Fort Lovrijenac

This fortress exists because of pure spite. In the early 11th century, the Venetians — Dubrovnik's eternal commercial rivals — sent a fleet to build a fort on this exact rocky outcrop, 37 metres above the sea, just outside the western walls. If Venice had succeeded, they would have held a gun to Dubrovnik's head forever. The citizens of Ragusa found out, raced to the site, and built the entire fortress in just three months, before the Venetian ships could arrive. It is perhaps the most aggressively petty act of construction in European history.

Above the entrance door, carved in stone, is the inscription that has become Dubrovnik's unofficial motto: "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro" — Freedom is not to be sold for all the gold in the world. The Republic wasn't just making a philosophical statement. They meant it literally, and they backed it up with walls up to 12 metres thick on the sides facing outward — north, west, and southwest. But the wall facing the city? Barely 60 centimetres thick. The same logic as the city walls: if the fort commander ever turned traitor, the Republic's cannons could punch through it in seconds.

Fort Lovrijenac has a triangular shape with three terraces, each designed for a different calibre of cannon. The garrison commander was appointed for one month only — just like the Rector — and was forbidden from sleeping inside the fort for two nights running. Ragusa trusted its architecture more than its people.

Game of Thrones fans know this as the Red Keep, where some of King's Landing's most dramatic scenes were filmed. But long before Hollywood arrived, the fortress parapets had already served as one of Europe's most dramatic theatre stages — Shakespeare's Hamlet has been performed here during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival since 1952.