Cavtat

by Natasa Lujic
(Dubrovnik)

Cavtat perches on the saddle of a wooded peninsula set between two bays, so you're never more than moments from the water. The sea is as still as a mirror, a deep and brilliant blue with pools of green reflected from the pine forests beyond. A wide promenade, fringed with palm trees, runs along the harbour front.

This is the cosmopolitan centre of the town, where fishing and tourist boats jostle with gleaming jet-set yachts the size of battleships.The celebrated Croatian painter Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922) remains Cavtat's most famous son. His former home at 5 Bukovceva (tucked behind a 15th-century Franciscan monastery at the northern end of the promenade) is slowly being transformed into a gallery.

Bukovac is everywhere in Cavtat. The gracious waterfront Church of St Nicholas has his painting of the four evangelists over its main altar, with more of his works on display in the Pinakoteka - the art gallery.

Bukovac apart, there is a host of other treasures in the town, testament to an impressively long and distinguished cultural history.St Nicholas's Church, the 16th-century Rector's Palace houses an eclectic collection of paintings, books and furniture donated by another notable former resident, the 19th-century lawyer and cultural activist, Baltazar Bogisic, whose statue dominates the southern part of the harbourfront.

The Racic Mausoleum is on top of a steep, wooded hill at the very tip of the peninsula on which the town rests. Unexpectedly - especially for people arriving from the comparative bustle of the quayside - the whole of this end of the peninsula is given over to semi-wild parkland, heavily scented with herbs and flowers. In just minutes you've stepped from an artificial forest of yacht masts into a living Arcadia. The peninsula is the perfect place to come for a swim and a picnic.