With its huddle of stepped alleyways overlooking a palm-fringed harbour, Cavtat is one of the most picturesque towns on the Adriatic coast.

It began life as the Greek colony of Epidaurum, and it was from here that the sixth-century founders of Dubrovnik initially came. Cavtat went on to become a town of ship-owners and seafarers, who filled the town with the handsome stone houses that still characterise the place today.

Around town

One of them harbours the House of Vlaho Bukovac, a museum honouring the Cavtat-born painter (1855-1922) who painted portraits in Paris, Harrogate and Prague, becoming the leading exponent of Croatian painting in the years before World War I.

Another key cultural landmark is the Račić Mausoleum in the local cemetery, designed by renowned sculptor Ivan Meštrović for a local shipping magnate. Featuring delicately carved reliefs featuring animals, angels and the symbolic creatures, it is a typically ebullient example of Meštrović’s eclectic style.

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