founded in the 7th century as Ragusa with a Roman population and soon came under the protection of the Byzantine Empire
became an important Serbian commercial outpost in the 12th C before becoming a Venetian town in 1205-1358
most of the city was destroyed by fire in 1296 and a new urban plan developed
it expanded in the 14thC thanks to the Serbian emperor selling it Pelješac and Ston and it became a slavic speaking town and from 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state,albeit as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire
it became a major maritime trading republic in the 15th and 16th centuries until the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 which killed over 5,000 citizens, leveled most of the public buildings and negatively impacted the region
in 1806, 3000 cannonballs fell on the city in the Napoleonic wars as result of a month-long siege by the Russian-Montenegrin fleets
became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1815 and then part of Yugoslavia in 1918
in 1979, the city joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sitesand an attempt was made to demilitarise it to prevent further damage, but in the wars of Croatia's independence in the early 1990's, the Serbs attacked it in 1991 with over 650 artillery strikes damaging some 56% of the Old Town's buildings and reconstruction in the old style was undertaken in 1995-1999
annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival is a 45-day-long cultural event with live plays, concerts, and games