
Bokar Tower
Cylindrical Renaissance fort projecting over the sea on stone arches, guarding the city's western gate.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Bokar Tower in Dubrovnik opens with a puzzle: why the Republic of Ragusa summoned a sixty-five-year-old architect from Florence, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, once personal architect to Cosimo de' Medici, when younger names were available. It follows him to this cliff at the city's western gate, where cannons had made the old square tower obsolete, and into the long, contested years after his death before the design was completed. Locals call this fort Zvjezdan, starry, for the open sky still visible from its floor at night.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Tvrđava Minčeta
Round Renaissance fortress tower crowning the city walls, built to repel cannon fire after Constantinople fell.
Dubrovnik City Walls
Nearly two-kilometer stone fortification with towers and bastions ringing a medieval old town.
Tvrđava Lovrjenac / Lovrjenac Fortress
Triangular clifftop fortress with sea walls twelve meters thick and city-facing walls barely sixty centimeters.
Fort Revelin
Sharp-cornered Renaissance fortress by the sea, now home to rooftop dining and a nightclub.
Pile Gate
Renaissance fortress gate with a stone bridge, dry moat, and two carved guardian saints centuries apart.
Fortress Imperial
Napoleonic hilltop stronghold of thick stone walls and angular bastions above a walled harbor city.