Old Port of Dubrovnik

The Old Port is a basin tucked tightly against the eastern city walls, framed by the stone arches of the former Arsenal and guarded by the fortress of Saint John. It does not look like a wide-open harbor but rather a controlled, enclosed pocket of water designed to keep the Republic of Ragusa safe. In the fifteenth century, the engineer Paskoje Miličević reinforced this area against waves and invaders by constructing the Kaše breakwater, a series of massive, submerged stone-filled wooden crates.