Predgrađe dubrovačke Civitas

Abstract

Although the suburb of the civitasof Dubrovnik has been a frequent scho-larly topic since the middle of the twentieth century, current researchers are still faced with numerous doubts and obscurities. Dating of the city’s expansi-on north of the Strossmayer Street, location of the muro novo civitatis versus montem, as well as the regulation of streets by the Statute of Dubrovnik of 1272 are merely some of the issues discussed in this article. The area of the civitas as described by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Ca-strum, St. Peter and Pustijerna), which existed on the peninsula in the middle of the tenth century, was being gradually joined to the opposite mainland - to-day’s Prijeko - by filling a deep, partly swampy bay. Filling of the marshland was an essential precondition for the city’s expansion to the north. By 1255, plots and houses north of the Strossmayer Street were already protected by the new city wall. Archival documents offer evidence for its ubication along today’s GučetićStreet. The position of the city gates determined the layout of some streets that had existed even before 1272, when they were regulated by the Statute (Ulica od Domina, St. Joseph’s, Miho Pracat’s, Lučarica). Certain con-troversies surrounding the interpretations of Book V, Chapter XLI and Book VIII, Chapter LVII of the Statute of Dubrovnik of 1272, and its amendment of 1296 by which the streets south of the Placa were regulated, prompted the authors of this article to a detailed analysis of the provisions and their interpre-tations to date. This has led to a new interpretation of some provisions, but also to an assumption of the existence of several streets which became void over time. Documents published in the Spisi dubrovačke kancelarijehave allowed a precise location of the plots and houses mentioned in the Statute.

Keywords

• murus veteris civitatis Ragusii versus montem; murus novus civitatis versus montem; Statut grada Dubrovnika; regulacija ulica