Damage to religious monuments
In the Old City area numerous religious buildings were bombarded on multiple occasions: the Jesuits' Church, the Church of St. Blaise, the Church of St. Joseph, Our Lady's Cathedral, the Sigurata Convent, the Monastery of St. Jacob, the Dominican Monastery, the Franciscan Monastery and St. Clare's Convent. Besides Catholic churches and monasteries, other places of worship were bombarded too. For instance, the Dubrovnik Synagogue, one of the oldest in Europe, already received a hit at the end of October 1991. The Orthodox Church received two mortar shell hits on 6th December 1991.
Very often, it was precisely places of worship that were shelled the most. During the 6th December assault the Franciscan Monastery received 37 hits, the Dominican Monastery 23 hits, whereas the Cathedral and Church of St. Blaise received three hits each.
In the Dubrovnik area almost 300 religious buildings – out of which 19 carry national and international importance – were damaged during the assault committed by the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 and 1992. Many religious buildings were burned to the ground, including St. Blaise Franciscan Monastery in Pridvorje dating from the beginning of the 15th century, St. Jerome Monastery dating from the end of 14th century, the Church of St. Anne in Brgat, the Church of St. George in Osojnik, and the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Mandaljena. A total of 29 parish churches, 151 churches, 23 chapels, 31 clergy houses, 28 monasteries, and 38 cemeteries were destroyed and devastated. The churches which were not physically damaged were robbed of valuable artwork, church books and furnishings.