This was great year for Dubrovnik in every possible way, but one thing that made the greatest fuss was turning Dubrovnik into movie set.

It all started with Star Wars VIII, that was filmed mostly in the main Dubrovnik street – Stradun. Everybody wanted their ''piece of cake'' during the filming, so some of the photos from the set leaked, as well as the videos. It wasn't an easy task to film the scenes at the heart of the historic centre, but it was successfully done in the afternoon and night hours. The premiere of the movie is expected in December next year.

After Star Wars, The American History Channel came to film their blockbuster serial Knightfall in Dubrovnik. Explosions, sword fights and wooden galleons have featured as the production team have turned the Bay of Pile directly outside of the historic city walls of Dubrovnik into a scene from The Crusades.

Then it was time for Bollywood! Filming spectacle came to Dubrovnik - Bollywood blockbuster “Prisoner no. 150,” or the original name “Khaidi No. 150.” After the mega popular Bollywood movie “Fan” was filmed in the city back in May 2015 starring one of the most popular stars of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, the city has been on the radar for Indian film makers. This latest movie, the second Bollywood blockbuster, will be the first for the popular Indian actor Chiranjeevi after a long nine-year break. It will be the 150th movie he has been involved in and lends its name to the title. Besides being an actor Chiranjeevi has also been involved in politics and from 2012 to 2014 was the Indian Minister of Tourism.

Surprise of the year was the return of Game of Thrones, since it was believed that the seventh season of the globally popular HBO serial would bypass Dubrovnik this year. Three of the main stars of the serial Lena Headey, or Cersei Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, or Jamie Lannister, and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, better known as Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane all apperead on the Dubrovnik set.

The last, but not least, is Robin Hood – still to be filmed next year, but with beautiful set already completed. So far confirmed filming locations include a part of Stradun, City Port, the street of St. Dominic and the area under the bridge at Ploce. Filming will take place during three weeks in February and March.

The set construction for the upcoming Leonardo Di Caprio produced Robin Hood Origins was in full swing in Dubrovnik during december. After Game of Thrones and Star Wars, Robin Hood starring Oscar award winning Jamie Foxx and Jamie Dornan from Fifty Shades of Grey fame, is the next blockbuster in line to use Dubrovnik as a backdrop.

Traditional carol, with which Dubrovnik says goodbye to the last year and greets the New Year, was held today at noon at Stradun.. Mayor of Dubrovnik Andro Vlahusic welcomed the crowd gathered in Dubrovnik guests and wished them happiness, health and success for the year 2017.

- Dubrovnik has always been an opened city, and let that openness, with the music of our Bell Tower and the protection of St. Blaise today fills your heart. Bless you old and a Happy New Year 2017 - said the mayor Vlahusic during his traditional speech.

Celebration continues tonight at 9:30 pm with Doris Dragovic, Jole and DJ Kameny.

The owner of the cable car, the company Excelsa nekretnine, announces that until 6th of January cable car will be closed, because of the preventive review of the cables.

The reason for this preventive examination is the fire that occurred on Srd, near the route of the cables of the cable car on the night of the 28th on the 29th December. Overview which has already been done by the chief engineer of the cable car shows no damage to the cables, but in order to guarantee complete safety review by the manufacturer was requested. manufacturer.

We can all agree - it's been a beautiful year! Looking back, we can only feel happy and proud. These are just some of the photos that marked the year of 2016. Enjoy! 

Celebration has already started yesterday evening with a double concert! Famous Croatian singer Petar Graso and well known band Opca Opasnost played in front many locals and tourists. Concert was a great succes, especially if you consider cold that was caused by Northern wind ''bura''. 

Celebrating 2016 and entering 2017 continues today at 10:30 am with a concert of vocal group Ragusa, followed by traditional carols and greeting by the mayor Andro Vlahusic, folklore ensemble Lindo, Libertas Choir, Dubrovnik Brass Band and cocktail in front of the City Cafe at 11:55. At noon, there will be Children's New Year's Eve celebration with singer Jole and Dance Studio Lazareti.

