Walls of Ston

The Walls of Ston, on Croatia's Pelješac Peninsula, are often called the "Great Wall of Croatia" — and for good reason: at roughly 5.5 kilometers, this is the longest preserved fortification system in Europe, second in the world only to the Great Wall of China. Construction began in 1358 and continued through the 14th and 15th centuries, eventually linking the town of Ston to its smaller neighbor, Mali Ston.

The walls weren't built for show. Ston's salt pans — still active today and considered the oldest working saltworks in Europe — brought roughly a third of the Republic of Ragusa's income, and salt back then was valuable enough to justify serious defenses. At their peak the fortifications counted 40 towers and 5 fortresses, including the Veliki Kaštio, Koruna and Podzvizd forts; about 20 towers still stand today.

A magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the area in 1996, cracking walls and toppling roofs across the old town, and it took the better part of a decade to get restoration properly underway. Sections have been rebuilt using the original limestone and construction methods, and walking the ramparts today — between Ston and Mali Ston — gives you a genuinely impressive view over the salt pans and the bay. It's also one of the filming locations used for King's Landing's defenses in Game of Thrones.

Ston is roughly an hour and a half from Dubrovnik by road, and it's a stop worth combining with exploring the coast by boat from Dubrovnik rather than a rushed day trip.