Saturday, March 4, 2017

15 may - Kotor and Budva

History, History History.
The morning was slightly misty we went into and down a very long bay with steep hills on both sides. very dark. Could imagine wolves and vampires.
We took the little tender boat (our first Tender experience) from our boat into the port at Kotor  and from there onto the bus . We were tour number 15.
Today we were starting in Budva , a medieval walled city in Montenegro. The town is about 45 minutes away from Kotor and goes through some very pretty countryside and past world class beaches where concerts were led by the rolling stones and other famous bands.

the town of Budva according to Wikipedia Budva is a Montenegrin town on the  Adriatic Sea. It has around 14,000 inhabitants. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budva Riviera, is the center of Montenegrin tourism, known for its well preserved medieval walled city, sandy beaches and diverse nightlife. Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.


 legend recounts that Bouthoe was founded by Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, Greece, when exiled out of Thebes, finding a shelter in this place for him and his wife, Harmonia.
Greek colonization of Adriatic began in 4th century BC, whenEmporium was established on the site of Budva. In the 2nd century BC, the area of Budva became part of the Roman Empire. Upon the fall of the Empire and its division into east and west, the defensive barrier which separated the two powers happened to run across this area, subsequently making a lasting impact on the history and culture of this town.
We were expecting something more like the Shambles in York, wooden structures all jumbled and crooked. This is a lovely stone fortress all narrow laneways and arches between public squares.

In the 6th century, Budva was part of the Byzantine Empire, and in the following two centuries, Slavs and, to a lesser extent, Avars began to arrive in the area, mixing with the native Roman population. Budva bay was reportedly known as Avarorum sinus during the Avar incursions. In 841, Budva was sacked by Saracens, who devastated the area.
In the early  Middle Ages, Budva was reigned by a succession of Doclean kings, as well as Serbian and Zetan aristrocrats.
The Venetians ruled the town for nearly 400 years, from 1420 to 1797. Budva, called Budua in those centuries, was part of the Venetian Republic region of Albania Veneta and was fortified by powerful Venetian walls against Ottoman conquests. According to the historian Luigi Paulucci in his book "Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810" (The Bay of Kotor in 1810), most of the population spoke the Venetian Language until the beginning of the 19th century. I loved this old propellor sign above a coffee shop and the jasmine growing on the trellis were smelling great.
With the fall of Republic of Venice in 1797, Budva came under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy.  During the  Napoleonic Wars, Montenegrin forces allied with Russia took control over the city in 1806, only to relinquish the city to France in 1807. French rule lasted until 1813, when Budva (along with Boka Kotorska) was ceded to the Austrian Empire,  which remained in control of the city for the next 100 years.
union of Boka Kotorska (and Budva) with Montenegro took place for a brief period (1813–1814), but from 1814 until the end of World War 1 in 1918, Budva remained under Austria-Hungary. The southernmost fortress in the Austro-Hungarian empire, Fort Kosmac,  was constructed nearby to guard the road from Budva to Centinje.  After the war, the Serbian army entered Budva after it was abandoned by Austrian forces and it came under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. 
In 1941, with the beginning of World War II, Budva was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy. Budva was finally liberated from  Axis Rule on 22 November 1944 and incorporated in SR Montenegro, now part of SFR Yugoslavia. 


A catastrophic earthquake struck Budva on 15 April 1979. Much of old town was devastated, but today there is little evidence of the catastrophe – almost all the buildings were restored to their original form.

There have been other quakes and the town repairs the cracks as they come.
We hopped on the bus and headed back to Kotor pronounced kawtor. It was kind of a drizzley day but we had umbrellas so we were fine.

Wikipedia says " Kotor ( is a coastal town in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor  The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of Kotor municipality.
The old Mediterranean  port of Kotor is surrounded by fortifications built during the  Venetian period. It is located on the Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), one of the most indented parts of the Adriatic Sea.  Some have called it the southern-most fjord in Europe, but it is a ria, a submerged river canyon. Together with the nearly overhanging limestone cliffs of Orjen and Lovcen,  Kotor and its surrounding area form an impressive and picturesque Mediterranean landscape.


In recent years, Kotor has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ship. Visitors are attracted both by the natural beauty of the Gulf of Kotor and by the old town of Kotor. Kotor is part of the World Heritage Site dubbed the Natural and CulturopHistorical Region of Kotor.


