petak, 16. studenoga 2007.

Dubrovnik,city of beauty


For the Dubrovnik meteorite of 1951, see meteorite falls.
Dubrovnik IPA: [ˈdǔ.bro̞ːʋ.nik]) is an historic city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Croatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its population was 43,770 in 2001[1] down from 49,728 in 1991.[2] In 2001 the absolute majority of its citizens declared themselves as Croats with 88.39% (2001 census).
Since 1979, the historic centre of Dubrovnik has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik has always been based on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages, as the Republic of Ragusa, it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Ragusa was one of the centres of the development of the Croatian language and literature, home to many notable poets, playwrights, painters, mathematicians, physicists and other scholars.
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The modern name of the city is derived from the Slavic word "dubrava" ("forest" in English). In Croatian, the city is known as Dubrovnik and in Dalmatian, Latin, Italian, and formerly in English as Ragusa.
The Slavic toponym Dubrovnik, now assigned to the ancient city of Ragusa, comes from the name of a Slavic village tribe, the Dubrons, which was firmly established at the end of the 11th century in the oak forest on the hills, to the north of the city of Ragusa.
Pressured by hostile tribes from the interior, the Dubrons asked the Republic to grant them refuge inside the walls and they obtained the right of asylum and the residence in a marginal quarter of the city. Among themselves, the refugees named the quarter after their native-born village: Dubrovnik.
The current name was officially adopted after World War I when the city passed to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then onto Yugoslavia.

[edit] History

[edit] From the foundation to the end of the Republic
Main article: Republic of Ragusa

Republic of Ragusa before 1808
Ragusa was founded in the 7th century on a rocky island named Laus, which provided shelter for Latin refugees from the nearby city of Epidaurus, today's Cavtat also Ragusavecchia. Some time later a settlement of Slavic people grew at the foot of the forested Srđ hill. This settlement give to the city its slavic name "Dubrovnik".
The strip of wetland between Ragusa and Dubrava was reclaimed in the 12th century, unifying the city around the newly-made plaza (today Placa or Stradun). The plaza was paved in 1468 and reconstructed after the earthquake of 1667. The city was fortified and two harbours were built on each side of the isthmus.
From its establishment in the 7th century, the town was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. After the Crusades, Ragusa/Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (12051358), and by the Peace Treaty of Zara in 1358, it became part of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Between the 14th century and 1808 Ragusa ruled itself as a free state. The Republic had its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivalled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics.
The Republic of Ragusa received its own Statutes as early as 1272, statutes which, among other things, codified Roman practice and local customs. The Statutes included prescriptions for town planning and the regulation of quarantine (for hygienic reasons). The Republic was very inventive regarding laws and institutions that were developed very early:
Medical service was introduced in 1301
The first pharmacy (still working) was opened in 1317
A refuge for old people was opened in 1347
The first quarantine hospital (Lazarete) was opened in 1377
Slave trading was abolished in 1418
The orphanage was opened in 1432
The water supply system (20 kilometers) was constructed in 1436
The city was ruled by aristocracy that formed two city councils. As usual for the time, they maintained a strict system of social classes. The republic abolished the slave trade early in the 15th century and valued liberty highly. The city successfully balanced its sovereignty between the interests of Venice and the Ottoman Empire for centuries.
The economic wealth of the Republic was partially the result of the land it developed, but especially of the seafaring trade it did. With the help of skilled diplomacy, Ragusa's merchants traveled lands freely, and on the sea the city had a huge fleet of merchant ships (argosy) that traveled all over the world. From these travels they founded some settlements, from India to America, and brought parts of their culture and vegetation home with them. One of the keys to success was not conquering but trading and sailing under a white flag with the word freedom (Latin: "Libertas") prominently featured on it. That flag was adopted when slave trading was abolished in 1418.
Many Conversos (Marranos) — Jews from Spain and Portugal — were attracted to the city. In May, 1544, a ship landed there filled exclusively with Portuguese refugees, as Balthasar de Faria reported to King John. During this time there worked in the city one of the most famous cannon and bell founders of his time: Ivan Rabljanin (Magister Johannes Baptista Arbensis de la Tolle).
The Republic gradually declined after a crisis of Mediterranean shipping — and especially a catastrophic earthquake in 1667 that killed over 5000 citizens, including the Rector, leveling most of the public buildings — ruined the well-being of the Republic. In 1699 the Republic sold two patches of its territory to the Ottomans in order to avoid terrestrial borderline, with advancing Venetian forces.
In 1806 the city surrendered to French forces, as that was the only way to cut a month's long siege by the Russian-Montenegrin fleets (during which 3000 cannon balls fell on the city). At first Napoleon demanded only free passage for his troops, promising not to occupy the territory and stressing that the French were friends of the Ragusans. Later, however, French forces blockaded the harbours, forcing the government to give in and let French troops enter the city. On this day, all flags and coats of arms above the city walls were painted black as a sign of grief. In 1808, Marshal Marmont abolished the republic and integrated its territory into the Illyrian provinces.

