Walking the wall
Stone steps and views over the salt pans and the bay.
Carsten Steger — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jules Verne Times Two — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jules Verne Times Two — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jules Verne Times Two — CC BY-SA 4.0
**No, and most people shouldn't.** The full route is about five and a half kilometres on irregular stone steps climbing and dropping over hills with **almost no shade and no water**, taking two to three hours in Adriatic heat. Most visitors climb the **first section** from Ston — the steepest, with the best view over the salt pans — and turn back, and that hour is entirely enough. Anyone wanting the full crossing to Mali Ston should start **very early or before sunset**, and plan the return (a taxi or a second car).
Because **Mali Ston bay** is a rare environment: sheltered shallow water where salt sea mixes with fresh water from underground rivers, giving the oysters a taste described as less salty, sweeter and denser. They have been farmed here since Roman times, and are still raised traditionally on ropes. The best season is traditionally **spring** (March–April), when they are at their peak, and a local festival marks it. They are eaten raw with lemon right on the quay, and prices in Mali Ston are **far lower** than in Dubrovnik's restaurants.
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**The longest defensive wall in Europe** and the second longest stone wall in the world after China's: about **five and a half kilometres** of stone climbing and descending hills to link the towns of **Ston** and **Mali Ston** across the neck of the Pelješac peninsula, some fifty kilometres north-west of Dubrovnik. The Republic of Ragusa built it in the fourteenth century for a purely economic reason: **salt**. The Ston salt pans — still worked the same way after more than a thousand years — were among the Republic's most important sources of income, and salt was a strategic commodity, the oil of its day. So the city built an enormous wall to protect the source of its wealth and its northern frontier. You can **walk the wall** today between the two towns: a hard climb on stone steps with almost no shade, and views over the salt pans, the bay and the vineyards. Ston is known for two other things: the **oysters and mussels** of the Mali Ston bay, among the finest things to eat in Croatia, and the strong red **Pelješac wine**.
Stone steps and views over the salt pans and the bay.
Producing salt the same way for over a thousand years.
Among the best food in Croatia — metres away.
20230 Ston, Pelješac