PALAZZO SPONZA (PALAČA SPONZA)
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The only building on the Stradun to have survived the earthquake of 1667, this Gothic-Venetian style palace housed the Ragusa customs.
Built between 1516 and 1522, the Sponza Palace was the headquarters of the customs and then its use changed to become a gigantic warehouse and mint. Since the end of the 19th century, the palace has lost its administrative functions. Today, it hosts temporary exhibitions, numerous concerts, plays and festivals. At the entrance, a permanent exhibition of photos and documents keeps the memory of the siege of Dubrovnik during the last war, that of the heroes who perished defending the old city under the bombs. Also kept there are the city archives that the art historian Fernand Braudel consulted in order to write his great work (The Mediterranean).
Architecturally, the palace is typical of the Gothic-Renaissance period. One can admire the elegance of the arcades and windows, the vast atrium, comparable to a double cloister that is superimposed on two floors. In the atrium of the palace, you will be able to read in Latin: "Our weights do not allow us to deceive or be deceived. When I weigh the goods, God himself weighs me! "This inscription not only testifies to the wealth of the Republic of Ragusa, but also reveals what it conveyed as an ethical and philosophical perception of the world. Also worth seeing is the clock tower, its period mechanism and the original bronze statues, the ones that decorate the tower being only copies.
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