Kotor, first mentioned in 168 BC, was settled during  Ancient Roman times, when it was known as Acruvium, Ascrivium, or Ascruvium and was part of the Roman Province of Dalmatia. 
Kotor has been fortified since the early Middle Ages, when Emperor Justinian built a fortress above Acruvium in 535, after expelling the Ostrogoths; a second town probably grew up on the heights round it, for Constatine  Porphyrogenitus, in the 10th century, alludes to Lower Kotor. The city was plundered by the Saracens in 840. Kotor was one of the more influential Dalmatian city states of romanized Illyrians throughout the Middle Ages, and until the 11th century the Dalmatan language was spoken in Kotor. The city was part of Byzantine Dalmatia in that period.
In 1002, the city suffered damage under the occupation of the First Bulgarian empire , and in the following year it was ceded to Serbia by the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil. However, the local population resisted the pact and, taking advantage of its alliance with the Republic of Ragusa, only submitted in 1184, while maintaining its republican institutions and its right to conclude treaties and engage in war. It was already an episcopal see, and, in the 13th century, Dominican and Franciscan monasteries were established to check the spread of  Bogomilism. Our Tour guide gave us a lot of information but in a more understanding manner than the greek tour guide. We stopped and had a bite to eat and a local beer too which was very good. lots of cats around . they obviously do not need worry about mice or rats.

During the Nemonic dynasty-era the city was autonomous. 1371 it came under suzerenity of Hungarian king who ruled Croatia and Hungary, and 1384. it became part of Bosnian banate under ban/king Tvrtko. Until 1420 it was independent. The city acknowledged the suzerainty of the Republic of Venice in 1420. In the 14th century, commerce in Kotor competed with that of the nearby  Republic of Ragusa and of the Republic of Venice. 
We visited some of the churches in Kotor including St Nicolas Day Church and the Franciscan Monastery and Church Holy Claire. a lovely little church with lots of sculptures of angels and a lovely carved piece with St francis and St claire. Lit some candles and said some hail Mary's for our children, Shauna and Bill. We can only hope that what was good enough for the plague stricken town of motor is good enough for our children too.
The city was part of the Venetian Albania province of the Venetian Republic from 1420 to 1797. It was besieged by the Ottomans in 1538 and 1657  and was also ruled by Ottomans at brief periods. Four centuries of Venetian domination have given the city the typical Venetian architecture, that contributed to make Kotor a UNESCO world heritage site.
In the 14th- and 15th centuries, there was an influx of settlers from the oblasts of Tebinje (the region around forts Klobuk Ledenica and Rudina) and the Hum lands (Gacko and Dabar) to Kotor. The Italian name of the city is CĂ ttaro. Under Venetian rule, Kotor was besieged by the Ottoman Empire in 1538 and 1657, endured the Plague in 1572. There is a church halfway up the hill behind Kotor that the townspeople used to go to to pray for good health during the plague. some even crawled up the 1000 steps hoping for some compense. 
Kotor was nearly destroyed by earthquakes in 1563 and 1667 and there are still cracks all over the buildings from the latest set of earthquakes.

After the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, it passed to the Hapsburg Monarchy. However, in 1805, it was assigned to the French Empire's  client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg, although in fact held by a Russian squadron underDimtry Senyavin. After the Russians retreated, Kotor was united in 1806 with this Kingdom of Italy and then in 1810 with the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. 
Illyrian Kotor was captured by the British in an attack on the Bay led by Commodore John Harper in the brig sloop HMS Saracen (18 guns). To seal off Kotor, residents along the shore literally pulled the ship in windless conditions with ropes. The Saracen's crew later hauled naval 18-pounder guns above Fort St. John, the fortress near Kotor, and were reinforced by Captain William Hoste with his ship HMS Bacchante (38 guns). The French garrison had no alternative but to surrender, which it did on 5 January 1814.
It was restored to the Hapsburg Monarchy by the Congress of Vienna. Until 1918, the town, then known as Cattaro, was head of the district of the same name, one of the 13 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Kingdom of Dalmatia. 
After our tour we wandered around the shops and tried to find the stairs up to the church alway up the hill. they were is such bad repair at the start that we decided not to attempt it but went for a nice icecream coffee at a lovely little cafe on some square that we came across. 
In World War 1, Kotor was one of three main bases of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and homeport to the Austrian Fifth Fleet, consisting of pre-dreadnought battleships and light cruisers. The area was the site of some of the fiercest battles between local Montenegrin Slavs and Austria-Hungary. After 1918, the city became a part of Yugoslavia and officially became known as Kotor.
I love Kotor. It was a beautiful little town with lots of shops and cafes and cats.