Guides / Old town

Under the mount Lovćen

Kotor Old Town was built by centuries of adaptation to the nature

Old Town Kotor is situated at the foot of the mount Lovćen, Montenegro.

Although there is material evidence that people lived in the immediate vicinity of the present historical center in the 6th century BC, the first records of the town of Kotor date from the 1st century AD.

It is believed that in the period from the 3rd to the 5th century, the inhabitants of the fertile valley Grbalj, under the invasion of barbarians, sought shelter in the inaccessible slopes of the mountain Lovćen and built the first settlements on the hill above Kotor-

The name itself, in the Greek variant Decaterum, appears setek in records from the 7th century.

In the north it is bordered by the river Škurda.

From the south and west by the sea and the swirling exsurgence of Gurdić the submarine spring.

Kotor wasn’t planned. It arose spontaneously, and that is why it is characterized by extremely irregular forms.

By building objects according to current needs, irregular streets were created, none of which are of the same width.

Within the walls, the streets of Kotor do not have their own names, but sort of nicknames. Particularly characteristic is the name of the street Let-me-pass (Pusti-me-proć).

The squares are asymmetrical – there is almost no right angle.

These were named mainly after the goods sold or stored on them: Salad Square, Flour Square, Milk Square, Arms Square.

However, in every larger open space that has become a square, there is a center – to which all imaginary lines and all views aspire.

Often these are churches, of which there were about 50 in Kotor in the period from the 13th to the 20th century, and which disappeared for various reasons, most often due to four catastrophic earthquakes, which occured from the 14th century and onwards.

What visually holds all this construction together, as in a stone embrace, are the ramparts that were one of the reasons for the inclusion of Kotor on the World Heritage List.