The Marina Grande (Large Seashore) is the harbor of Capri, located in the bay on north side of the island, in front of Naples and its gulf. The harbor consists of two large arms: the western one is the former and it works as commercial port, where ferries and hydrofoils berth, while the east arm is the latter and it is occupied by the tourist port, where pleasure boats park.

The commercial port was built in 1928, as an extension of a small preexisting reef. Until that moment, ferries did not land on the seashore, but lied at anchor in the bay while passengers and goods were carried by fishermen from Marina Grande on the island with their boats, that is the technique still used nowadays for cruise ships. The tourist port had been built about thirty years ago and was initially aimed at dividing the goods transport from passengers, but its function was turned to host tourist boats, whose arrivals increased enormously in last years, in such a way as they are going to approve the construction of another external arm of the port, to enlarge its capacity.

The village of Marina Grande is very old and among its renovated buildings we can see some structures and passages from previous houses, that were initially built right upon the shore, at few meters of distance from the sea. Many paintings and prints from past centuries represent Marina Grande into its original appearance, with few buildings collected in the area now comprised between the commercial port entrance and Largo Fontana (Fountain Square): they are very suggestive pictures showing what had seen by the first astonished tourists who came to the island.  [ More...]