We all know Stradun as well, Stradun. Just how did the most beautiful street in the world get its unusual name?
The famous limestone-paved pedestrian street in the Old Town, Stradun or Placa is a 300 metre long former channel that used to separate Ragusa form the forest settlement of Dubrava. It connects the western entrance called the “Pile Gate” and “Ploče Gate” on the eastern side that were locked with the keys now held at the museum collection at the Rector’s Palace. At both ends of the street, there is a 15th-century fountain (Large Onofrio’s Fountain and Small Onofrio’s Fountain) and a bell tower (Dubrovnik Bell Tower and the western bell tower attached to the Franciscan monastery).
The name of the famed promenade in Dubrovnik, Stradun, comes from the Venetian word “stradone” meaning a “big street” which was ironically used in the Middle Ages where most of the streets in Venice and Dubrovnik at the time were the narrow ones.