‘The siege of Dubrovnik’: it sounds like a page from a history of the middle ages. Yet this traumatic event ended just 14 years ago – an era when Europe was planning its single currency, John Major won a surprise election victory and Bill Clinton was elected US president.

Walking the streets of the old walled city today, there are very few reminders of the siege. But when you look more closely, you notice a few tell-tale scars: the vibrant coloured new roofs, the shrapnel holes and the patches on the town walls. Out of town lie the ruins of abandoned hotels shelled by the Serbs, which are being brought back to life.

Back in 1991, the world watched in horror as the Serbs attacked Dubrovnik. Many had spent holidays in the Dalmatian town and could not believe what they were seeing. For some, it must have evoked memories of 1940, when holiday towns on the French coast became a war zone and Dunkirk became a symbol of war rather than a holiday port. Happily, peace has returned to Croatia and the scars of the 1990s are fading.