DUBROVNIK, 21 km (pop. 23 000), town in the southern part of the eastern Adriatic coast. The centre of the oldest part of the town stands at the foot of Mt. Srd (412 m), and its main thoroughfare is Placa, which links the two opposite city gates: Ploce in the east, and Pile in the west. With the construction of a port and a railway station in the Bay of Gruz, Gruz became a suburb, and gradually an integral part, of Dubrovnik. In recent times Dubrovnik has also spread to the Lapad Peninsula, up the lower slopes of Mt. Srd, and beyond the city walls towards Orsula. The climate of Dubrovnik is marked by warm and dry summers and mild winters. Mean temperature of the coldest month (February) 4.6°C, and of the warmest (August) 26.2° C. 68 per cent of the total annual rainfall falls during the cold months of the year, and of the total average of 105 rainy days spring accounts for 29, summer for 14, autumn for 26, and winter for 37. Snow is very rare. With an annual average of 2,554 hours of sunshine, Dubrovnik is a town with one of the highest rates of isolation in whole Southern Europe, with a daily average in July of 12.4 hours (like Alexandria in Egypt). Lush subtropical vegetation: almonds, olives, citrus fruits, rosemary, laurel, holm-oak, black pine, Italian stone pine, cy­press, oleander, bougainvillea, palm-trees. To the southeast of the old part of the town lies Dubrovnik's tourist district  Ploce (hotels, beaches), to the west is LAPAD (sports grounds, beaches, parks), to the northwest a bathing beach in Kolorina between Lovrjenac and Gradac, beneath a nunnery and the park Gradac, and the port of GRUZ, a bustling seaport and railway centre. The Adriatic Highway runs along the slope above the town. Dubrovnik Airport (Cilipi in Konavli) is used by domestic and international air services. In addition to boat yards for the repair of small craft, Dubrovnik has several industrial plants (factories of industrial and edible oils, fish canneries, flour paste, liqueurs, paints, and carbon-graphite products) most of them being situated in Gruz. The main industries are the tourist trade and shipping.

Every year (front 1949) during the tourist season Dubrovnik becomes the setting of the famous Dubrovnik Summer Festival (Dubrovacke Ijetne igre), a festival of music, drama and folk songs and dances. The festival events take place on seventeen different stages throughout the town (most in the open air). There is a yacht port in Gruz and base for sailing craft in Rijeka Dubrovacka. Camp for motorists "Lapad". The Slav name of the town is derived from the word "dubrava" (meaning "grove") while the Romanic name Ragusa or Rausa developed from the name of the islet on which the first settlement (Lave, Lausa) was founded. Dubrovnik was probably founded in the first half of the 7th c. after the destruction of the near-by settlement Epidaurum (now Cavtat) du­ring the invasion of Dalmatia by the Slavs and Avars. It seems, however, that a settlement existed on Lave even before the 7th c. (an Early Christian capital was found on the highest part of the cliff). The new settlement gradually developed on the islet of Lave itself, but when the channel between the islet and the mainland was filled up (what is now Placa) it spread to the mainland as well. From its foundation under Byzan­tine protection (a Byzantine strategists had his seat in Dubrovnik for a period), Dubrovnik came under Venetian sovereignty (1205-1358) during the crusades, but under the Peace of Zadar (1358) became part of the Hungaro-Croatian Kingdom. Attaining full autonomy (obliged only to pay tribute to the king and to provide assistance in form of ships), Dubrovnik began its life as an independent state, and reached its highest prosperity in the 15th and 16th c. The crisis suffered by the Mediterranean shipping trade in later centuries affected Dubrovnik as well, and led to its economic decline. In addition, the town was struck by a disastrous earthquake in 1667, from the effects of which it did not recover for a very long time. Such was the situation in Dubrovnik at the beginning of the Napoleonic wars. The French entered Dubrovnik in 1806, Marshal Marmont abolished the Dubrovnik Republic in 1808, and by a decree of 1809 the Dubrovnik area became part of the Illyrian Provinces. This meant the end of the Dubrovnik Republic. After the Congress of Vienna (1815) Dubrovnik fell to Au­stria (until 1918). While Dubrovnik was an independent republic its administration was in the hand of the aristocracy; the main administrative bodies were the Great and the Small Councils (from 1238) and the Senate (from 1253). The head of the state was a "knez" (Rector) who was elected for one month. In 1333 the Emperor Stefan Dusan ceded Ston and Peljesac to Dubrovnik. In the 15th c. Dubrovnik acquired through purchase Konavli and Cavtat, and subsequently Mljet, Lastovo and for a short period of time also Korcula. In the course of a few centuries Dubrovnik developed into the most powerful economic centre on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, trading with the East and the West; it built a powerful merchant fleet and navy (shipyards at Gruz, Lopud and Sudurad on the island of Sipan) and a vessel insurance company in the late 14th c., and maintained diplomatic relations with many countries and cities. By 1272 Dubrovnik had a statute which, among other things, codified urban development and sanitary regulations (organized quarantines). A medical service was introduced as early as 1301, and the first pharmacy was opened in 1317. By 1347 Dubrovnik had an old people's home, in 1377 the first lazaret was organized, by 1424 there exists the Supreme medical council, by 1432 an orphanage. A water supply system was constructed in 1436.

