The name Dubrovnik evokes images of Renaissance buildings with ancient palaces surrounded by the radiant blue waters of the Adriatic Sea. Well amidst all that beauty there is another side to the city that offers tourists a different experience, an experience that connects the present to the city’s very own past. It all has to do with the natural resource ‘salt’, yes that very ingredient that most cooks simply cannot live without. Let us turn back the clock for a moment to fill you in on some history.

The Republic of Dubrovnik was very well off and part of its prosperity came from the trading of salt. Obtaining salt from sea water and exporting it to other regions brought economic wealth to its aristocrats. The region also included the small coastal town of ‘Ston’, whose entire working population and surroundings were mobilised for extracting and panning salt.

Believe it or not, over hundreds of years the need for salt intensified causing competitors such as the Venetians and Turks to have open armed clashes with Dubrovnik merchants.