Mount Srđ & Lokrum

Mount Srđ was the key defensive position above Dubrovnik, and the Imperial Fortress on its top was built by the French in the Napoleonic period. The cable car has run since the 1960s, and the top was a front line in the 1991 siege — the cross on the hill commemorates the defence. Lokrum was given to the Benedictines in the 11th century, and its monastery and botanical garden date from the long monastic period; the island is now a protected nature reserve, with the peacocks and the pine forest that make it the city’s green escape.