For decades, Villa Dubrovnik was the crown jewel of tourism in Dubrovnik. It did not require advertising to become one of the most exclusive and most expensive hotels in Dubrovnik – oral tradition on the part of its delighted guests did it all.

The elements of the mystery of the indisputable success of this building are intriguing. It was designed in 1961 as a residential building for members of the Federal Assembly of the Federal State of Croatia in the paradise location of Dubrovnik’s Sveti Jakov area by the architect Mladen Frka, a Zagreb student not known to the wider public. Its function was changed during construction and in 1963 it was completed as an annex to the Hotel Argentina.