The Mighty Stairs of Dubrovnik

“Every day is leg day in Dubrovnik,” said a first-time visitor to Dubrovnik, and meant it. They are mighty and steep, but just like every great exercise, the stairs of Dubrovnik come with many rewards.

The verdict is in: Dubrovnik is a town built on hillslopes and there are many stairs everywhere you go. Almost like the city’s trademark, they are something that the locals take pride in, along with their slender physique and toned legs that come as a result.

Steep, meandering, and shiny, the stairs of Dubrovnik can be a daunting sight, especially when looking from the bottom up. For visitors who come from flat cities, or car-powered lifestyles, they can be a daunting experience too. In the old town, there are no less than 5423 stars, and that is excluding the stairs on private properties or the 1080 stairs scattered around the city walls. Scary, huh? But to get the best of Dubrovnik, to find those off-the-beaten path corners where authentic lifestyles still thrive, one must put in steep effort.

In the old town, steep side streets brim with life. If you linger in the flat main street of Stradun, or its sidekick, Od Puča street, you will see the same that everyone gets to see, the likes of shops, cafes and tourist insignia. Take it just one tier up, or venture further up the stairs, and the ambiance changes. It becomes less commercial and more authentic, with glimpses into lives that happen behind the stone facades as you stroll past.

In the medieval era, when Dubrovnik got its present-day looks, the idea was to have as many residences as possible packed within the city walls, so there were no gardens. Over time, the steep alleyways started doubling for gardens, with locals putting out potted flowers, plants, sometimes even trees.

Be daring, and venture to the southern-flung Zvijezdićeva street to admire the most gorgeous hydrangeas in town, planted in pots made of roof tiles. On the top of Celestina Medovića street, under the commanding Minčeta fort, discover a basketball court with splendid panoramas of the old town roofs and an entrance nestled by an ancient loquat tree. As you stroll along Prijeko street, look up the side streets, each different, and take in the stunning greenery on balconies and in front of houses.

These stairs could also tell tales of first kisses and last breakups, first drinks, parties, and best celebrations, as they frequently double for café terraces, with people sitting tightly packed just leaving a small passage. In the areas higher up, close to the walls, find neighbors sharing coffee and chats sitting on their threshold, while kids play and elderly patiently make their way up one stair at the time. These sights offer lessons to anyone willing to see them, about how life goes even when we are out of our comfort zone.

Even beyond the walls, in the newer part of the town, there are mazes of narrow streets with stairs; it is not unusual for locals to not have direct car access. Rather, after parking, they go up or down some stairs to their home. At our Palace Natali, stairs create the main axes of the property and connect the many different levels into one whole.

Living in Dubrovnik means a full-on active lifestyle, and visiting Dubrovnik – well, it means lots of leg work with great rewards. However hard it may seem, and however exhausting it may feel at first go, wandering these steep alleyways and climbing the mighty stairs is a path to discovering Dubrovnik beyond the tourist brochures, the one that changes colors with each new load of freshly washed laundry air-drying, the one that whispers the neighborhood secrets through green window shutters, and the one that reveals itself only to those who dare to do the stairs.