This superb 16th-century palace is a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles beginning with an exquisite Renaissance portico resting on six columns. The 1st floor has late-Gothic windows and the 2nd-floor windows are in a Renaissance style, with an alcove containing a statue of St Blaise. Sponza Palace was originally a customs house, then a mint, a state treasury and a bank.
It now houses the State Archives , which contain a priceless collection of manuscripts dating back nearly a thousand years. Although there are some English translations, the displays aren't particularly interesting.
Just inside the entrance is the Memorial Room of the Defenders of Dubrovnik , a heartbreaking collection of black-and-white photographs of the mainly young men who perished between 1991 and 1995.
