Franciscan Monastery
Home to Europe's third-oldest working pharmacy — dispensing remedies continuously since 1317.
Romanesque cloister of the Franciscan Monastery with slender columns
What to expect at Franciscan Monastery
Just inside Pile Gate on the north side of the Stradun, the Franciscan Monastery is one of the Old Town's essential half-hour stops. Its Romanesque cloister of double columns — each capital carved differently — survived the 1667 earthquake and remains the most serene courtyard in the city. Off the cloister is the Old Pharmacy, founded in 1317 and still filling prescriptions, one of the oldest continuously operating pharmacies in Europe. The small museum next door shows medieval mortars, alembics, apothecary jars, and hand-written prescription books.
Visit in the morning before crowds fill the Stradun. The church itself is free to enter through the side door on the Stradun and worth a look for the Pietà above the portal — one of the finest sculptures in the city. The cloister, pharmacy museum, and library are ticketed. If you have the Dubrovnik Pass, entry is included. Combine with a walk down the Stradun to Sponza Palace and the Dominican Monastery for a compact Old Town heritage loop.
Questions about Franciscan Monastery
$8 for adults, $4 for students. Free for children under 7.
The church itself is free. The Dubrovnik Pass includes the monastery museum.
30-45 minutes for cloister, pharmacy museum and church.
Open daily year-round with shorter winter hours; closed on Easter Sunday and Christmas Day.
No advance booking — buy tickets at the door on the Stradun.
Pile Gate — the monastery is 100 feet inside the gate on the left side of the Stradun.
Hotels near Franciscan Monastery
More museums
All museums
From the journal
All posts
Hotels
Hotels with pools in Dubrovnik, ranked
Nine Dubrovnik hotels with genuinely swimmable pools, ranked on water quality, view, crowd and the honest price you pay in July versus October.
Hotels
Best family hotels in Dubrovnik, ranked
Ten Dubrovnik hotels rated for families with kids aged 3-12, judged on room size, kids' pool, walkability, and whether breakfast has anything a picky eight-year-old will eat.
Hotels
Hotels with free parking in Dubrovnik
Parking inside Dubrovnik costs $35-$50 a day at commercial garages, so the eight hotels below that include free parking save a road-tripping family around $250 a week.