Early morning view of the Old Town of Dubrovnik and its city walls, an UNESCO Heritage Site since 1979. The former Republic of Ragusa was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian and Latin) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost modern Croatia), that existed from 1358 (end of the sovereignty of Venice) to 1808 (conquered by Napoleon's French Empire). It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, under the protection of the Ottoman Empire. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls.