Fishermen and legends
Former seamen and fishermen settlement, nowadays, it is more Strp and Lipci are more recognized as summer resorts
Strp is a village along the road from Risan to Herceg Novi, some 3 km away from Risan. In itssubmarine area, an archaeological site was found dating back to the 4th – 7th century.
Farther on, we come to the settlement called Lipci (50 inhabitants). There is a rock shelter there on the wall of which there are prehistoric drawings, showing the scenes of a deer hunt, geometric motifs, a swastika etc, which are among the oldest examples of wall painting in the Balkan region. At Lipci, there is a roundabout from where one may take the northbound road towards Nikšić and further on to Žabljak and Durmitor.
Lipci are known for drawings, dating to the Bronze Age. On one side of a steep cliff, of approximately 10 square meters, and about 7 meters above the ground, one can see seven figures of a running deer, and several geometric motifs. The upper figures can only be reached with climbing equipment. The figures are from 35 to 45 cm long.
Interesting and hard-to-reach places are often the subject of legends, and stories of unusual deaths. There is one about Teuta, the famous Illyrian queen, protector of pirates according to Polybius, who committed suicide to avoid revenge by the Romans after the failed negotiations on stopping Illyrian piracy in the Adriatic.
In another story, to avoid revenge by Romans, Teuta fled in ships full of looted treasure. One part of the treasure was stored in a cave in Lipci. Hundreds of years later, on the eve of the World War II, a mysterious sailing ship was anchored in front of Lipci. There, unrecognised people were digging the ground around the cliff (according to other sources, those were Illyrian graves), after which they were looking for something in the cave above the drawing. The next day, locals discovered freshly dug pits, and piles of scattered rocks.
This part of the bay has been under Turkish siege for a long time, the context which generated stories and legends about ingenuity of the local population and ways they use to trick the occupier.
Beach in the nearby Morinj