Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin

Built on the site of a 7th-century basilica that was enlarged in the 12th century, the original Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin was supposedly the result of a gift from England’s King Richard I, the Lionheart, who was saved from a shipwreck on the nearby island of Lokrum. Soon after the first cathedral was destroyed in the 1667 earthquake, work began on this new cathedral, which was finished in 1713 in a baroque style. The cathedral is notable for its fine altars, especially the altar of St John Nepomuk, made of violet marble. The cathedral treasury contains relics of St Blaise as well as 138 gold and silver reliquaries largely made in the workshops of Dubrovnik’s goldsmiths between the 11th and 17th centuries. Among a number of religious paintings, the most striking is the polyptych of the Assumption of the Virgin, made in Titian’s workshop.