Dubrovnik Cathedral

According to local legend, this cathedral exists because Richard the Lionheart nearly drowned. In 1192, returning from the Third Crusade, the English king was supposedly shipwrecked near the island of Lokrum and washed ashore. Grateful for his survival, he reportedly contributed funds for the construction of a Romanesque cathedral on this site. Historians debate the details, but Dubrovnik has never let the truth get in the way of a good origin story.

The Romanesque cathedral, along with several predecessors dating back to the 7th century, was completely destroyed in the devastating earthquake of 1667. The Republic's Senate commissioned Italian architect Andrea Bufalini of Urbino to design a replacement, and construction of the current Baroque cathedral ran from 1673 to 1713. The result is an imposing structure with a wide nave and a dome that dominates the skyline when viewed from the city walls.

The real draw is the Treasury, which holds 182 reliquaries spanning from the 11th to the 18th centuries. The collection includes the gold-plated arm, leg, and skull of St. Blaise, Dubrovnik's patron saint. The reliquaries are shaped like the body parts they contain — arm-shaped for arm bones, leg-shaped for leg bones, skull-shaped for skulls — which is either reverential or macabre depending on your perspective. The Treasury also claims to hold fragments of Jesus's swaddling clothes and a piece of the True Cross, though verification on those is somewhat difficult.

The Titian painting above the main altar, depicting the Assumption of the Virgin, anchors the interior. On feast days dedicated to St. Blaise (February 3rd), the relics are paraded through the streets in a festival that has been celebrated since at least the 10th century and is now on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.