Fortifications of Kotor

Kotor sits at the innermost point of the Bay of Kotor, on a triangle of flat land between the water, the small river Škurda and the sheer limestone face of St John's Mountain. Its fortifications are not just a ring around the old town: from the corners of the town walls, two lines of ramparts climb straight up the mountainside and meet at the Castle of San Giovanni, about 280 metres above the sea. The whole circuit runs to some 4.5 km, with walls between 2 and 16 metres thick and up to 20 metres high. Together with the old town and its setting they were placed on the World Heritage List in 1979, and in 2017 Kotor was also included in the listing of Venetian works of defence.

The mountain top was fortified in Illyrian times and rebuilt under the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century, but most of what stands today is Venetian. Kotor came under Venice in 1420, and over the following centuries the walls were rebuilt for gunpowder warfare and withstood two Ottoman sieges. Along the waterfront you pass the Kampana tower and citadel of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Sea Gate of 1555, the River Gate of 1540 beside the Bembo Bastion (now an open-air theatre), and the Gurdić Gate with its bastion of 1470. The later history is a list of changing flags: Austria, Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, Russian occupation, the French Illyrian Provinces, and in January 1814 a ten-day siege in which the British captain William Hoste hauled his ship's guns up the mountain by block and tackle to shell the French garrison into surrender.

The climb from the old town up the rampart path to San Giovanni is the main reason people come: roughly 1,350 steps and a 260-metre ascent, usually 45 minutes to an hour and a half at a steady pace. Halfway up stands the small Church of Our Lady of Remedy, built in 1518, and every turn of the zigzag opens a wider view of the red roofs below and the fjord-like bay beyond. From above the fortress, the old mule road known as the Ladder of Kotor continues in switchbacks up to the Krstac pass on the way to Cetinje.

Earthquakes have damaged the walls repeatedly, most recently in 1979, and after the Austrian garrison left in 1918 the fortress was abandoned. Restoration has since concentrated on the old town, and parts of the upper walls are still ruinous and overgrown, which adds to the sense of discovery but means that paths away from the main route should be treated with care.

Getting there

The ramparts start from inside Kotor's old town, which is the natural base for the climb. Tivat Airport (TIV) is about 5 km away in a straight line and a short drive around the bay. The former capital, Cetinje, lies about 12 km away across the mountains.