According to local legend, Richard the Lion Heart, on his return from a Crusade, was shipwrecked near Dubrovnik. In order to be spared his life, he vowed to give money for the building of a church. The church built with that money, later destroyed in a catastrophic earthquake, is the foundation of today's Cathedral. The erection of the domed Cathedral in the Baroque style began in the 17th century. Its interior is adorned with paintings by Italian masters belonging to the Raphael school, while Tizian's work Assumption is located on the main altar. Its treasury was one of the richest in Europe until a catastrophic earthquake. A reliquary in the shape of a hand and the works of Dubrovnik goldsmiths from the 11th and 12th centuries have survived to this day.
