Cavtat (Italian – Ragusavecchia) is an ancient Mediterranean town just south from Dubrovnik. It is a small town filled with beautiful houses and palaces, summer mansions and hotels, with pleasant climate and luxuriant vegetation, topped with very nice beaches.
The parish church of St. Nicholas – a Renaissance building from the 15th century. It has Renaissance distaff bell-tower with octagonal dome, four decorative styles, and stone staircase in front of the facade, with stone balustrade around. Many valuable works of art are kept in church museum.
Franciscan church of Our Lady of Snow is another Renaissance master piece from the 15th century. The side chapel houses the polyptych of St. Michael, the work of well-known artist Vicko Lovrin Dobricevic from 1510.
The Rector’s Palace is the treasury of cultural and historical heritage of Cavtat. The famous scientific library of Baltazar Bogisic is located there, holding over 30000 copies of valuable books, among them numerous incunabula’s and rare books, collection of over 1000 letters of prominent personalities, and a collection of graphics and engravings.
Gallery of Vlaho Bukovac is situated in the house of his birth. The famous “Hand”, the painting that made him world renown after it had been exhibited in Paris can still be found here.
Mausoleum of the Racic family is located up-hill in the Cavtat cemetery. It is a magnificent work of art made out of white Brač stone by Croatian master sculptor Ivan Mestrovic. The mausoleum is the final resting place of the prominent Cavtat shipping family, Racic. Bronze bell in the cupola bears the inscription “Know the mystery of love and though shall solve the mystery of death and believe that life is eternal.”
