Šipan

This guide to Sipan's fortified merchant palace in the harbor of Sudjuradj, near Dubrovnik, opens with a puzzle: why would a shipbuilder sink his fortune into a house with guard towers built to stop a cannonball? It follows Tomo Skocibuha, who made his fortune shipping Sipan's olive oil and wine through pirate-infested waters in the mid-1500s, and his son Vice, who kept building onto the family palace after his father's death in 1539. You'll hear what it took to defend a small fortune against sixteenth-century corsairs. Look closely at where the two wings meet, Tomo's original build and Vice's addition standing side by side.