The monument to the greatest playwright of Dubrovnik, Marin Držić, is located between the theatre named after him and the Rector's Palace, under the authentic section of the City Hall in which his brilliant play entitled Uncle Maroje was performed in 1551. After standing in one of the Babin Kuk squares on the Lapad Peninsula for almost four decades, the work of the renowned Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović, was relocated to the Old City in 2008, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Držić's birth.
The monuments relocation to the UNESCO world heritage site within the City Walls stirred controversy because of the Dubrovnik Republic statutory decree according to which the erecting of monuments in public places was considered inappropriate. The bust of Miho Pracat, the only monument put up at the time of the Dubrovnik Republic was located inside the Rector's Palace, while the statue of Ivan Gundulić - erected in the 19th century - was approved as a symbol of the emerging national awareness during the Austro-Hungarian rule.
