Montenegro: Kotor town

 The Sea (or West) Gate

Today we are visiting Kotor, a part of the wider UNESCO World Heritage Site (The Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor, which extends as far as Perast). Kotor sits at the most inland point of the extensive Bay of Kotor. It is notable for having a complete (if battered) set of walls surrounding a pretty town and extending uphill to a castle. I will describe the town in this post and the walk up to the castle in a second one. We start in an open area in front of the The Sea Gate or West Gate, in the centre of a straight section of wall.

Off to the right is a large plaque of the Lion of Venice,  a firm reminder of the time that Kotor was a Venetian possession. Venice had control of the area from 1420 to 1797 and before that Kotor was at various times under Serb, Bulgarian and Hungarian control. Later it was under Habsburg and later Yugoslavian rule. Montenegro only emerged as an independent state in 2006 with the name
Crna Gora.

There are bastions at each end of this wall. The Gurdic or South Gate (13^th to 18^th centuries) to the right and the Kampana Tower and Citadel (11th to 19th centuries) on the left (photo below).

A sort of moat extends along the left hand side leading to the Sea or West Gate (1555), protected by the Bemba bastion.

Heading through the main gate you emerge into a rectangular plaza. In front is the Bell Tower (1666) …

… with a curious sort of obalisque in front of it.

At the far end of the square is a former palace, now a hotel.

We head through the narrow streets and reach St Luke's square with the Church of St Nicholas (1909) on the left and the delightful St Luke's church (1195) on the right.

Inside, St Luke's is Greek Orthodox.

Continuing along further small streets we head off to the right to find ourselves in the Piazza of the Cinema, where our attention is first drawn to a massive Black Poplar tree, which we discover was planted in what was then the grounds of a monastery in 1667 after an earthquake.

Suddenly, we realise that we now have a great view of the upper walls, the church and castle.

There is also a small church which has some partial frescoes and houses a Lapidary museum (i.e. of stonework).

We amble on to find ourselves in St Triphon's Square with the 17th century Drago Palace in the corner.

The cathedral of St Triphon, which dates from 1166, is in front of us. The current cathedral was built on the site of an earlier church built in 809, where St Tryphon’s severed head was kept after being brought from Istanbul. The saint’s remains were on their way to Dubrovnik but were intercepted in Kotor and have been there ever since.

 Inside the church there are beautiful brick columns …

… with galleries over both aisles.

We continue into Salate Square where we enjoy a very nice lunch. We are almost at the eastern end of the city here and it is much less crowded than the area just inside the main gate. The alternative route from the castle comes out here and brings a steady trickle of walkers.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Rating: five stars. A beautiful town.