Rector's Palace

The Rector's Palace was the seat of government and of the Rector. It housed the state administration, a courtroom, a gaol and an armoury and powder magazine. In the atrium of the Rector's Palace stands the bust of Miho Pracat, a Dubrovnik ship-owner.

Today the Rector's Palace houses the Cultural Historical Museum with thousands of objects from the late 16th to the 19th centuries. It has been systematised into fifteen collections featuring painting, printmaking, furniture, textiles, ceramics, metals, icons, glass, photographs and photgraphic materials, miscellanea, documents, postcards, the writer Ivo Vojnovic, old weaponry and numismatics. 

When you walk through the front entrance, look up to see the well-preserved inscription above the door ("obliti privatorum publica curate" - meaning - forget your private business, concern yourselves with public affairs).

Rector's Palace was built to a design of Neapolitan architect Onofrio Giordano della Cava, as a three storey building with four wings, with corner towers, an inner court and a portico on the front elevation. Today, the Rector's Palace is a two-storey bulding, with portico and atrium, in which the Gothic-Renaissance form is skilfully blended with the Baroque interventions.

The palace’s atrium has superb acoustics. If you visit Dubrovnik in the summer months, book a seat at one of the concerts held here. Find details of performances on the official websites of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and the Dubrovnik Tourist Board.

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