The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Dubrovnik's Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary stands on a site that has held a church since at least the 7th century, with Byzantine and Romanesque predecessors on the spot before the building seen today. The version that stood right before this one was a large domed Romanesque cathedral, built partly with funds that, according to local legend, Richard the Lionheart donated after surviving a shipwreck near Dubrovnik in 1192 on his way home from the Third Crusade. That building was destroyed in the earthquake of 1667, and the current Baroque cathedral was finished in 1713.

Inside, the main altar holds a polyptych of the Assumption painted by Titian in 1552 — one of the more significant Renaissance paintings on the Adriatic coast. The Cathedral Treasury next door holds 182 reliquaries made between the 11th and 18th centuries by goldsmiths from Dubrovnik, Venice, Byzantium and Asia Minor, including a gilded arm, leg and skull reliquary of St. Blaise, the city's patron saint, and a fragment said to be from the True Cross.

It is a quick stop compared to some of the Old Town's other sights, but between the Titian and the treasury it is worth the ten minutes — and many visitors combine a day of sightseeing with a private gulet charter from Dubrovnik.