Dubrovnik Cathedral

Dubrovnik Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, stands at Kneza Damjana Jude 1 near the Old Port in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Baroque building was constructed between 1672 and 1713 after the great earthquake of 1667 destroyed the earlier Romanesque cathedral. The Roman architect Andrea Buffalini designed the new church, and work was continued by local and Italian builders, including Paolo Andreotti and Ilija Katicic. A tradition says that the previous cathedral was funded in part by Richard the Lionheart, who is said to have been saved from shipwreck near Dubrovnik, although the story is a legend rather than documented fact. Archaeological excavations beneath and beside the cathedral in the 1980s revealed the remains of an earlier Byzantine-era basilica and traces of several earlier building phases. Inside, visitors see a three-aisled nave with a monumental main altar, which includes a polyptych attributed to the circle of Titian showing the Assumption. The Cathedral Treasury, located in the sacristy, is the main attraction for many visitors. It houses a notable collection of reliquaries, among them the relics of St Blaise, the city's patron saint, including a gilded reliquary of the saint's head, arm and leg, made in goldsmith workshops of the Republic. The collection is presented as a display of liturgical silver and gold. As an active church, the cathedral is open outside Mass times, and the building has undergone restoration after the 1991 shelling and ongoing maintenance. Its current state of preservation is good, and it remains central to Dubrovnik's religious ceremonies, especially the feast of St Blaise.