Inside, the Rector's Palace features a Renaissance atrium used as 1 of 30 venues for the annual summertime Dubrovnik Festival which features the performing arts. This festival is no mere sop to the tourists; Dubrovnik geographic position created trade wealth. Wealth and access made this town for centuries the heart of southern Slav culture. (In Croatian, "Yugoslavia" literally means the land of the south Slavs.)Eventually Venice conquered most of the Dalmatian coast except for the Dubrovnik republic. They actively discouraged education and the arts: they needed the coastal population for soldiers and galley slaves. (After seeing Venice twice, I don't think I would argue that they needed more artists!) This left independent Dubrovnik pretty much unchallenged as the cultural heart of Croatia.The baroque staircase was added after the 1520 earthquake and includes...
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