The Lazzarettos of Dubrovnik ( hr, Dubrovački lazareti) is a group of interconnected buildings located 300 meters away from the

walls of Dubrovnik The Walls of Dubrovnik ( hr, Dubrovačke gradske zidine) are a series of defensive stone walls surrounding the city of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia."''...city's founding before the 7th century as a Byzantine castrum on a rocky island named Laus. ...

that were once used as a

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

station for the

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

. __TOC__

History

was an active merchant city-state and was thus in a contact with people and goods from all over the world so it had to introduce preventive health measures to protect its citizens from various epidemics which broke out in countries across the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

due to poor hygiene. The time period between the 14th and 18th centuries was known as the most difficult time of

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

and

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemics in Europe and Asia. Old chroniclers wrote that the main cause of epidemics in the Middle East was "the lack of any sense of hygiene". Given that the preparations for the treatment of various infectious diseases recommended by the doctors at the time, such as vinegar, sulfur and garlic, were ineffective, people came up with the idea of stopping epidemics from spreading by isolating the infected. On 27 July 1377, the Great Council of the Republic adopted a decree which introduced a

as a measure of protection against the spread of infectious diseases by which all merchants, sailors, and goods arriving from "suspicious lands" could not enter the city if they haven't spent a month in a quarantines which were on the remote, uninhabited islands of

Mrkan Mrkan is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, located off the Dalmatian coast, near Cavtat. The island is uninhabited. Geography Its northeast coast is overgrown with dark green bushes, and the southwest coast has steep and high gorges. Mrk ...

, Bobara and

Supetar Supetar (, it, San Pietro della Brazza) is a town on the northern side of the Dalmatian island of Brač, in the Split-Dalmatia County, in Croatia. It became the island's official centre in 1827. The Town of Supetar includes Supetar itself and th ...

. These quarantines were at first in the outdoors but since the weather conditions were almost as deadly as the diseases, the government decided to build few wooden dwellings (wooden so that it could be burned if needed). This decision was made after Dubrovnik was struck by an outbreak of the plague in 1348 which killed a few thousand citizens. This decree was published in Dubrovnik's book of laws, the so-called Green Book (Latin: Liber viridis); ''Veniens de locis pestiferis non intret Ragusium nel districtum'' (English: Whoever comes from the infected lands shall not enter Ragusa or its territory). In 1397, the Great Council adopted a new decree, ''De ordinibus contra eos qui veniunt de locis pestiferis anno 1397 factis'' () which determined duration and the place of the quarantine, imposed penalties for the perpetrators and ordered the appointing of three healthcare officers called ''kacamorti'' to supervise the implementation and compliance with quarantine provisions. The penalties for not complying with the provisions of this decree were 100 ducats or prison sentence and severe corporal punishment. The penalty was applied only to commoners. In addition, a Decree prohibited the importation of goods from the countryside for the entire duration of the epidemic. In the 15th century, the quarantine facilities were moved closer to the city because the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

could have used them as a base for the attack on the city. By the mid-15th century, quarantines have become complex institutes that employed scribe, two guards, gravedigger, two cleaners, and additionally, since 1457 epidemic, priest, barber and two kacamortis. In 1430, some houses in the Gradac public park were used as quarantine facilities. In 1457, a

lazaretto A lazaretto or lazaret (from it, lazzaretto a diminutive form of the Italian word for beggar cf. lazzaro) is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings ...

and a Catholic church were built by builder Mihoč Radi near Danča Beach. The good organization of this lazaretto allowed complete abandonment of quarantines on the islands near Cavtat. This quarantine facility had its own surgeon who replaced barber and two kacamortis. In 1526, Dubrovnik was struck by the hardest outbreak of the plague which completely paralyzed the city (Government fled the city). Construction of a large lazaretto on

Lokrum Lokrum (, it, Lacroma) is an island in the Adriatic Sea from the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It stretches from northwest to southeast and receives regular ferry service from the Old City port. Austrian archduke (and short-lived Emperor of M ...

started in 1533, and was completed at the end of the 16th century. In 1590, the government started with the construction of the lazaretto in

Ploče Ploče (; it, Porto Tolero) is a town and seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. Geography Ploče is located on the Adriatic coast in Dalmatia just north of the Neretva Delta and is the natural seaside endpoint of most north-south ...

. The constriction was completed in 1642. It contained 10 multi-storey buildings (5 for goods, 5 for people) connected by 5 interior courtyards. This lazaretto had five areas and five residential buildings for passengers who had to go through quarantine. From each side of the area where the houses for people were, there were the towers for the guards and the apartment for the Ottoman envoy who acted as a judge for Ottoman subjects who were visiting Dubrovnik. With the construction of the lazarettos, epidemics were significantly suppressed with last breaking out in 1815-16. After the fall of the Republic in 1808, lazarettos were used for quarantine of merchants coming to Dubrovnik from the inner-Balkans, and later for military purposes. Lazarettos were damaged by fire in the second half of the 19th century and again at the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Following the first renovation, the arcades in the courtyards and the gates facing the sea were bricked up. Today, the Lazarettos are used for recreation, trade and entertainment. On 7July 2017, Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds gave 33.8 million

kuna Kuna may refer to: Places * Kuna, Idaho, a town in the United States ** Kuna Caves, a lava tube in Idaho * Kuna Peak, a mountain in California * , a village in the Orebić municipality, Croatia * , a village in the Konavle municipality, Croatia ...

s to the City of Dubrovnik for the project ‘Lazareti, kreativna četvrt Dubrovnika’ azzarettos - Creative Neighbourhood of Dubrovnik

Architecture

Lazarettos were built in stages between 1590 and 1642. At first, three courtyards and a number of covered porches and dwellings for the ship crew members and caravan companions were built. Two additional courtyards and buildings were added later. Every courtyard had a door facing the seaside which was used to unload the goods from the ships. There were concealed porches with large arcades for goods storage on both sides of the yard. Arcades and courtyards form Lazarettos lower ground floor. A staircase leads from these groundfloor courtyards to the upper, large, shared courtyard in which small residential buildings, used for housing passengers who had to go through quarantine, were built. Tenants in these buildings were at the same time guardians of the goods stored in the arcades. Each building had one small window so the ship crew members could look after the stored goods. By the addition of the new part in 1633, Lazarettos had five courtyards with ten porches and ten residential buildings in the upper yard, nine of which were ground floor and one single storey.Rudimir Roter, Dubrovački lazareti – jedinstveni pomorsko sanitarni spomenik azzarettos of Dubrovnik - a Unique Maritime Sanitary Monument Pomorac, year II, number 27, Rijeka, 1950, p. 3

References

{{Republic of Ragusa Buildings and structures completed in the 17th century Buildings and structures in Dubrovnik Quarantine facilities Republic of Ragusa Tourist attractions in Dubrovnik