Sponza Palace

Sponza Palace closes the eastern end of Stradun on Luža Square, and it is the one major Old Town building that came through the great 1667 earthquake almost intact. Built between 1516 and 1522, it combined a customs house, a mint, an armoury, a bank and a school under one roof - the beating economic heart of the Ragusan Republic. The name comes from spongia, the Latin for the porous rock that once filtered rainwater collected here. Its Gothic-Renaissance facade, with a delicate arched loggia below and pointed windows above, is one of the most photographed corners of the whole city.

The magic is the interior courtyard, which is free to enter and open to the sky. Cool stone arcades run round all four sides; in one corner a permanent exhibition remembers the young men who died defending Dubrovnik in the 1991-92 siege, with their photographs on the walls of a small chapel-like room. The upper floors hold the Dubrovnik State Archive - centuries of manuscripts recording the republic's dealings with the Ottomans, Venetians and popes - but the archive is by appointment only for researchers.

Give it half an hour, more if you sit in the courtyard listening to whoever is playing outside on the square. It is a natural pause point between the walls and the cathedral, and unlike almost everything else in the Old Town it costs nothing. The Feast of St. Blaise on 3 February begins here with the reading of the republic's charter, and the Summer Festival opens on the square right in front of the palace on 10 July every year.

Hours & entry

Every day during opening hours

May-Oct 9:00-22:00 · Nov-Apr 10:00-15:00 · Courtyard often open later in summer

What to see

• Memorial Room to the Defenders of Dubrovnik — Small room off the courtyard, ground floor left
• The arched inner courtyard — Central atrium under the sky
• Inscription 'Falsifying and cheating with weights is forbidden' — Above the courtyard scales, upstairs balcony

Tips from the ground

• The memorial room is easy to miss - it is unmarked, just walk into the door on the left of the courtyard.
• Best light for the facade is early morning before Stradun fills up.
• The 3 February and 10 July ceremonies here are the best free spectacles in the Dubrovnik calendar.