A more restful day today; still sunny and 26 degrees. We started with a visit to the third oldest functioning pharmacy in Europe - in business since 1391. It may have been the first pharmacy in Europe open to the general public. The shelves were lined with glass bottles containing lotions and potions. Next was a visit to the sixteenth century Sponza Palace, which now contains the archives of the old Dubrovnic Republic. It is currently displaying photographic copies of a priceless collection of manuscripts – letters, treaties, papal bulls – dating back to the eleventh century.
The palace also contains the Memorial Room of ‘The Defenders of Dubrovnik’, a heartbreaking collection of photographs of young men – police, fire brigade personnel, rescue workers, civilians (many of them students) who perished between 1991 and 1995 during the conflict within the old Yugoslavia, as Serbia and Montenegro attempted to wrest control of Dubrovnik. Many of them died during the siege of Dubrovnik between October 1991 and October 1992, when the city was completely isolated and subjected to continual bombardment from Serbian forces. Electricity and water supply facilities were crippled and those residents who chose to stay in Dubrovnik (rather than be evacuated by a small flotilla of boats running the naval blockade) relied on water brought in by boats, some of which were sunk. Also in the Memorial Room, a photographic slide show was continually running, showing the destruction caused by the artillery bombardment – more than 2,000 heavy artillery shells lobbed on the town, resulting in widespread destruction to residential dwellings, damage to the historic town walls, and the gutting by fire of nine historic palaces. Many other historic buildings suffered serious damage. During our walk around the town wall yesterday we were able to identify the many, many buildings that had been damaged just by noting the relatively new roofs. The United Nations assessed the damage to Dubrovnik from the siege at US$10 million (in early 1990).
Lunch today was at a little open-air vegetarian restaurant called ‘Nishta’, situated down a narrow lane and up many flights of steps. Apparently the locals were baffled when a ‘vegetarian’ restaurant set up in town and since it didn’t serve meat they concluded that it must be serving ‘nothing’ – ‘nishta’ in Croation. Hence the name. The food was fresh and delicious and definitely worth the long steep climb. After lunch we strolled through the town and made our way down to the water’s edge where we dipped our feet in the Adriatic.
Tomorrow – most of the day here, perhaps a glass-bottom boat cruise, then the bus to the island of Korcula.
No comments:
Post a Comment