Stradun is the center of Dubrovnik, and its Old City. It is the most famous street in our beautiful town. Here you can read little bit about its history (wiki help)
Stradun became the city's main thoroughfare in the 13th century, and its current appearance was for the most part created following the devastating 1667 earthquake in which most of the buildings in Ragusa (as Dubrovnik was then called) were destroyed. Before the earthquake the houses which line the street were not so uniformly designed as they appear today, with many of them featuring arcades and elaborate decorations. Following the 1667 earthquake and a large fire which broke out immediately afterwards, the Republic of Ragusa passed a law which specified the layout of all future residential buildings constructed in the city.
Because of this all of the 17th-century houses lining the Stradun share the same pattern - the ground level always housed a shop with a street entrance featuring a door and a window in a single frame under a semicircular arch (during the day the door would be kept closed and goods would be handed to customers over the sill, thereby serving as a counter, and a storage room in the back with a separate alley entrance. The first floor was reserved for the living area and the second floor had various rooms, while the kitchen was invariably located in the loft above the second floor, to prevent the spread of potential fires.
In recent times, the Stradun and some of the surrounding houses were damaged in mortar shelling during the Siege of Dubrovnik in 1991–92,but most of the damage has since been repaired.
