Cathedral of Blessed Virgin Mary
About the place
Dubrovnik Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the seat of the Dubrovnik diocese. It was built on the site of a Byzantine and Romanesque cathedral, destroyed in the great earthquake of 1667. The current baroque cathedral was built from 1671 to 1713. According to legend, the Romanesque cathedral from the 12th century was built with the money of the English king Richard I the Lionheart, who survived a shipwreck not far from Lokrum, after returning from the Third Crusade in 1192. As a sign of gratitude, he gave 100,000 ducats, which was a lot of money at the time. It was the first Romanesque basilica on the eastern Adriatic and influenced church architecture in the entire region. She was unusually tall. It can be seen in the pictures of Dubrovnik before the earthquake in 1667. In that earthquake, the cathedral was completely destroyed. A nearby baptismal font survived, but was no longer used. The role of the cathedral was temporarily taken over by the church of St. Vlah. A great contribution to the rebuilding of the cathedral was made by the priest and diplomat Stjepan Gradić.
Good to know
The cathedral was damaged by the 1979 Montenegro earthquake, requiring several years of repairs and during the Siege of Dubrovnik in 1991. The damage has since been repaired.