Dubrovnik’s Hotel Belvedere was once the symbol of luxury of the Pearl of the Adriatic, boasting incredible views over the sparkling Adriatic sea, the emerald island of Lokrum and the UNESCO protected Old City. Sadly, Dubrovnik’s former top hotel, once one of the most luxurious on the Adriatic coast, fell victim to JNA shelling during the Homeland War, an attack from which it never recovered.
Today, the Hotel Belvedere stands cold and dead on the very outskirts of the eastern part of the city, emerging from a rock formation facing out towards the open sea. Clinging to the rocks as a stark reminder of what occurred so recently, the hotel has become the home of a collection of stray and feral cats, a few birds, and the deafening sound of almost total silence. As the city around it continues to move forward, Belvedere is stuck in a time warp, offering a glimpse of the harsh reality of the war in Dubrovnik, while the rest of the city’s scars are less visible.
Belvedere’s time, however, is now finally up.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of January, 2019, Dubrovnik’s city council will need to adopt some modified planning solutions on Wednesday during this year’s first session, as has been planned for the upcoming construction of the new hotel “Belvedere” in the place of the present, abandoned one.
To briefly recall, the up and coming luxury new “Belvedere” hotel is owned by the wealthy Russian citizen Viktor Vekselberg, who instead of a huge hotel complex, decided to build a smaller facility, while making sure it is the most luxurious hotel in the whole of the Republic of Croatia, just as Dubrovnik deserves.
The new “Belvedere” should boast as many as 600 beds and 500 parking spaces, as well as a congress hall and concert hall. Everything Dubrovnik’s brand new Belvedere will boast is enough for it to be classed as a 7-star complex, Slobodna Dalmacija writes.
If Dubrovnik’s city council undertakes what is needed on Wednesday, we will see the brand new spatial documents for brand new “Belvedere”, and next year will come all of the necessary permits, after which, the demolition of the existing hotel and the building of the new one in its place will begin.
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