Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
er) discovered what she believed to be the cross that Jesus was crucified on. It was brought
to Constantinople, and the Byzantine czars doled out pieces of it to Balkan kings. Note the
folding three-paneled altar painting (underneath the cross). Dubrovnik ambassadors packed
this on road trips (such as their annual trip to pay off the Ottomans) so they could worship
wherever they traveled.
On the right side of the room, the silver casket supposedly holds the actual swaddling
clothes of the Baby Jesus (or, as some locals call it somewhat less reverently, “Jesus'
nappy”). Dubrovnik bishops secretly passed these clothes down from generation to gener-
ation...until a nun got wind of it and told the whole town. Pieces of the cloth were cut off
to miraculously heal the sick, especially new mothers recovering from a difficult birth. No
matter how often it was cut, the cloth always went back to its original form. Then someone
tried to use it on the wife of a Bosnian king. Since she was Muslim, it couldn't help her,
anditneverworkedagain.Trueornot,thislegendhintsatthepricklyrelationshipsbetween
faiths (not to mention the male chauvinism) here in the Balkans.
