Revelin Fortress

Revelin is the great angular fortress you pass on your way in or out of the Ploče Gate, and it is the most powerful piece of military architecture on the eastern side of the city. A suburb of houses and gardens stood here in the fourteenth century, and between 1433 and 1449 the area was enclosed with an earth embankment and a wall more than five metres high. The present fortress was begun in 1539 to a proposal and general design by Antonio Ferramolino of Bergamo, and completed in 1605. It takes the form of a Renaissance ravelin, a detached outwork protecting the land gate, and the main road out of the city once passed through here. Its massive build paid off in 1667: when the great earthquake destroyed much of the city, Revelin came through undamaged, and it temporarily housed the state treasury and the cathedral treasury, while the government met inside until the Rector's Palace was restored. Under Austrian rule it was divided up and used as barracks. Today Dubrovnik Museums uses the fortress for its archaeological exhibitions, covered by the Dubrovnik Pass and the combined museum ticket, and the vast terrace on top is used for open-air performances during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. The vaulted halls inside also host a well-known nightclub.

The archaeology displays are the main reason to go inside by day. Dubrovnik Museums presents finds from excavations in and around the city, giving a sense of the settlements that came before the medieval city, and the visit also lets you see the scale of the fortress from within: thick walls, deep vaults and passages that make the most of the cool even in summer. In winter, from November to March, the exhibitions open from the morning to the mid-afternoon and are closed on Wednesdays; summer hours are similar, with Wednesday closures. Like all the city museums, it is closed on Christmas Day, New Year's Day and the Feast of St Blaise. Payment is cashless.

Even without going in, Revelin is worth a pause. The bridge from the Ploče Gate crosses the moat between the fortress and the city walls, and from the outside you can see how it shielded the gate from attack. On summer evenings the terrace becomes one of the festival stages, with theatre and concerts under the stars and views of the old harbour, and the nightclub inside draws a late crowd at weekends in season. Look too at the relationship between Revelin and the walls: the fortress was designed so that its guns covered the bridge, the moat and the approach road from the Lazarettos, and together with the Minčeta tower above and St John Fortress at the harbour it locked the eastern side of the city. Walking the walls afterwards, you can see Revelin from above and appreciate how its angled faces were shaped to deflect cannon fire.

Who should go: Dubrovnik Pass holders who want to get full value from their ticket, history buffs interested in the defences of the city, and festival-goers. It is not a priority on a short trip, but it is an easy addition when walking between the Old Town and Banje Beach or the Lazarettos. Pair it with the walls, which you can join near the Ploče Gate, and the old harbour just inside.