DUBROVNIK (Ital. Ragusa), a port of Dalmatia, Yugo slavia, on the Adriatic Sea. Pop. (1931) 18,767. It is by far the most picturesque city on the Dalmatian coast, occupying a prom ontory jutting out into the sea under the bare limestone mass of Mt. Sergio. The seaward fortifications rise directly from the water's edge, one fort standing boldly on a tall rock almost isolated by a little inlet from the sea. On the landward side a massive round tower dominates the city from a still higher eminence. Beyond the walls, mostly a double line, which have always been the pride of Dubrovnik, are many villas, surrounded by gardens in which flourish the aloe, palm, cypress and other flowering trees and shrubs. The Stradone, or main street, runs along a nar row valley, which until the 13th century was a marshy channel, dividing the Latin island of Ragusa from the forest settlement of Dubrovnik ("forest town") on the lower slopes of Mt. Sergio.
Despite the havoc wrought by the earthquake in 1667, when 4,000 of the inhabitants perished, the whole city is rich in anti quarian interest. One church, of the Byzantine period, is men tioned in 13th century documents as being, even then, of great age. Two 14th century convents stand at the ends of the city ; for the Franciscans were set to guard the western gate against the hostile Slays, while the Dominicans kept the eastern one. Both cloisters are fine specimens of late Romanesque. Another 14th century building is the Sponza or custom house, from which• the state derived its principal revenue. A fountain and a curious clock tower in the Piazza were erected by Onofrio, whose aque duct, built about 1440, supplied the town with water from the neighbouring hills. The Rector's Palace, late Romanesque and Venetian Gothic, is one of the masterpieces of Dalmatian archi tecture, and was rebuilt in the 15th century by the architect of Sibenik cathedral. It has a fine facade of six arches and the capitals of the supporting pillars are very curiously carved. One of them bears the figure of Aesculapius, whose traditional birth place was Epidaurus, a Greek colony at Cavtat, a few miles dis tant, which was destroyed by the Avars in 639. Dubrovnik was built to take its place, the first walls being of rubble and beams, and the houses almost all of wood. The cathedral dates from the 18th century.