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Moor room in Dubrovnik

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Ship outside the old town.

View towards old harbour.

Medium-sized ship moored in main harbour.

Future vision of port.

€26.5 million EBRD loan to modernise the port of an Adriatic pearl

Like most tourist towns, Dubrovnik has a parking problem. Only here, in this glorious Adriatic port, it has as much to do with boats as it has with cars.

To be more precise – really big boats. Cruise passengers love Dubrovnik so much they are happy to float in on the latest generation of mega-ships, which can reach lengths of 300 metres, bearing up to 3,600 passengers.

The Port of Dubrovnik can handle one of these ships. But if more than one shows up, it has to anchor outside the old city, spoiling the view and polluting the water.

The EBRD has spent several years working with Dubrovnik on a solution: modernise the port, in part with a €26.5 million loan, to meet the growing demand. When the work is done, three mega-ships will be able to moor at one time.

“I’m sure the Board of the European Bank couldn’t have given a better present to the citizens of Dubrovnik for St Blaise Day!” enthused Croatian Finance Minister Ivan Suker, addressing more than 100 officials, citizens and media at a signing ceremony in the city’s atmospheric Rector’s Palace. The signing coincided with the annual celebration of the city's patron saint.

Vlaho Durkovic, Manger of the Port Authority, said that most importantly the loan sets the stage for further investment. “I think now that the loan is in place for the infrastructure, the rest of the investment – the private investment – will come,” he said. Next steps include adding a passenger terminal, car parking, leisure and entertainment facilities, and a shopping centre.

A seafaring hub for centuries, Dubrovnik was at the heart of the silver, lead, textiles, salt and spice trade, and witnessed many an attempted Ottoman, Venetian and Napoleonic invasion. Nowadays visitors look to plunder little more than the Old Town’s curio shops, fish restaurants and gorgeous vistas across emerald-green waters.

The city’s popularity is such that the number of visiting cruise ships is exceeded in the Adriatic only by Venice. Indeed, overall traffic to the port has doubled since 2000, to more than 750,000 passengers a year, which is proving a boon not only to Dubrovnik but the Croatian economy as a whole.

The EBRD project will reconstruct the existing wharf to increase its capacity, piecing together a variety of shortish berths into one long, smooth quay wall some 830 metres in length.

EBRD First Vice President Noreen Doyle said the plan couldn’t have been worked out without donor funding from the UK, US, Spanish, Dutch and Italian governments. “Five seafaring nations helping another,” she said.

Enlarging and improving room for ships is only one challenge in Dubrovnik: Easing the normal sort of traffic is another. While February is certainly off-season in Dubrovnik, Ms Doyle visited last week during the Festival of St Blaise, which gave a sense of how busy things can get. A separate EBRD project is financing new buses, which are expected to hit the road next month, while talks are also under way about building a new car parking garage.

16 February 2005