Ston

Ston is a small town at the base of the Pelješac peninsula, the gateway to the wine country of Pelješac and the salt capital of the old Dubrovnik Republic. Its fame rests on the great walls that run over the hill from here to Mali Ston, more than five kilometres of medieval fortification built to protect the valuable Ston salt pans, and the pans themselves, which are among the oldest continuously worked salt flats in Europe.

The salt works at Ston have been in operation since Roman times and possibly earlier, and they still produce salt by the same solar-evaporation method, harvested by hand in high summer. The town was built by the Dubrovnik Republic as a planned fortified settlement, with walls, towers, a rectangular main street and the Koruna fortress above.

Ston sits at the point where the road leaves the mainland and begins the long drive down Pelješac, the peninsula that produces some of Croatia’s best-known red wines, Dingač and Postup. It makes a natural stop, a chance to walk a stretch of the walls, see the salt and eat the seafood, before the wine road.

For photographers, the walls running over the ridge and the geometric salt pans are the shots, best in the morning before the heat haze. Combine Ston with Mali Ston for oysters and the drive down Pelješac for wine.

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