Old Town and City Walls Guided Walking Tour Dubrovnik

Pile Gate, Onofrio's Fountain and St Saviour Church

The walk begins at Pile Gate, where the stone bridge, the outer Renaissance gate of 1537 and the inner Gothic gate form the ceremonial western entrance to the Old Town. The guide explains the statue of St Blaise above the arch and the nightly closing of the gates in the days of the Republic. A few steps inside you reach the Large Onofrio's Fountain, built in 1438 at the end of an aqueduct that still delivers spring water, and the guide invites you to drink from one of its carved stone masks as the people of Dubrovnik have done for nearly six centuries.

Next to it stands St Saviour Church, a small Renaissance votive church built after the earthquake of 1520 and one of the few buildings to survive the great earthquake of 1667 intact. The square here is the perfect place for the guide to set out the story of the city before the group heads down the main street.

The Stradun and the Franciscan Monastery

The Stradun is Dubrovnik's limestone main street, running straight from Pile Gate to the Clock Tower at the far end and lined with identical baroque houses rebuilt after 1667. The guide walks it slowly, pointing out the shop fronts, the gutters and the moment where the street was once a channel of sea water dividing two settlements. With a maximum of fifteen people the group can stop wherever the story needs it without blocking the street.

At the Pile end rises the Franciscan Monastery, whose Romanesque cloister and pharmacy, founded in 1317, are among the oldest of their kind still operating in Europe. The guide explains how the friars prepared remedies for the city and shows the carved portal on the Stradun with its sculpture of the Pietà. Depending on the day and the group, there is a short look inside the cloister entrance before the walk continues towards the Cathedral.

The Cathedral, Gundulić Square and the Jesuit Stairs

At the heart of the southern Old Town stands the Cathedral of the Assumption, rebuilt in Roman baroque style after the 1667 earthquake and consecrated in 1713, with a treasury of relics and a quiet, light-filled interior. The guide tells the story of the earlier Romanesque cathedral, said to have been funded by a shipwrecked English king, and of the Croatian sculptors and Italian architects who shaped the present building.

Behind it opens Gundulić Square, the morning market of the Old Town, and from there the wide baroque Jesuit Stairs climb to the Church of St Ignatius. The staircase was completed in 1738 and remains one of the most photographed spots in Dubrovnik; the guide allows time here for pictures and for the view back over the rooftops before the route turns towards Luža Square and the harbour.

Luža Square, the Clock Tower and the Old Harbour

Luža Square gathers the symbols of the Republic of Ragusa in one place: Orlando's Column of 1418 with the standard measure of cloth cut into its base, the Clock Tower of 1444, the Sponza Palace that served as customs house and mint, the Church of St Blaise and the Rector's Palace just beyond. The guide explains how the Republic elected a new Rector every month and kept its independence for centuries by paying tribute and practising clever diplomacy.

Through the Ponta Gate you reach the Old Harbour, where the arches of the former arsenal, the Porporela breakwater and St John's Fort frame the water. Boats leave here for Lokrum, the green island opposite, and the guide points out the best places to swim and watch the sunset later. From the harbour the group walks back to the access point for the City Walls, the final and highest part of the tour.

The City Walls: one hour above Dubrovnik

The Dubrovnik City Walls are the reason most people come: a continuous circuit of about two kilometres, up to twenty-five metres high and in places six metres thick, built and strengthened between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries and never breached by an enemy. Your guide leads a one-hour walk along the most scenic section, with the sea on one side and the terracotta roofs on the other. The rooftops tell their own story: the brighter tiles replaced those destroyed during the shelling of 1991 and 1992.

The guide explains the forts along the way, from the round Minčeta Tower at the highest point to the Bokar bastion facing Fort Lovrijenac, and chooses the stops with the best photographs of Lokrum, the harbour and the old city below. The tour ends on the walls, and with your one-day Dubrovnik Pass you are free to continue the whole circuit at your own pace.

What the one-day Dubrovnik Pass gives you after the tour

The default option of this tour includes a one-day Dubrovnik Pass, handed to you by the guide at the meeting point. It covers the City Walls entry used on the tour, so you do not need to queue at the ticket office, and it remains valid for the rest of the day. It also opens the doors of the Rector's Palace with its cultural history museum, the Maritime Museum inside St John's Fort, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological collection, the Natural History Museum and Fort Lovrijenac on the cliff outside Pile Gate.

The pass includes public buses for the day as well, which is handy for returning to a hotel in Lapad or Babin Kuk. In practice this turns a two-and-a-half-hour walk into a full day of sightseeing: finish the walls, visit the Rector's Palace, cross to Fort Lovrijenac for the classic view of the walls from outside and take the bus back. If you already hold a valid, unused pass, choose the option without it.