The main event starts at 9:30 pm on Stradun with Doris Dragovic, Jole and DJ Kameny.

Famous German website Spiegel made the annual review of the best applications for smart phones in 2016 and among them included the Photomath, made by Croatian companie MicroBlink.

This application is magical and useful - simply point your camera toward a math problem and Photomath will magically show the result with detailed step-by-step instructions. Photomath supports arithmetics, integers, fractions, decimal numbers, roots, algebraic expressions, linear equations/inequations, quadratic equations/inequations, absolute equations/inequations, systems of equations, logarithms, trigonometry, exponential and logarithmic functions, derivatives and integrals.
The application is so far downloaded more than 40 million times and is consistently among the top five educational applications in the United States – writes Telegraf.hr.

Another application by MicroBlink was quite successful this year. BlinkID, which recognizes the identity documents of many countries, scans them in real time and in a few seconds check the data was used at the recent presidential elections in the United States.

According to preliminary official data by systems eVisitor and ECREW, during 2016 in Croatia there were 16.3 million arrivals and 91.3 million overnight stays!

Compared to 2015 there were almost 11 million more overnight stays. Analyzing only the data of eVisitor system, Croatia was visited by 15 million and 828 thousand guests (14 million foreign) who have made a total of 88 million and 223 thousand overnight stays (78 million foreign), while in the nautical charter from January 1st to 28th December recorded 444,456 arrivals and 3,056,901 overnight stays.

Looking at tourist traffic at the destination level, the most overnight stays in 2016 were recorded in Dubrovnik, then in Rovinj, Porec, Medulin, Umag, Mali Losinj, Crikvenica, Funtana, Zagreb and Novalja.
This year, most of arrivals and overnight stays were made by Germans, followed by guests from Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Hungary. In the area of accommodation, most nights in hotels spent the guests from Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, while in the camps most overnight stays were made by guests from Germany, Slovenia and the Netherlands. When it comes to family accomodation, guests from Germany are again first, followed by the visitors from Poland and Czech Republic.

BUSY DECEMBER

According to the eVisitor system, in the period from December 1st to 28th in Croatia there was 249,529 arrivals and 495,437 overnight stays, of which was 83,000 arrivals of domestic tourists who have made almost 200 thousand overnight stays. In December, most tourists rested in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Opatija, Split, Zadar, Rovinj, Porec, Pula and Vodice.

Most guests came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Korea, Serbia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

''Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine''. 

These are the words of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest minds and visionaries of our time. Almost 75 years after his death he continues to make an impact on our society.
In his honour the largest cultural and artistic event in the Croatian history will be organized in Zagreb in November 2017. The ''Tesla – Mind from the Future'' exhibition will represent an unknown part of Tesla's life, the one that was related to art and philosophy which were the significant sources of his numerous ideas.

After Zagreb the largest Croatian exhibition and export project will be touring around the globe visiting other world capitals such as New York, Budapest, Prague, Paris and Dubai. 

Helena Bulaja Madunic, the author and the curator of this mutimedia interactive exhibition said that the Mestrovic Pavilion in Zagreb would be transformed into a landscape of Tesla's ideas and visions which would enable visitors to enter into Tesla's ingenious mind.

''The main message of this exhibition is the transfer of Tesla's energy of creation to younger generations. Our young people often feel inferior because they come from small communities and therefore think they cannot change anything, but Tesla proved otherwise. He came from the small village of Smiljan in the Lika region and with his work he made New York a world metropolis and formed our civilzation. Tesla is an example of a superhero from cartoons and comic books, the only thing is that he was real'', explained Bulaja Madunic.

The president of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and many other institutions have supported the event, whilst the main sponsor of the ''Tesla- Mind from the Future'' exhibition is the Croatian Electricity Company (HEP).