The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

This guide to Dubrovnik's Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary opens at the high altar with a mismatch: the Baroque shell around you is more than a century younger than the painting behind it, an Assumption of the Virgin finished around 1552 by Titian for a small hospital chapel where lepers prayed. You'll hear how the earthquake of April 6th, 1667 brought down the older Romanesque cathedral on this same spot, along with the disputed legend that ties its founding to Richard the Lionheart's shipwreck on the way home from crusade. From there the guide follows more than four decades of rebuilding by a string of imported Italian architects. Look up at the altarpiece and consider how much older it is than everything around it.