Wheelbarrows in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik has rich and fascinating history. Throughout the centuries, Dubrovnik managed to preserve a certain degree of independence and freedom. This would not be possible if people of Dubrovnik weren't willing to accept new inventions, ideas, and to adapt to different situations. However, they had one weak point - a wheelbarrow.

Medieval Dubrovnik... The city-state slowly becomes more poweful, overland and maritime trade intensifies, the city itself is surrounded by high stone walls, and in front of it, the most advanced outer curtain, resistant to the newest technology in warfare - gunpowder, is being built... Stonecutters cut stones, masons put those stones together into walls, apprentices and other workers carry stones by bare hands and litters. No trace of wheelbarrows!

During the renaissance, Dubrovnik is at the peak of its economic and political power. Shakespeare is delighted by big ships from Dubrovnik (argosies), consulates and trade colonies are being established all over the world, merchants, craftsmen and adventurers are coming to Dubrovnik from everywhere, 6000 residents and countless foreigners throng streets, many languages can be heard, exciting news, discoveries and innovations are being shared... Villas are being built all over the Republic of Dubrovnik, and Revelin fortress is being upgraded. Again stonecutters cut stones, masons put those stones together, apprentices and other workers... They still carry stones by bare hands and litters?!

Old Revelin

In the rest of Europe, even in those least developed places, materials are transported by wheelbarrows, but in Dubrovnik, in the city in which double bookkeeping is invented, which built the first medieval sewage system, maritime insurance is governed by the law, cunning skilled diplomats and traders adapted during the time of great changes on the political and economic scene - people somehow avoid to use that miracle of technology called wheelbarrow.

Maybe we will never know the reason for resisting to use wheelbarrows. Maybe even Stjepan Gradić couldn't see why his countrymen refused to use wheelbarrows. After The Great Earthquake in 1667, Gradić dedicated himself to restoration of Dubrovnik so much that he was dubbed the father of the homeland and the reviver of the city and liberty. As assistance in the reconstruction of the city, among other things, Gradić sent to Dubrovnik residents wheelbarrows. We can only imagine the frustration of this highly educated man, who pleads his countrymen in letter to start to use those wheelbarrows he sent them.

Can you find two men hailing from the medieval Dubrovnik?