Destruction in the Old City
Even though the city was protected by the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, from October 1991 until June 1992 Dubrovnik was exposed to heavy shelling by the Yugoslav People's Army and military volunteers and army reservists from Montenegro and eastern Herzegovina
The Old City of Dubrovnik was bombarded on multiple occasions, more precisely on 23rd and 24th October 1991; from 9th to 13th November 1991; on 6th December 1991; on 25th, 29th, 30th and 31st May 1992 and on 1st, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 17th, 19th and 20th June 1992.
During those attacks the Old City was hit by approximately 2,000 projectiles of various calibers, which inflicted significant damage on public, private and religious buildings, streets, squares, roofs and on the City Walls.
In the 1991 and 1992 assaults on Dubrovnik, of 824 buildings located in the Old City, as many as 594 (with a total surface of 192 338 m2) were damaged. This includes 382 residential buildings, 19 religious buildings, and 10 public buildings. The damage on the remaining buildings was limited to the roofs.
During the devastation of the Old City, 72 percent of the City buildings suffered damage: nine were burned to the ground and four buildings suffered damage on the roof.
Destruction in the Old City in October and November 1991
The first shells hit the Old City on 23rd and 24th October 1991, when Ruđer Bošković's childhood home, the roof of the "Rupe" Granary, a home ofthe Ethnographic Museum, and the Old City Port suffered direct hits.
Parts of mortar shells and detonations also damaged the synagogue and the surrounding homes in Boškovićeva Street; Sponza Palace which housed the Ragusan Republic Archives, as well as the Dominican Church and the bell tower of the Franciscan Monastery.
From 9th until 13th November 1991, during five days of uninterrupted shelling, further damage was inflicted on the Franciscan and the Dominican monasteries and churches, the Old City Port and the Kaše Breakwater, as well as on almost all most significant objects in the historical center, including the City Bell Tower, the City Walls, St John’s Fort, Minčeta Tower, a large number of dwellings, the Church of St Ignatius, the Sigurata Convent, Stradun, the Sponza Palace, Pile Gate, Lazaretto. During the same 5-day period, numerous buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Old City were damaged as well, one of them being the Imperial Hotel on the Pile Plateau, the oldest hotel in Dubrovnik.
Destruction in the Old City on 6th December 1991
The most violent assault on Dubrovnik occurred on 6th December 1991, when more than 600 projectiles hit the Old City. Nine buildings hit by incendiary missiles were burned to the ground, whereas severeal hundred residential buildings were damaged. Damage was also inflicted on important cultural sites such as the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries and churches, the Jesuit school Collegium Ragusinum, Convent of St. Clare, the Church of St. Blaise and the Dubrovnik Cathedral, the Church of St. Joseph, the Sigurata Convent, the Synagogue, the Orthodox Church, the Sponza Palace, the Rector's Palace, the City Walls, the Great Onofrio Fountain, the bridge on the Pile Gate, as well as Stradun, the central street.
Besides palaces that burned down, the most serious damage was suffered by the Franciscan Monastery (37 direct hits), Stradun (45 direct hits), the Dominican Monastery (23 direct hits), the Sponza Palace (7 direct hits) and the City Walls (76 direct hits).
In the immediate vicinity of the Old City numerous houses were damaged, including 57 cultural monuments. The Inter-University Center, which had a valuable library containing 20 thousand titles, was burned to the ground.
Destruction in the Old City in May and June 1992
Another period of shelling of the Old City of Dubrovnik took place in May and June 1992. From 25th May until 20th June, numerous religious and public buildings and monuments suffered further damage, including the Church of St. Blaise, the Dubrovnik Cathedral, the Franciscan and the Dominican monasteries, the Sigurata Convent, the Convent of St. Clare, the bBaroque stairs leading to the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius, the Amerling Fountain on Gundulić's Square, the Sponza Palace, Lazaretto, as well as several residential buildings in the Old City area and the City Walls and their fortresses. The medieval sewage system was also damaged.
During this period the Skočibuha summer residence in the area of Boninovo also suffered serious damage. It housed the Dubrovnik Scientific Library with several hundred thousand titles.