Croatia's celebrated city walls restored to former glory

By Thomas Brey Jun 22, 2010, 10:52 GMT

Ston, Croatia - The slogan 'Europe's answer to the Great Wall of China' may be a little over the top when applied to the highly visible walls at the town of Ston near Dubrovnik but the defensive structure is none the less impressive for that.

Naturally, the 5.4-kilometre stretch of wall constructed to encompass and protect the town in the southern Adriatic during the Dubrovnik Republic in the 12th to 19th centuries can hardly compete for significance with the 9,000 kilometres of wall which snake through China.

Nonetheless, this is Europe's longest surviving section of city fortifications and after decades of renovation the entire length was re-opened again to tourists recently.

'Work on restoring the wall has been going on for three decades and now finally it is finished,' said Ivo Romic. He is the president of an organisation in Dubrovnik which has dedicated itself to the renovation and maintenance of historic buildings.

Romic has been taking care of the city walls at Dubrovnik for some time now. They are only half as long but have enjoyed UNESCO world heritage status for 30 years. 'Last year 765,000 visitors walked along those walls and now we intend to publicise the much longer defensive wall in Ston,' said Romic.

The 'Ston Walls,' as they are officially known, were erected in the 14th century at a time when Dubrovnik's power in the Mediterranean region was almost on a par with that of its great role model, Venice.

The entrance to the Peljesac peninsula was blocked off in order to protect the ancient salt pans at a time when this resource was precious. 'Salt was as important then as oil is today,' said Slobodan Pavlovic, who hands out visitor tickets for an entrance fee of 30 Kuna (around 5 dollars). 'A third of Dubrovnik's revenue was derived from the sale of salt.'

During July and August the reclamation of salt continues, just as it did 1,000 years ago. Seawater is fed into 11 flat basins where the water evaporates. The crystallised salt is swept up, collected and sold at local outlets. The process results in around 55 tonnes of salt a day.

The dazzling white salt does not form lumps and because of the clean water it is regarded as being particularly healthy. The salt pans have been named after Christian saints. One basin is called simply 'people' since in olden days locals did not have to pay anything in order to make use of the mineral.

The 400 residents who live inside the walls at Ston are hoping that the restoration will lead to a boom in the number of visitors trekking to these parts. Things have come a long way since September 1996 which marked 'zero hour' for the community after a severe earthquake reduced most of the town to rubble.

Residents were forced for years to live in makeshift housing outside the town and this in turn accelerated the trend towards emigration which has been seen many locals depart for overseas. Today, the town has been almost completely rebuilt. The walls, which extend to Mali Ston ('Little Ston'), a smaller town on the northern side of the Peljesac isthmus, suffered only a minimum of damage during the catastrophe.

During the 18 years which it took to build them the fortifications were renowned throughout Europe as an notable feat of medieval architecture. The republic of Dubrovnik paid wages rather than force labourers to carry out the construction work. Behind the thick walls and battlements a carefully-planned new town came into being - itself a rarity in the Europe of the time.