Lopud

   Lopud, an island with the village bearing the same name and a small harbour in the Elaphite Islands group, northwest of Dubrovnik; area 4.63 sq km (length 4.5 km; width up to 2 km); population 348. The relief is characterized by two parallel limestone crests; the higher, north-eastern crest (216 m) descends abruptly to the sea, so that the north-eastern coast is more difficult to approach. As an extension of those crests in the north-west stretches a reef called Sveti Mihajlo (St. Michael), and in the south-east the islands of Mali and Veliki Skupio and the islet of Skupio.

 

In the middle of the island is a dolomite valley with olive-groves, vineyards and citrus fruit plantations; its submerged edges form the cove of Lopud in the north-west and the cove of Sunj in the south-east. Economy is based on farming and fishing. The only village, Lopud, lies on the inner edge of the cove of Lopud (large beach).

 

History

           In ancient times Lopud was known as a Greek (Delaphodia), later as a Roman (Lafota) habitation. From the 11th century, Lopud was attached to the Dubrovnik Republic; from 1457 it was the seat of a principality. In the 15th century the island was settled by the refugees from the areas occupied by the Turks. The inhabitants of Lopud were oriented to seafaring from the early days. In the 16th century they participated with their ships in the invasions of Spanish rulers on Tunisia, Algeria, Portugal and England, so that the saying about the three hundred Vica widows of the fallen seafarers from Lopud became legendary (a poem based on the legend was written by Antun P. Kazali).

 

What to see?

The oldest monuments on the island are the ruins of a pre-Romanesque church of St. Elias (wall painting), St. Peter, St. Nicholas, St. Maurice and St. John (fragments of "pleter" - interlacery ornaments). 

The cove of Lopud was defended by two fortresses: one on the peninsula and another one (Sutvrac, 1563) at the foot of the highest peak. At the entrance into the harbour is the Holy Trinity church (16th-17th c.).

Above the harbour is the Franciscan monastery with a cloister from 1483, abandoned in 1808. The monastery church of St. Mary of Spilica keeps a number of valuable works: a polyptych by the Venetian painter Pietro di Govanni (1523), a triptych from the workshop of Nikola Bozidarevic, parts of a polyptych by Girolamo da Santacroce, The Crucifixion, a work by a member of the Venetian family Bassano, the painting of Mary in a Wreath of Flowers, a work by a Flemish Baroque painter, the carved choir stalls from the 15th century.

Along the coast are the restored summer mansion of the Dordic family (later Mayneri) with a nice park, as well as a deserted Dominican monastery, built in the transitional Gothic-Renaissance style (1482). On a prominent location above the village are the ruins of the Duke's Palace, a two-story Gothic structure with a terrace garden. On the south-eastern side of the island is the cove of Sunj, with the church of Our Lady of Sunj (12th c., reconstructed until the 17th c.) with the wooden, carved main altar; the church keeps a number of paintings: Our Lady with Child (Jacopo Palma the Elder), The Holy Family, The Annunciation (an early Baroque Umbrian painter), parts of the polyptych by Matej Juncic from 1452.

 

Accommodation

Pansion Villa Pinčević

Od šunja 23 20222Lopud

Dubrovačko-neretvanska županija