pierced the walls, one on the western side at Pile and one to the east at Ploce. Both were designed so that no one could approach the city directly. Visitors passed through multiple doors and wound through crooked passageways -- a deliberate architectural maze...

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Image: Miroslav.vajdic | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-gates-moats-and-midnight-ceremonies.mp3 0:06 3 full Walls of Dubrovnik: Twelve Centuries Under Fire https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit uploaded by Cplakidas, Public domain. The walls have been tested repeatedly. In 866, a Saracen fleet besieged Dubrovnik for fifteen months before a Byzantine relief force of over a hundred ships broke the siege. In 1185, Stefan Nemanja, Grand Prince of Raska, attacked the city but was driven back by a Ragusan counter...

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Image: uploaded by Cplakidas | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-twelve-centuries-under-fire.mp3 0:06 4 full Walls of Dubrovnik: The 1991 Test https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit Zysko serhii, CC BY-SA 4.0. The walls faced their most recent siege in 1991, when the Yugoslav People's Army bombarded the city during the Croatian War of Independence. Of 824 buildings in the Old Town, 563 were struck by projectiles -- 68 percent of the structures within the walls. Nine buildings were comp...

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Image: Zysko serhii | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-the-1991-test.mp3 0:06 5 full Walls of Dubrovnik: Walking the Circuit https://qualla.com/walls-of-dubrovnik/ Photo credit Lasta, Public domain. Today, more than 1.2 million visitors walk the walls annually. The circuit takes roughly an hour, tracing the full perimeter from the cylindrical Fort Bokar -- begun by Michelozzo in 1461 and completed in 1570 after more than a century of construction, considered one of the fines...

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Image: Lasta | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/r/s/f/walls-of-dubrovnik-wp/srsf-walls-of-dubrovnik-walking-the-circuit.mp3 0:06 6 full