Ston

Ston sits at the southeastern tip of the Pelješac peninsula, and it's a stop that keeps coming up in gulet itineraries around Dubrovnik and Korčula — mostly because of what's happening in the water and on the plates, not just behind the famous walls. The town was originally a Roman settlement (first recorded in connection with salt around 167 BC), and it was rebuilt as a planned town by the Republic of Ragusa in the 14th century, laid out specifically to protect what was, at the time, one of its most valuable assets: salt.

The Ston saltworks are still running today in more or less the same way they have for centuries, using nothing but sun, wind and seawater. The current layout of the pans dates back to 1333, and the site is generally considered the oldest saltworks still in operation in Europe. Salt is harvested from April to October across 58 pools split into five groups, producing roughly 500 tons a year — a fraction of what it once brought in, but back when Ragusa controlled the trade, salt from Ston accounted for as much as a third of the Republic's income. Ston stayed under Ragusan control until Napoleon's forces took the city in 1808, after which it passed through Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav hands before becoming part of independent Croatia in 1991.

A few minutes further along the bay is Mali Ston, which is really where the town's reputation comes from these days. Shellfish farming here goes back to Roman times, though the first written records of oyster harvesting date to the 16th century, with organized cultivation from the 17th century onward. The bay now produces somewhere between one and two million oysters a year, and eating them fresh, straight from the water, is the main reason most people stop here. It's a quiet, low-key place otherwise — a handful of konobas, some private rooms rather than hotels, and many gulet cruises from Dubrovnik call in here for exactly that reason: a couple of hours to eat oysters and stretch your legs before moving on.