Lokrum Island

3 years ago

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Culture-Landmark Culture-Monastery

Start your second day in Dubrovnik by taking a trip to Lokrum Island, less than a kilometre away from the city. The Adriatic island can be reached by a 15-minute ferry, or you could even join a kayaking tour to the island. Take in the view as you speed towards its craggy surroundings. Spend your time here exploring the impressive botanical garden, swimming or kayaking around its length, or admiring the small salt lake known as the Dead Sea. The island has a fascinating past. A former Benedictine monastery, founded in 1023, can still be explored, which was used by the Benedictine monks that lived on the island up until the fifteenth century. When they left, they are said to have cursed the island. In the mid-nineteenth century, Archduke Maximilian of Austria built a home on Lokrum Island, which was surrounded by splendid gardens. You can still see Charlotte’s Well, named after his wife, Charlotte of Mexico, as well as descendants of the peacocks that the archduke brought from the Canary Islands. The island continued to be owned by the Habsburg family until the early twentieth century, when Yoguslavia claimed it, and was finally brought back into Croatian hands after the Croatian War of Independence, during which it suffered under bombardments. Image by Filip Filipović from Pixabay