In the latest edition of CNN’s ‘Quest’s World of Wonder’, host Richard Quest travels to Dubrovnik exploring the fantastic past of the walled city that Lord Byron described as “The pearl of the Adriatic”.
Having the current world health situation in mind, he finds himself going deep into the past of Dubrovnik’s Lazareti, a quarantine complex that saved the people of Dubrovnik from many diseases that plagued through the Middle Ages, but is now used as venues for various creative and cultural events.
It is there that Quest meets the Linđo Folklore Ensemble and one of their dancers, Julica, who teaches Quest her routine and talks about Linđo’s history of preserving that traditional dance.
They touch on the subject of one of the worst events in modern European history, the Siege of Dubrovnik during the Homeland war 30 years ago. And even though Dubrovnik may seem like it fully recovered, there are still some scares of war visible on the architecture, such as the Belvedere hotel that even now stands abandoned and in ruins, as a constant reminder of a traumatic time not so long ago. Trying to keep the tradition alive helped many people go through those dark and tumultuous times.
In conversation with a local restauranteur Darko Perojević, Quest finds out Dubrovnik was flooded with tourists just prior to the coronavirus pandemic and learns how this unfortunate situation affected Dubrovnik’s tourism and economics. Finally, Quest heads out to sea with local skipper Dado Butigan exploring the City’s relationship with the deep blue.
Photo: Quest’s World of Wonder, CNN