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Showing posts with the label Lokrum

Croatia and a couple of Balkans, day 2, Lokrum Island

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A short boat trip from Dubrovnik lands you at a small jetty on the island of Lokrum. The boat was packed and there had been trips going all morning but the island seemed large enough to accommodate everyone without any crowds. Lokrum has an interesting history. The Benedictines established a monastery here in 1023 and legend has it that Richard the Lionheart came ashore when his boat was wrecked, returning from the crusades in 1192. Richard wanted to donate a church to the island for the hospitality he had received but was implored to build the church on the mainland instead, and so Richard is rumoured to have funded the first cathedral in Dubrovnik. The island was later owned by the wife of Archduke Ferdinand of Hapsburg who had a mansion and gardens built here in 1859. Maximilian was executed after he had become the Emperor of Mexico and his wife became insane. The mansion has now all but disappeared but some of the gardens remain and a botanical garden was established here in 1959.