Sponza Palace

The Sponza Palace is a 16^th century palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its name is derived from the Latin word spongia, the spot in which rainwater was amassed. The rectangular constructing with an internal courtyard changed into built in a blended Gothic and Renaissance fashion between 1516 and 1522 by Paskoje Milicevic Mihov.

The loggia and sculptures had been crafted through the brothers Andrijic and other stonecutters. The palace has served a spread of public functions, together with as a customs office and bonded warehouse, mint, armoury, treasury, bank and faculty. It have become the cultural center of the Republic of Ragusa with the established order of the Academia dei Concordi, a literary academy, inside the 16th century. It survived the 1667 earthquake with out harm. The palace is now home to the metropolis information, which hold files courting back to the 12th century, with the earliest manuscript being from 1022. These documents, including extra than 7000 volumes of manuscripts and approximately 100,000 man or woman manuscripts, have been previously stored in the Rector's palace.