Kotor, Montenegro: Another Old Walled City at the Junction of Roman and Orthodox Catholicism

Monday, November 4, 2024

After overnight cruising from Dubrovnik, Croatia, we arrived at Kotor, Montenegro at 7:00 am. We enjoyed a lazy morning since our scheduled free tour of the city wasn’t until the last one of the day at 2:15 pm. The excursions every day are very nice, but it is nice to not have to jump out of bed, grab breakfast and meet the group off the boat! I never thought days at sea would be fun, but as I write this sitting in Athens Harbor, never leaving the ship today, I can see the benefits of a day off now and then!

So, back to Kotor. After another pleasant overnight cruise, we woke up as we were finishing the long, winding route through the inlet and into the protected harbor of Kotor. We were berthed right in the city, so it was just a short walk to the old walled portion of town. It is a beautiful little city, and the walls were built around the city, up the mountain, across the ridge and back down to the city at the water. The only entrance when it was built was by water (a street now), so that could be protected easily. The wall and fortresses up the mountain were to keep out any invading Ottomans, and they did the job well with no invaders ever getting to them over the mountain.

Below is a photo looking back at the inlet from the harbor.

Our informative guide said that the residents happily co-exist and everyone celebrates Christmas from December 24th to January 7th at any of the many Roman or Orthodox Catholic Churches, many side by side in the same little square!

For such a small town, there were so many interesting little squares popping up wherever we walked with a store or cafe and, of course, one or two churches!

We did not walk the wall up the mountain – it supposedly takes a very long time, and we did not have that much time (or energy!). There is even a pilgrimage church partway up the mountain. According to the guide, the pilgrims ascended the steps on their knees…yikes! The wall and the fortresses along the top ridge were to keep out the Ottoman invaders, which they managed to do throughout the centuries.

Stray cats have been everywhere we have gone. This one and the one on the chair to the right were totally zonked at an outdoor cafe! Not a bad life…!

Our visit to Kotor was short as we had to sail past Albania and reach the Greek island of Corfu by morning. Looking forward to maybe seeing some scenes from the PBS show, “The Durrells in Corfu!”