Maritime Museum in Dubrovnik is the must-see place if you have rented an apartment, room or vacation house in Dubrovnik and want to know something about the unique history of the city. Dubrovnik`s past is inextricably linked to the past of its sailors and naval history of humanity in general. There are theories, and they were not set by Croatian scientists and historians, that Dubrovnik's sailors had reached the coast of America before Columbus! Is this is true or not, we may never know with certainty but the fact is that they have traded with America in the first century of settling at this imposing and promising continent. "Dubrovnik Navy Through the Ages" - it was the name of the exhibition that was organized in 1941 with the artifacts which were donated by famous Dubrovnik maritime families. These objects have become the foundation for the Maritime Museum, which will be established eight years later at the initiative of the Adriatic Institute of the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts. From the first exhibitions to date, more than 5,000 items have been collected from the maritime history of Dubrovnik from Antique to modern times. In addition, the Museum has a library of 11,000 titles from the naval world and it is the member of the Mediterranean Maritime Museums Association, headquartered in Barcelona. The Maritime Museum with the finest display and the most detailed story in Croatia is not only a testament to the skills of the Dubrovnik sailors and captains, but also to the naval tradition of the whole country. The Museum is located in the Fortress of St. Ivan, which was erected in the south of the city in 1346 and whose main role was the defense of the city harbor. The Museum is on the first and second floor of the fortress and opens at 9am. In the summer months it works till to 6 pm, until 4 pm in the winter. It's closed on Mondays. Peek into the days when Dubrovnik's sailors were discovering the world, bringing the prosper to their city and the famous Republic of Dubrovnik.