Rector's Palace
Four disasters over two centuries — fire, a gunpowder explosion, and two earthquakes — rebuilt this palace each time in a different style and left the evidence in plain sight.
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From the 14th century to 1808 this was simultaneously the seat of government, an armoury, a powder magazine, a watch house, and a prison. Each catastrophe brought a new architect: Onofrio della Cava of Naples after the 1435 fire, Salvi di Michele of Florence reshaping the porch capitals after the 1463 explosion, Baroque builders adding a staircase and bell to the atrium after 1667. Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque sit side by side — not by design, by necessity.
What to look for
- The porch capitals reshaped in Renaissance style by Salvi di Michele of Florence, work that began in 1467
- The 1638 monument to Miho Pracat — a Lopud shipowner who bequeathed his fortune to the Republic, sculpted by Pietro Giacometti of Recanati
- The Baroque atrium staircase and bell, added after the catastrophic 1667 earthquake
The History Department of the Museum of Dubrovnik has operated inside the palace since 1872 — check current hours before visiting.
Rector's Palace is one of 12 sights worth the detour in Dubrovnik, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dubrovnik pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dubrovnik
- Walls of DubrovnikWalk an unbroken 1,940-metre circuit of medieval stone — up to 25 metres above the old city — that held Ragusa independent for centuries.
- Dubrovnik CathedralA Baroque church rebuilt from the rubble of Dubrovnik's 1667 earthquake — its foundations partly funded by Richard the Lionheart, who owed a votive for surviving a shipwreck off Lokrum on his way home from the Third Crusade.
- StradunEvery building on this 300-metre limestone street was rebuilt to a government blueprint after the 1667 earthquake — and it shows.
- Sponza PalaceA stone arch inside warns every merchant: "When I measure goods, God measures with me."
- Franciscan Church & MonasteryThe 1667 earthquake flattened the church. One portal from 1498 made it through — and carved into it is a miniature of everything that didn't.
- Fort Lovrijenac (St. Lawrence Fortress)The fort Dubrovnik built in three months — just to stop Venice from ever owning the city.