Before Dubrovnik, this city was under the Roman Empire and known as Epidaurum. As the Roman Empire fell, Epidaurum went through some drastic changes.

July 2014, panorama from 3 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 3.2 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




An earthquake already had shaken Dubrovnik to ground. Now the Avars and Slavic invaders were slowly closing on the empire.

Many citizens of Epidaurum already had lost nearly everything during the earthquake. Now the fear of attack made them wonder what had they done to deserve this wretched turn of fate.

The time had come to leave. The refugees packed up their belongings then headed over Laus, a small island near the city. Leaving their city they did not know if they would ever see it again.

When walking along the streets of modern day Dubrovnik, it is hard to imagine anything bad could have happened here. Especially early in the morning, when I took this shot, the city has a feeling of purity to it.

For this photo, I chose to make the Franciscan Monastery the most prominent point rather than emphasizing the cobblestones. I hope it helps take you to the streets of Dubrovnik to experience the beauty I feel when travelling there.

Ever watching over Dubrovnik is the town’s patron saint, Saint Blaise. His statue can be found at the top of the Pile Gate, the main entrance into Dubrovnik Old City.

July 2014, panorama from 5 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 30 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




Saint Blaise performed many miracles, but one of the more unusual ones including taming and talking to wild animals. In one story a woman’s piglet was stolen by a wolf. The woman desperately needed this piglet for her family to survive. She did not believe in the Christian God, but had heard a rumor Blaise could tame wild beasts.

He would make a believer out of this woman this day. He called to the wolf. He lectured the wolf on the sin he’d done against this woman. The wolf feeling remorseful brought back the piglet to the woman.

When you walk among the magical city of Dubrovnik, it almost seems as if there is magic in the air. Draw bridges are always associated with fairytales, and I thought that Pile Gate and its Draw Bridge were the perfect subject to capture the magical feel of Dubrovnik.

First I tried to shoot this shot during the evening. But it didn’t work out with the huge crowds of people blocking my view.

Early the next morning I was please to find the draw bridge deserted for my shoot. I waited for the best morning light and used panoramic technique to bring viewers into this scene and make them feel as they stand in front of the Pile Gate of Dubrovnik with me.

After spending forty days in quarantine, Philipe finally got a chance to move into Dubrovnik.

July 2014, panorama from 5 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 8 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




He wanted to get down on his knees before the Holy Saviour Church to praise whatever Lord for letting him survive his time in the god forsaken Lazareti, but it’d been so long he thought any sort of god would not have an eager ear to listen to trauma-drive his praise.

The quarantine in the Lazareti was for plague victims and anyone entering the city. All who entered the city were sentenced to forty days in this death hall. Who knew how many lost their lives inside of the walls of the Lazareti? One has to wonder how effective their quarantine method served to protect the city from the plague.

As I take this shot in the morning, it is hard to imagine this Dubrovnik in the dark ages of the plague. Disease, filth and death are not commonly what one thinks about when visiting such a major tourist destination.

When capturing this photo I selected to use a panoramic composition of the Holy Saviour Church, Franciscan Monastery and the Great Onofrio Fountain. What would these monument look like to someone who just spent 40 days quarantined? Perhaps as overwhelming beautiful yet haunted as these historical landmarks look to me hundreds of years later.

The earthquake left the people of Dubrovnik shattered.

July 2014, panorama from 4 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 6 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




The last two hundred and fifty years of Renaissance in the city re-made the city with all the new buildings and art added to the enchanting city, but now in 1667, all of the signs of progress from the Renaissance were wiped away in an instant. The Earth had literally shaken human progress off her back.

Edgar walked across the ruin of the city. This is the place where he apprenticed as an artist since he was a boy. He’d sketched so many part of the city in the open Dubrovnik air. The only thing remaining of these lost monuments was the artwork depicting the city, presuming any of those pieces survived the devastation.

As I photograph Dubrovnik hundreds of years later, it is hard to imagine the ruin left by the earthquake of 1667. Before dawn at 5 AM, the city seems immaculate with its empty streets and polished white cobblestones.

In this photograph I capture Luza Square, Sponza Palace, Saint Blaise Church and the Orlando Column, all architecture that somehow survive the earthquake. I used the water ditch as the main foreground element. This created an interesting composition where water ditch leads to the clock tower. The lack of people in the abandoned streets of Dubrovnik made this shot easy to capture.

It is hard to imagine on the white cobblestones in Dubrovnik anything could ever go wrong.

July 2014, panorama from 3 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 5 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




Hundreds of years of footsteps polished these stones to a shining glow, but this could have all been changed if it weren’t for a fascinating turn in history.

Back in the days when the Venice Republic ruled the seas and surrounding lands, they were conquering cities all over this area. Dubrovnik is one of the few cities in Croatia that somehow managed to maintain its independence from the powerful empire.

As I capture this photo at 4:30 am in the morning I ponder how it is possible such a city defies all odds. There is an indescribable presence of Dubrovnik that captures one spirits – whether this is the scenery or story from tour books I cannot tell you.

This powerful feeling is what inspired me to use a panoramic technique to capture an ultra wide view. Lowering my tripod to nearly ground level I wanted to capture the cobbled floor and water drain as the main subject of the photo. This created an interesting contrast with the Franciscan Monastery bell tower appearing small when compared to the water ditch in the foreground.

The empty town, the angle and the perspective all are in the hopes of delivering the unique Dubrovnik presence to viewers who may not have the luck I do to travel to such a magical place.

For the shooting of the Game of Thrones, the city of Dubrovnik eerily transformed into the capital city of Westeros. Cersei, the actress Lena Headey, looks out at the crowd before her as she stands completely naked.

June 2014, panorama from 4 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 4 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.




She’d just really had her hair cut off by women dressed as silent nuns in a dark room with razer blades. Still shaken from that, she didn’t know if she could stomach the walk naked in front of a bunch of hecklers.

She could have sworn it felt like a real scene during medieval times when women were forced to such acts of shame as walking in the nude for atonement. Her tears would not be faked in this scene.

The pseudo priests also felt nervous. Although they knew from rehearsal the crowd’s rowdiness was fake, how were they to protect Cersei from the crowd?

The beauty of Game of Thrones is George R. R. Martin’s capacity to show off what a fantasy world back in the times of kings and queens in the dark ages would actually be like. When I took that shot in Dubrovnik on my short detour from the Omis Riviera, it did not feel like I was transported to another time at all. Dubrovnik is very popular among tourists thanks to many cruise ships and Games of Thrones. When setting up for this shot I wanted to get the perspective of someone at the foot of the church, so I chose the panoramic view.