Lovrijenac
Interesting facts
- In Game of Thrones the fort stood in for the Red Keep of King's Landing, and many of the Red Keep scenes were shot inside its walls.
- To carry off the green bronze cannon nicknamed the Lizard to a museum in Vienna in October 1814, Austrian troops pulled down the fort's inner gate.
- From 4 April 1911 until the outbreak of the First World War, a cannon fired from Lovrijenac told Dubrovnik that it was noon.
- Alongside the Lizard the fort held three cannon signed by the gunfounder Baptista of Rab, dated 1531, 1532 and 1536.
- In December 2017 a replica of a cannon cast in 1573 by Jeronim Vicenco, at the city foundry below the Minčeta tower, was set up on the fort.
- A Latin verse over the cistern praises human skill for drawing drinking water out of a rock that nature had left dry.
- The Republic once ordered every path to the fort destroyed except one in full view of the sentries; a second path was built only in 1933.
- That second path was laid for the 1933 congress of PEN International, some of whose sessions were held on the fort, and pines were planted below it in memory.
- The stairway to the fort is named after Marko Fotez, the director who first staged plays on Lovrijenac at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in 1952.
- In 2017 the historical series Knightfall filmed around the fort and Pile bay, using them to stage the 1291 siege of Acre.
Why it is worth it
Fort Lovrijenac, the fortress of St Lawrence, stands on a sheer rock 37 metres above the sea just outside Dubrovnik's western walls, and it earned the nickname "Dubrovnik's Gibraltar". From this perch it commands both the approach by sea and the land road to the Pile Gate. The city's chronicles tell a proud story: when Venice planned to build its own fort on the same rock to keep the city under control, the citizens raced ahead and raised theirs in just three months, so the Venetian ships loaded with building material had to sail home. Chroniclers date the fort to the early 11th century, though the first written record comes from 1301, when the city council appointed its commander.
The design reflects a republic that trusted no one, including its own garrison. The fort is triangular with three terraces; its walls facing the sea and open country are up to 12 metres thick, while those facing the city are only 60 centimetres. The reason was deliberate: if a commander ever turned against Dubrovnik, the city's own guns could easily breach the thin inner walls. Above the gate a Latin inscription declares that liberty should not be sold for all the gold in the world, and a cistern fed by a spring in the rock gave the defenders their own drinking water. The fort once held several bronze cannon; the most famous, known as the Lizard for its green patina, was carried off by the Austrians in 1814.
Lovrijenac has found a second life as a stage. Since the Dubrovnik Summer Festival began using it in the 1950s, Shakespeare's Hamlet performed in its courtyard has become the festival's emblem, and the fort has also served as a film location. Inside there are few historical exhibits, but the terraces give some of the best views of the walled city and the harbour below.
Getting there
The fort is about 400 metres from the Old Town, reached on foot from the Pile Gate by a stairway up the rock. City buses 1A, 1B and 3 stop at Pile. Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV) is about 16 km away, and shuttle buses link it with the city.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Walls of Dubrovnik 0.3 km · city-walls
- Stradun, Dubrovnik 0.3 km · pedestrian-street
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Fort Lovrijenac or St. Lawrence Fortress, Italian Fortezza di San Lorenzo, often called "Dubrovnik's Gibraltar", is a fortress and theater outside the western wall of the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia, 37 metres (121 ft) above sea level. Famous for its plays and importance in resisting Venetian rule, it overshadows the two entrances to the city, from the sea, and by land. Early in the 11th century, the Venetians attempted to build a fort on the same spot where Fort Lovrijenac currently stands. If they had succeeded, they would have kept Dubrovnik under their power, but the people of the city beat them to it. The "Chronicles of Ragusa" reveal how the fort was built within just three months and from then on constantly reconstructed. When the Venetian ships arrived, full of materials for the construction of the fort, they were told to return to Venice.
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