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The Sponza Palace (Croatian: Palača Sponza), also called Divona (from dogana, customs), is a 16thcentury palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its name is derived from the Latin word “spongia”, the spot where rainwater was collected.
The rectangular building with an inner courtyard was built in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style between 1516 and 1522 by Paskoje Miličević Mihov. The loggia and sculptures were crafted by the brothers Andrijić and other stonecutters.
The palace has served a variety of public functions, including as a customs office and bonded warehouse, mint, armoury, treasury, bank and school. It became the cultural center of the Republic of Ragusa with the establishment of the Academia dei Concordi, a literary academy, in the 16th century. It survived the 1667 earthquake without damage. The palace’s atrium served as a trading center and business meeting place. An inscription on an arch testifies to this public function: https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/sponza-palace/
The Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik was founded in 1945. The building now occupied by the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik was originally conceived and built (1935 – 1939) as the showcase residential mansion of Dubrovnik ship owner Božo Banac, and in 1948 it was converted into exhibition premises and museum. It was designed by the wellknown Croatian architects Lavoslav Horvat and Harold Bilinić in the neoRenaissancecumGothic style, along the lines of masterpieces of Dubrovnik urban and villa Renaissance architecture (the Rector’s Palace, the Divona/Sponza, the Sorkočević Villa and so on).
Through the conversion works, nine exhibition rooms were created, along with two storerooms and some smaller working areas. Together with the large terraces looking on to the sea and its garden, the Museum has 900 square metres of indoor and over 1100 square metres of outdoor exhibition space. https://www.godubrovnik.guide/dubrovnikthingstodo/museum-modern-art/