Stradun Street is a former sea strait that separated Ragusa Island from the mainland. Townspeople filled it with soil and covered it with marble and tile thus making it the main street of the Old City of Dubrovnik that is only 300 meters in length. Even though Dalmatian language is now extinct its term for Stradun Street or Placa is still used by the residents of the city. Stradun Street is line by gift shops, boutiques, cafes. Most of buildings were constructed in 1667 after a devastating earthquake that reduced most of buildings in the area to rubble. You can start exploring the Old City by taking narrow medieval streets. Many of them don't have name, but they are worth exploring. The historic part of Dubrovnik is not particularly big. You will ever reach city walls or return back to Stradun Street. The street is also famous for its Small and Great Onofrio Fountain.
The location of the current street was a swampy canal that separated Ragusa (formerly Dubrovnik) from the Dubrava forest settlement, before it was restored in the 13th century, Stradun runs through the walled city in an east-west direction, connecting the western entrance called "Pile Gate" (Vrata od Pila) with the "Ploče Gate" (Vrata od Ploča) in the east. Both ends are decorated with 15th century fountains (the so-called Great Fountain of Onofrio in the west and the Small Fountain of Onofrio in the east) and bell towers (the Dubrovnik Bell Tower in the east and the bell tower of the Franciscan monastery in the west).
Because of this, all the houses of the XVII
century of Stradun have the same design: the ground floor always
housed a shop, with an entrance by the street with a door and a
window in the same frame, under a semicircular arch (during the day
the door was closed and the goods were delivered to the client on
the windowsill, which functioned as a counter), and a warehouse in
the back with a separate entrance through an alley. The first floor
was reserved for the living room and the second floor had several
rooms, while the kitchen was always located in the attic above the
second floor, to prevent the spread of possible fires.
After
the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 and the end of the
First World War and the entry of Dubrovnik to be part of the Kingdom
of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in 1921 step to take the name of
plaque (square) king Pedro (kralj Pero) in honor of Pedro I king of
Serbia, called the liberator, of what would be then the first
Yugoslavia.
In recent times, Stradun and some of the nearby
buildings were damaged in the mortar bombing during the Siege of
Dubrovnik in 1991-92,5 but most of the damage has been repaired
since then.
Most of the historical buildings and monuments of
Dubrovnik are located in Stradun, making it a popular place for
tourists. A procession for the Feast of St. Blaise, the patron of
Dubrovnik, passes through Stradun on February 3 every year,
occasional concerts are held in Stradun, and is regularly used for
New Year's Eve celebrations.
On July 8, 2010, a tennis match
was held in Stradun to raise funds played by Goran Ivanišević and
John McEnroe in front of an audience of 600 people, and televised in
ten countries.