Kotor - Battlements Going up the Mountain. Occupation History; credit cards

Walled City of Kotor - Montenegro
Curtain Walls

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Kotor, Montenegro, curtain walls






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Curtain walls;  These extend as a total barrier, often in a broad perimeter around a castle, here going up the mountain as an escape for an entire town, there, in the back.

Why need such extensive wall structures apart from the main walled town.  The separate curtain wall is a familiar sight in the Balkans, going up the mountains.  The curtain wall was needed because of the location of the town, at roadways and ports invaders used through the years. Occupation after occupation. With mountains as a backdrop, the city could be better defended, but. Kotor still has been in many hands - warfare upon warfare.

Occupation history:

• Illyrian 300 BC or so (Old Greek),
• Roman 168 BC,
• Byzantine then until the 1100's,
• Serbian to the 1300's,
• then Hungary in the 1300's,
• then Bosnian at the end of the 1300's,
• Venetian in the 1400's as a voluntary transfer of protection against the Turks, and to 1797,
• then Austrian to 1805,
• Russian to 1807,
• French to 1813, temporary fight for independence, lost, and
• back to Austria to 1918,
• liberation after WWI,
• then the Germans,
• and liberation from Germany 1944.
• part of Yugoslavia,
• then part of Serbia after the breakup of Yugoslavia, and
• in 2006, independence from Serbia
  

Add to that plagues and earthquakes.

The city is over 2000 years old. No peace. There used to be an upper town and a lower town. See ://www.destination-montenegro.com/kotor-history.htm

Kotor - look closely at the mountain to see the curtain walls going up the side, another defense.


At Kotor, as in places in Croatia (especially Ston, see Croatia Road Ways, Ston post), you can see curtain walls going most all the way up a mountainside, with a large fortress at the top. These serve as another line of defense, if the the city walls are breached the population flees up the mountain. There is refuge there, better than below.

Kotor is a UNESCO World Heritage site. See whc.unesco.org/en/list/125; and thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-montenegro.

There are also palm trees, just as there are in the warm parts of Scotland even, and the old buildings. See the old town at www.photo-montenegro.com/home. Go further to these notations if that is helpful: php?akcija=rezpret&fKategorija=Kotor&fPodKategorija=Old+Town. Kotor was less damaged by invasions than many coastal towns, I understand. See www.matf.bg.ac.yu/konferencije/kotor/.

Getting around:

There are many ATM's, but you may find that only selected cards will work, and the money is not Euro. We ran into five currencies this trip - different in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia. Some will accept Euro, but we preferred to use the country's cash and withdrew some for each day.

Credit cards.

Before you leave US: You should alert your credit card or debit card places that you will be in specific countries so they will not block your getting cash. We did that ahead of time, and still found that one card could not be used. Much fraud out there.

Budva - Where Zeus captured Europa

 Budva, Montenegro - A Place of Myth
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This is where the god Zeus captured the lovely Europa. Its mythological roots run deep. See http://www.montenegro.com/en/Little_tourist_guide_-_The_Old_Town_-_Budva.

Archeological people say that the town was settled, with records and all, in the 4th Century. It has a readily identifiable rock formation, the Island of St. Nikola. It helps to do an Images search if a photo in your own camera is unclear when you get back. Looking up those third-party photos is the best way to check which picture of a walled city is which.

For Budva, see also www.photo-montenegro.com/home, and navigate about. The rock formations are the identification for sure.

Budva, Montenegro. View from castle to sea.














Budva is a fine walled city, with impressive rocks to dash invaders.

It shows how dangerous many of the harbors were, and why walled cities on peninsulas were effective defenses. Little chance to hover about and think. Do see this overview gallery - www.pbase.com/bauer/montenegrohref.

Here is an etching of the town map in 1615. At historic-cities.huji.ac.il/montenegro/budva/maps/beauvau_1615_budva_b.j etching. Numbers 3 and 4 on the map look like Kotor and Bay of Kotor, from the location, not the spelling, and number 2 could be Cetinje, but I am not sure. Walls and battlements.