Gruž
Encyclopedia
Gruž (also called St. Croce) is modern day neighborhood in the greater city of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The main port for Dubrovnik is in Gruž as well as its largest market and the main bus station "Libertas". Around 15,000 people currently live in Gruž. While historically a manufacturing and industrial base for Dubrovnik, these days, the primarily residential neighborhood is about 2km northwest of the more famous Old City.

From the 13th century and greatly through the 16th, Gruž was a far more separate town from Dubrovnik that provided a summer retreat for the inhabitants of the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...

. The shores, like those of Ombla, are populated with a great many stone homes and former summer palaces that are surrounded by cultivated grounds.

Starting in December, 1920, Gruž was the terminus point for the now defunct Dubrovnik tram
Dubrovnik tram
A tram network and services operated in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik from 1910 until 1970.The first tram commenced operations on 10 December 1910 between the city gates at and nearby port of Gruž, and expanded throughout its life with an extension of the original line to the Dubrovnik railway...

  that ceased running in 1970 following a deadly accident where the tram slipped off its rails and landed in the park in front of Pile Gate . The line has since been replaced by bus routes.

Located in a naturally protected bay, the port is able to accommodate large passenger cruise ships. Ferries run from the port to the Elaphiti Islands
Elaphiti Islands
The Elaphiti Islands or the Elaphites is a small archipelago consisting of several islands stretching northwest of Dubrovnik, in the Adriatic sea. The Elaphites have a total land area of around 30 square kilometers and a population of 850 inhabitants...

 and Mljet
Mljet
Mljet is the most southerly and easterly of the larger Adriatic islands of the Dalmatia region of Croatia. The National Park includes the western part of the island, Veliko jezero, Malo jezero, Soline Bay and a sea belt 500 m wide from the most prominent cape of Mljet covering an area of...

 regularly. There is also a customs building for ferries that are international arrivals, specifically from Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

.

Gruž sits right at the entrance to Port Ombla. It is directly across the water from Cantafigo point, which lacks anchorage points due to the shores and the bottom of the inlet being immersed by banks of mud, deposited during heavy rains. Vessels belonging to Dubrovnik spend their winters at Gruž. Violent squalls descend from the highlands bring the cold, northerly bora
Bora (wind)
Bora or Bura is a northern to north-eastern katabatic wind in the Adriatic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, and Turkey....

, but the waters in the bay of Gruž remain calm.
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