July 28, 2020 - The Pearl of the Adriatic is back open for business. Dubrovnik Tourist Board reflect on the recent quarantine by looking into a fascinating world first from the walled city.

Dubrovnik – the Peal of the Adriatic – is back open for business. Its charming alleyways and historic architecture are once again experiencing the footfall of visitors from all over the world. Sun shines down on the beach bars and marina, reflected in every direction by the gentle waves of its turquoise seas. And there's never been a better time to visit.

Like the rest of Croatia, the city was on lockdown for several months in response to COVID-19. Now, Dubrovnik has woken from its sleep. But, visitor numbers are smaller than ever. It's doubtful you'll ever get such a unique opportunity to calmly take in the air from the city walls or soak up the relaxed atmosphere on the limestone walkway of Stradun than in summer 2020.

Dubrovnik's reawakening has provided Dubrovnik Tourist Board the perfect opportunity to reflect on the recent lockdown and shed light on a small segment of the walled city's fascinating history. For this was not the first time Dubrovnik has closed its gates to visitors. This is the city where quarantine was invented.

This new video, filmed in the heart of the former independent city-state, offers an insight into the history of quarantine from the place that invented it. Quarantine was first implemented in 1377 as a drastic response to recurring rounds of the Black Death which devastated Dubrovnik's population numbers over the preceding three decades. As a major port of the Mediterranean, the city struggled more than most to keep the disease away. But, the radical plan worked and became the template for every subsequent action of quarantine.

Learn more by checking out the video, or better still, get yourself down to Dubrovnik this summer and find out all about the city for yourself.

June the 3rd, 2019 - The Dubrovnik region has certainly felt a tourist boom since Game of Thrones turned the City of Dubrovnik into Kings Landing. But even before the film and TV buffs descended on the Pearl of the Adriatic, the recovery Croatia's southernmost city has experienced since the end of the Homeland War which devastated the city is nothing short of impressive.

Now recognised across the world as Croatia's most famous tourist destination, the Pearl of the Adriatic is visited by countless tourists from all corners of the world. Their visitation isn't limited to the UNESCO protected old city only, however.

With quieter, more residential areas surrounding the city becoming more popular for daytrippers and those who want to swim in the sparkling Adriatic sea with less crowds and noise to deal with.

Smaller areas like Plat, Mlini, Srebreno and Kupari are just some of the places located in Župa dubrovačka (Parish of Dubrovnik), a valley situated between the city itself and the green, picturesque Municipality of Konavle, Croatia's southernmost municipality before the border with Montenegro, which is home to Dubrovnik Airport (named after the tiny Konavle village of Čilipi).

Konavle, just like the rest od Dalmatia, boasts a stunning coastline and some incredible beaches. It is also home to the little town of Cavtat, initially founded in the 6th century BC by the Greeks, and then named Epidauros/Epidaurus. The areas surrounding Cavtat were inhabited by the then Illyrians, who referred to Cavtat as Zaptal.

Still, there were no cameras in the 6th century BC, but there were in the 1930's. Take a look at how Gruž (where the gigantic cruise ships dock upon arriving in Dubrovnik), Cavtat and Mlini once looked before the outbreak of the Second World War, and long before the turn of the century.

This stunning footage immortalises the Dubrovnik area by capturing it in its raw authenticity, allowing us a look into the past, long before the extreme south of Dalmatia became a global tourist hot spot.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more. If it's just Dubrovnik and southern Dalmatia you're interested in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow or check out Dubrovnik in a Page.

Check out how the Pearl of the Adriatic looked in times gone by.

On this day, May 30, 1976, the last whistle sounded on the popular Ćiro train in Dubrovnik as it embarked on its farewell tour.