In the 15th and 16th century Dubrovnik was an eminent centre of a domestic school of painting, and the birthplace of distinguished and world-known scientists, the most distinguished of whom were the physicists Marin Getaldic (1568-1626) and Ruder Boskovic (1717-1787), the physician Duro Baglivi (1668-1707), the theoretician of economy Benedikt Kotruljic (1400-1468) and the distinguished diplomat, calligraphist and painter of miniatures Feliks Petancic (from about 1455 - after 1517).

From the early 15th c, onwards Dubrovnik be­came an important literary centre, and remains leading in this sphere until the decline in the 18th c. The most important writers were: in the 15th c. the lyric poets Dzore Drzic, Sisko Mencetic and the epic poet Mavro Vetranovic-Cavdic; in the 16th c. the lyric poets Dinko Ranjina and Dominko Zlataric; and during the 17th c., the “golden age”, of literature in Dubrovnik, there lived the epic poet Ivan Gundulic, and Dzono Dzoro Palmotic, and the lyric poets Ivan Bunic Vucic and Ignjat Durdevic. There is also a significant contribution to the theatre and dramatic play: in the 16th c. lived the poet of mysteries Mavro Vetranovic-Cavcic, the author of comedies and car­nival farces Nikola Naljeskovic and one of the greatest Renaissance comedy playwrights, Marin Drizic. Ivan Gundulic writes his gentle pastoral play "Dubravka". In the 18th century the favorites are adapted French plays ("francezarije") and at the beginning of the 19th c. the folk comedies. The plays were performed by the following troops: in the 16th c. Garzarija, Njarnjasi, Pomet and Bizaro, in the 17th c. the troops Orlovi, Isprazni, Smeteni and Nedobitni.

Dubrovnik was also the focus of humanism and latinism on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Outstanding representatives of these sciences were: Philippus de Diversis, Ilija Crije­vic (Aelius Lampridius Cerva), Karlo Pucic (Carolus Putcus), Jakov Bunic, Ludovik Crijevic-Tubero, Juraj Dragisic (Georgius Benignus de Salviatis).

Scientific and cultural activities were per­formed by scientific and literary associations in the town the so-called academics: The Academy of the Congenial (late 16th c.), the Academy of the Idles (founded around 1690), the Academy of the Crickets (1719), a private literary circle of Ignjat Durdevic (in 1719), the Academy of the Illyrian Language (1719) and later (in 1802) Arcadia Parteno - Epidauritana degl'Intrepidi. Dubrovnik remained the cultural centre of the Adriatic belt also in the 19th c.