Mount Srd

The 412m-high Mt. Srd may seem unspectacular when seen from the Old Town, but the view from the top is nothing short of breathtaking. From here you can truly appreciate the size and completeness of Dubrovnik’s world-famous city walls, whose gleaming whiteness is made all the more dazzling by the deep blue of the Adriatic Sea immediately beyond. Mt. Srd offers a fantastic panorama over Lokrum Island and the coastline around Dubrovnik, and on a clear day you can see all the way northwards to the Peljesac peninsula some 40km distant.

Taking Out the Transport

Mt. Srd was one of the most heavily bombarded sites during the Siege of Dubrovnik in the early 1990s. The shelling destroyed the cable car which had been used by visitors to ascend the mountain since 1969. In the regional turmoil that ensued, the cable car was largely forgotten, and it was not until some twenty years later that it was finally restored to working order. If you don’t fancy the arduous hike up to the summit, the cable car takes around two minutes and offers some stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

A Bloody Struggle

Besides the vista, the top also features Fort Imperial, an imposing Napoleonic-era fortification used as a garrison point during the Croatian War of Independence. If you’re looking to learn more about this recent and bloody conflict, there is a small, good-value military museum dedicated to it near the summit of Mt. Srd.