Dubrovnik is a city that comes from the union of Laus Island and Dubrava, a small settlement on the shores of the Adriatic Sea formed by slovenians. It´s first name was Ragusa, name that lived until the first years of the 20th century when it was given it´s actual name of Dubrovnik. This city has an impressing history, which we will summarize in the section below.

This city was born in the 8th century and was a fishermens town of which the majority had arrived escaping from the slovenians that were ransacking towns in the Balcans. They built the first fortresses to protect themselfs, but in the 8th century the arabs attacked from the sea.

In the 9th century once the city had been recovered by the arabs it was known as Ragusa and became the most important town and port in the Dalmatian Coast, forming an autonomous country named the Republic of Ragusa, which was ruled by the Bizantene Empire. It´s surface area was about 1000 squared kms, but it´s naval potential made it one of the most important ports in the Adriatic and eastern Mediterrenean.

Unfortunately it’s fleet was more commercial than warrier, and the nomads invaded Ragusa in the 11th century. A century later the city had grown and new fortresses had been built to protect the city. The democracy was a political regimen and the transit of ships between the Republic of Venice and Ragusa was frequent, a situation that lead to the invasion of the Port by the Venicians in the 13th century, as they saw the great potential that the port of Ragusa had. In the 14th century the city received for the first time it’s name, which is still used today, of Dubrovnik which means immense oak tree forest, for it’s very extensive forest.

In the 14th century Dubrovnik received and agreement of protection with the Ottoman Empire. A curious agreement, that bragged about a good relationship between the Muslim Empire and a Christian country. As proof of this agreement, it was clearly seen during the war with the Balcans, that this city was the only one left alone and respected even with it’s Christian beliefs. This also allowed and important and secure commerce in it’s port, with the backing up of the Ottoman Empire. Dubrovnik had a monopoly in the maritime commerce of the Eastern Mediterrenean. It was known as the Slavic Athens in this era.

It was an era of splendor for the Pearl of the Adriatic, an era of richness that was sustained in the commercial Port, one of the most important in the entire Mediterrenean. Boats were built, and in a city of 1000 squared kms and no more than 100.000 inhabitants they had a fleet of more than 200 ships. But even being in a time of splendor and growth, it suffered a hard set back, this time it wasn’t the arabs or the nomads, it was instead the 1667 Ragusa Earthquake that destroyed a great part of the city.

Once recuperated from this hard hit, the life in Ragusa went on, but things however, were never the same. This time in the 19th century it was Napoleon that caused a big blow to Ragusa, wiping out the city. In 1815 the Vienna Treaty puts an end to Napoleon and it’s domains, but the city, far from gaining back their freedom is under the ruling of the Austrohungarian Empire. This caused this prosperous city to keep falling.

The light was seen after the two world wars in the 20th century, conflicts that left this city in the threshold of the problem, a poverty that began to see an ending to it when it’s tourist potential started to be seen. It was the location where more tourists from the European continent visited. A situation that made this city grow until the war of 1991.

In the war the city allied with the Croatians, by the Republic of Croatia, which started the war between Serbia and Montenegro, and they started an attack against this unarmed city, that had no defense since it wasn’t a warrier city. More than 30,000 people had to abandon their homes, others left the country, some suffered abuse, rapes and all types of humiliations, destructions, robberies etc…They were dark years and the city fell into a deep depression.

Today the city has once again prevailed and Dubrovnik has began to shine once again. It has learned to recover once again, and has proved that cities only fall to begin to be lifted once again.