Church of St Blaise

The Church of St. Blaise is an 18th-century baroque church on Luza Square dedicated to the patron saint and protector of Dubrovnik.

According legend in the year 971, on the night of 2nd to 3rd February, Venetian ships were anchored in front of Dubrovnik under pretense of taking up water and provision before proceeding further east. A priest named Stojko walked up to the church of St Stephen on Pustijerna that night. The doors of the church had been left wide open. In the church he stumbled upon a gray old man with a battalion of heavenly forces. The old man told him to warn the City council that the Venetians are planning to attack the City, and that he was pushing them away of the City for several nights now. When Stojko had asked him who he was, the old man replied that he was Blasius. 

Stojko alarmed the City of the Venetian threat and as the Venetians saw that the doors of the City had been closed and that the walls were manned, they heaved up their anchors and abandoned their plans of the surprise attack on the City. Since that day St. Blasius became the patron saint of Dubrovnik.

In the honour of the patron saint, the Church of St. Blasius was erected in the City.

Inside the church one will see numerous art treasures saved from the earlier church, including a gold-plated silver statue of St. Blaise, holding a 15th-century model of the city, on the main altar.

On every corner of Dubrovnik City walls you will notice a statue of St. Blasius, embedded in the walls, watchfully starring to the distance anticipating hostile intents, protecting the City on his watch.

St. Blaise Church was originally 14th-century Romanesque, however this was badly damaged in the 1667 earthquake and finally destroyed by a fire in 1706. 

The new Church of St Blasius was built in Baroque style between 1706 and 1714 according to the prototype of St. Mauritius church in Venice. A large staircase leads to the ornamented main portal and a large dome decorates the roof of the church. 

The interior of the church is furnished in great detail, and the marble altars are particularly impressive. The centre piece of the main altar is a gothic statue of St. Blasius in gold-plated silver from the 15th century that holds in his hand a model of the City as it looked before the earthquake.