[edit] Austrian rule
When the Habsburg Empire gained these provinces after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the new imperial authorities installed a bureaucratic administration, which retained the essential framework of the Italian-speaking system. It introduced a series of modifications intended to centralize, albeit slowly, the bureaucratic, tax, religious, educational, and trade structures. Unfortunately for the local residents, these centralization strategies, which were intended to stimulate the economy, largely failed. And once the personal, political and economic trauma of the Napoleonic Wars had been overcome, new movements began to form in the region, calling for a political reorganization of the Adriatic along national lines.
The combination of these two forces—a flawed Habsburg administrative system and new national movements claiming ethnicity as the founding block towards a community—created a particularly perplexing problem; for Dalmatia was a province ruled by the German-speaking, centralizing Habsburg monarchy, with Italian-speaking elites that dominated a general population consisting of a Croatian, Catholic Slav majority and strong Serb Orthodox minority. Though always an unreliable estimate[citation needed], census takers in 1846 counted 16,000 Italians, 320,000 Croatians and 80,000 Serbs.
In 1815 the former Ragusan Government, i.e. its noble assembly, met for the last time in the ljetnikovac in Mokošica. Once again heavy efforts were undertaken to reestablish the Republic however this time it was all in vain. After the fall of the Republic most of the aristocracy died out and emigrated overseas. Others were recognized by the Austrian Empire.
In 1848, the Croatian Assembly (Sabor) published the People's Requests in which they requested among other things the abolition of serfdom and the unification of Dalmatia with the rest of Croatian lands (primarily with Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia). The Dubrovnik municipality was the most outspoken of all the Dalmatian communes in its support for unification with Croatia. A letter was sent to Zagreb with pledges to work for this idea. In 1849, Dubrovnik continued to lead the Dalmatian cities in the struggle for unification. A large-scale campaign was launched in the local paper L'Avvenire (The Future) based on a clearly formulated programme: the federal system for the Habsburg territories, the inclusion of Dalmatia into united Croatia and the Slavic brotherhood.
In the same year, the first issue of the Dubrovnik almanac appeared, Flower of the National Literature (Dubrovnik, cvijet narodnog knjizevstva), in which Petar Preradovic published his noted poem "To Dubrovnik". This and other literary and journalistic texts, which continued to be published, contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness reflected in efforts to introduce the Croatian language into schools and offices, and to promote Croatian books. The Emperor Franz Joseph brought the so-called Imposed Constitution which prohibited the unification of Dalmatia and Croatia and also any further political activity with this end in view. The political struggle of Dubrovnik to be united with Croatia, which was intense throughout 1848 and 1849, did not succeed at that time.
In 1861 the Dalmatian Assembly met for the first time, with representatives from Ragusa. Representatives of Cattaro (now Kotor) came to join the struggle for unification with Croatia. The citizens of Ragusa gave them a festive welcome, flying Croatian flags from the ramparts, and exhibiting the slogan: Ragusa with Cattaro. The people of Cattaro elected a delegation to go to Vienna; Ragusa nominated Niko Pucic. Niko Pucic went to Vienna to demand not only the unification of Dalmatia with Croatia, but also the unification of all Croatian territories under one common Assembly.
In 1893, the minister of the city, the Baron Francesco Ghetaldi-Gondola, opened the monument for Ivan Gundulic in Piazza Gundulic (Gondola).

Today Dubrovnik is a tranquil cultural and tourist centre hosting many musical, art and theater events year round. The annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival is a cultural event when keys of the city are given to artists who entertain Dubrovnik's population and their guests for entire month with live plays, concerts, and games.
Ivan Gundulić, a 17th century Croatian writer, predicted the downfall of the great Turkish Empire in his great poem Osman. He wrote these immortal verses that are performed on every opening of the world famous Dubrovnik Summer Festival:
O, beautiful liberty, dear and sweet,Thou heavenly gift where riches all meet,Actual source of our glory of these hours,The sole adornment of this grove of ours,All silver, all gold, and our lives so dear,Cannot recompense thy beauty so clear.
With these verses Dubrovnik major invites actors and poems to enter through main gates inside city stone walls. As young actor Goran Visnjic played Hamlet at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. He was noticed and approved by the public at the very start of his career. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival has been awarded its first Gold International Trophy for Quality (2007) by the Editorial Office in collaboration with the Trade Leaders Club.
February 3 is the feast of Sveti Vlaho (Saint Blaise), who is the city's patron saint. Every year the city of Dubrovnik celebrates the holiday with Mass, parades, and festivities that last for several days. [3]
Dubrovnik and his surroundings with beautiful islands have lot to offer in touristic activities for younger generations also. Climbing on steep hills, hiking through the Mediterranean nature, paddling and swimming in clean transparent sea is what is also part of fun in Dubrovnik.
New historical discovers say that the usual misconception of Dubrovnik coming to be as joining of Laus island and Slav settlement of Dubrovnik is disputed by the fact that there was no island of Laus, only a peninsula, and it seems that there was a port on its location dating back to ancient history (thought to be the lost port of Heraclea.)

Transport
Dubrovnik has an international airport of its own. The airport is located approximately 20km (12.5 mi) from Dubrovnik city center, near Čilipi.Climate
The climate along the Dubrovnik Region is a typical Mediterranean one, with mild, rainy winters and hot and dry summers. The air temperatures can slightly vary, depending on the area or region. Summer temperatures in July rise till 34°C in the northern part, while in the southern part they usually rise to 38°C. During winter the coldest temperatures are recorded in the northern Adriatic with temperatures dropping sometimes below zero, while the southern regions of the Adriatic coast generally remain above zero.
Air temperature
average annual 16.4°C (61.5°F)
average of coldest period (January) 9°C (48.2°F)
average of warmest period (August) 24.9°C (76.8°F)
Sea temperature
average May - September 17.9°C - 23.8°C (64.2°F - 74.8°F)
Salinity
approximately 38 ‰ (parts per thousand)
Precipitation
average annual 1,020.8 mm
average annual rain days 109.2
Sunshine
average annual 2629 l
average daily hours: 7.2 h

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