Dubrovnik for sale

Last night I saw a very interesting documentary (yes, I had actually switched on TV specially for that) titled "Dubrovnik for sale" that got me thinking.

For the last 20 years, since the end of civil war and after all the bombings that this beautiful old town survived, lots of people had moved out of the town to suburbs, sold their family homes for good price and left the old historical heart of Dubrovnik to mostly foreign investors who are turning it into a one huge hotel. Since this is one of the most popular tourist destinations on Adriatic, the daily stampede galloping trough these ancient marble streets is now by far exceeding anything that town has seen trough many centuries and its alarming that tourism seems to have finally achieved what plague, Turks, Venetians and pirates could not do, to actually drive locals out of the town. Where once 2 500 families lived, now there are only around 700 families, the rest is all empty and for rent. Another reason for this is also that though the old town is spectacularly beautiful, the real life had moved on outside its walls, new built areas having modern houses, parking places and shops - the old historical part is now just a skeleton attracting visitors for its architectural uniqueness and historical importance but young people prefer to live elsewhere. Not only because its extremely expensive to re-decorate and re-build old historical housings to modern standards, but also because every single vital office or shop had moved out of here and left their place to souvenir markets. To get a button or a needle, one would have to drive out of city walls to a new parts of town where true life is.

I saw with my own eyes that this had already happened to Venice - it is just a huge historical corpse with thousands of little shops buzzing with life during the day, but after a nightfall the streets are ghostly, emptied and dark, no one lives there anymore, everyone has gone to new parts of town. Venetians themselves had reluctantly moved out, they only work there selling their gaudy souvenirs and serving meals to tourists but everyone can see how frustrated and disinclined they are towards this huge amount of tourists pouring on their streets day after day. Citizens of Dubrovnik noted themselves that they would rather not to become like Venetians. However, money is the issue here - more than greed I believe its a fear that motivates people to get a good price for ancient family home and secure themselves somewhere else, letting historical old town to be prostituted for profit. The whole coastal region in Croatia lives quite nice and comfortable from several months in a season (say, May to October) where tourism of all sorts brings enough money to locals - but since media bombards people with constant warnings about oncoming Apocalypse, they get worried and frightened so they jump on offers to sell their homes and are ready to start comfortable life in less crowded area out of city walls.

 To be honest, no matter how romantic and refreshing it might seem to live in old historical part of Dubrovnik, these are after all, ancient old houses, often one has to climb the steep steps left and right on his way home - not to mention constant noise of tourists milling around just in front of your window. I had this experience first-hand when I lived as a teenager in a Zagreb's oldest and historical street (Tkalčićeva) that probably seemed like Montmartre to casual coffee drinking trendy crowd, but believe me it was nightmare for us who actually have to live with noise right under our windows from early morning to late nights. God forbid to actually just pop out in grocery store dishevelled and not ready to face stern, inquisitive and critical looks from the people who got there to be noticed. To be honest, I would probably prefer to live in a nice, new part of Dubrovnik with comfortable wide streets and enough sun instead of being locked in a dark, medieval labyrinth no matter how romantic it might appear at a glance.

It is sad and probably inevitable result of tourism that after all gives a town its primary financial support - when cruise ships dock here, no less than 9 000 people attack Dubrovnik on daily basis - I don't see a tiny handful of hard-core locals who are still resisting offers to sell properties as influential enough to change anything, they are fighting with windmills and will eventually be swarmed with foreigners who will open more souvenir shops. In future Dubrovnik will become a victim of its own poverty, greed and willingness to sell its soul. And this future is not so distant, even today its almost unpleasant to walk these overcrowded streets because it is a cutest but still a little place. No wonder Croatians themselves avoid Dubrovnik and they prefer to spend their vacations on any of thousands of little beautiful and still unspoiled Adriatic islands. For us this is a certain pride but we accept it as a tourist trap and in my opinion even tourists themselves started to realise this. Once this all has been sold to foreigners, it will be too late to get it back.