Old Port and Porporela: Galleons, Salt, and Quarantines

Why is it significant?

Walk out onto the stone docks of Dubrovnik's Old Port, where wooden fishing skiffs and tour boats bob on azure waters beneath the massive round tower of Saint John's Fortress.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk out onto the stone docks of Dubrovnik's Old Port, where wooden fishing skiffs and tour boats bob on azure waters beneath the massive round tower of Saint John's Fortress. Look across the harbor mouth to the Kaše breakwater, built of underwater stone blocks in fourteen eighty-five to shield merchant galleons from winter waves.

In the sixteenth century, the maritime merchant fleet of tiny Ragusa numbered over two hundred ocean-going ships, rivaling Venice, Spain, and England. Ragusan galleons sailed to India and the Americas, while the Republic pioneered the world's very first quarantine regulations in thirteen seventy-seven, requiring arriving sailors to isolate for forty days on Lazareti islands to prevent plague.

Every night, a colossal iron boom chain was stretched across the harbor entrance between Saint John's Fortress and the breakwater, completely sealing the port from pirate attacks.

Walk around the southern ramparts or take the coastal path to the detached cliff fortress of Lovrijenac.