City Walls. One of the largest attractions of the city of Dubrovnik are definitely its medieval City walls that stretch continuously almost 2,000 meters. The parts of the walls towards the mainland are 4-6 meters thick, and towards the sea 1-3 meters. Through the centuries of its turbulent history, very little war was actually waged in Dubrovnik and the cannons from its forts stayed mostly silent. But, with the protection of strong forts and walls, freedom was more easily secured though a tribute in gold, paid to the great powers in those days. The walls’ construction began in the 11th century and all the way through the 17th century the walls were rebuilt and expanded. The city walls protect the area of the whole city and the old city port that was of great importance for the maritime Dubrovnik. The walls are secured on its four major points with strong fortifications. Strong support on the north part of walls was round shaped Minčeta fortress, old city port has been defended by the separated Ravelin fortress on the east, and a huge St. John fortress supported the south-east part of the walls and beautiful and strong fortress Bakar on the west part of the walls. The city walls are one of the symbols of its freedom and one of the largest and best preserved fortification systems in Europe.

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