Day 2--The Tale of the Tiles

A brief, brief bit of history. You can't understand this part of the world without talking about Marshal Tito.  He was the strong-armed dictator that held this part of the world together until his death in 1980.  He managed to successfully not align his country, Yugoslavia, with either the East or the West in post WWII.  It meant massacring the remaining Nazis sympathizers, but those that remained adulated him.

He skillfully knit together a country composed of eight distinct peoples in six republics, with five languages, three religions (Orthodox Christian, Catholic and Muslim), and two alphabets, (Roman and Cyrillic).  Yugoslavia was prosperous until his death.  Afterward, without him, it exploded.  More, later.

Now, back to Dubrovnik.  Slept in a bit due to jet lag, but entered the city walls around 10. We walked the 300 meter Stradun Promenade to the far side of Old Town to see the Velika Onofrijea Fontana, (Croatian for Big Fountain).  The survival of the little, independent Dubrovnik during the  Middle Ages was due to the 7 miles of aqueducts that fed the fountain, thus providing clean, disease free water, plus large salt deposits in the area for trade and a massive granary for storage of grains for food.

For good luck you are suppose to rub famous playwright and prose writer
Marin Drzic's nose.  Gloria chose to sit on his lap.

Next to the fountain is the Franciscan Monastery and Church.  Interesting story here too. The in-house pharmacy just celebrated its 700th anniversary last year!  The oldest continually operating pharmacy in Europe.  As unique, the Franciscan Church started its service 15 minutes after the Dominican Church at the other end of the Stradum.  Why, you ask?  The poor went to mass at the Franciscan Church.  They had to get their wealthy masters settled in at the Dominican Church, then rush down the Stradum to go to their own church, hence the 15 minute lag time.

The top picture on the billboard is of the Stradun Promenade
where we had gelato today.

We finished the day walking the City Walls.  A mile and a quarter circumnavigation of the city of Dubrovnik.  Really a highlight of our visit.    Great views of the red-tiles building on the inside and the beautiful blue Adriatic Sea on the outside.  Now what about those tiles.  During the Homeland War 1991-1995, Dubrovnik was mercilessly bombarded from land and sea.  Curiously, it had no strategic value or defenses.  A great tourist destination was turned to rubble during this time.  The attack from the Yugoslav People's Army damaged or destroyed 78% of the buildings.  But, after the war, rebuilding proceeded quickly and you can tell, from the City Wall which roofs were replaced by the color of the tiles.  The darker ones are from the 90's, the lighter ones from decades and centuries before.

The Tale of the Tiles

                                                                                

Sunset from Mr. Srd outside of Dubrovnik.