The closed city of Dubrovnik in Croatia

It is a monumental fountain with sixteen faces, surmounted by a dome. The fountain is called after the architect and Neapolitan engineer who set it up, Onofrio di Giordano della Cava. The dome was carried out by Petar Martinov of Milan.

The elevated basin where one reaches by two steps is of polygonal plan, as well as the decorated of masks and flanked median part posts; the cupola in semicircular arch with oculus was in the beginning richly decorated with sculptures with character symbolic system.

This fountain was to perpetuate, by its architectural beauty and the murmur of its limpid water, the memory of this great technical exploit, vital importance for the Republic.

Appointment of the young people, the large fountain was selected, with the small fountain of Onofrio, like decoration of the comedy “Novela od Stanca” of Sailor Držić, great author comic ragusain of the Rebirth.

Placed was built as from the 12th century on the arm of the sea and the marsh which separated the two villages: in north, the continental and Croatian village, Dubrava; in the south, the insular and Roman village, on the small island on which the first city was built, Ragusinus. The street was then paved starting from 1468.

The ground floor was reserved for the various trade, which stresses well the importance of the trade for the old Republic of Raguse. All the shops adopt the style “Na koljeno”: an arch overhangs the window and carries within the same framework.

Before the seism of 1667, Stradun was bordered of luxurious palace.

With its shops, its restaurants and its terraces of coffees, this street entirely pedestrian is also the preferred place of walk of the inhabitants of Dubrovnik, especially of the young people, and the tourists come from the four corners of the world. The summer, the terraces of the coffees advance until in its medium.

Each evening, to the fallen night, the brilliant one of the paving stones gently polished by the centuries returns the light and adds to the magic of the stone.

The interior of the building radically modified and decorated at the 18th century is identical to all the levels; it understood a hall with a staircase with two flights around of which were laid out the richly decorated rooms and rooms: mouldings of the doors, tables to the allegorical scenes with the ceiling, and the walls.

The palace was set fire to by the bombardments of 1991.

Since this episode, holy Blaise is the guard of Dubrovnik. He is often represented holding in the left hand a model of the city, as on the statue which rests on the furnace bridge of the church Saint Blaise. Saint Blaise takes care on Dubrovnik, from the top of ramparts which enclose the city.

Saint Blaise is omnipresent in Dubrovnik and does not add up less than 25 representations, a little everywhere in the intramural city.