Kotor, Montenegro (5/1/2025)

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Kotor's Old Town is widely considered one of the best-preserved medieval towns in the Mediterranean.
Today is the holiday of Labor Day in much of the world, including Montenegro.

We were up at 6:30 to view the fjord-like approach
to Kotor, Montenegro, where it squeezed down
to a quarter-mile wide where the Bay of Kotor
was pinched about in the middle as Verige Strait

Then it was a T-intersection and we had to turn right

Church of Our Lady of Angels is a fortified church

A fish farm

Looking back at the narrow gap, which has a restaurant
on the opposite side from the fortified church

Two tiny islands are the wooded St George
and Our Lady of the Rocks (1632)

We had breakfast treats at Mamsen's, a Skoleboller/
School Bun with custard and grated coconut, and 
a Kanelboller/Cinnamon Bun

Sea Gate of Kotor (1555), where the water
once came right up to the gate and only one
ship could tie up at a time to better defend
against pirates; a star and the date 11/21/1944
when the city was liberated from the Nazis
by a Yugoslav partisans led by Josip Tito

Arms Square is the largest square in the Old Town

This pyramid was once a pillory, a place
of public humiliation for small offences

Clock Tower (1602) is maintained through
the small door and continues to function

The tall city walls (16C) were rebuilt by the Republic of Venice

Doorway to the former Beskuća Palace
(1776, in Baroque style)

Hmm, the ceramics look Turkish ...

... as do the hanging lanterns

Pima Palace (post 1667 earthquake,
in Baroque and Renaissance style)

Here the sidewalks were paved
with red and white tiles

Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Tryphon
(1124-1166, damaged in 1667 earthquake
but rebuilding of towers ran out of money,
restored after 1979 earthquake)

Cathedral of St Tryphon interior

Silver and gold altarpiece (15C)

Votive offerings displayed around
an altar with an icon

Examples of votive offerings left by pilgrims,
especially those with heart problems

A modern-looking confessional

Baroque altar screen of the upstairs chapel

In the chapel are the relics of St Tryphon,
his bones in a silver casket and
his head in a golden chalice

Treasury reliquaries

Rose window as seen from the exterior balcony

City Hall

Toys and carved Christmas figures

A bronze cat among the many in Kotor,
which is famous for its real cats that are said
to be descendants of cats brought by sailors

Grgurina Palace (17C) currently is home to the
Maritime Museum of Montenegro, which we visited

Bronze reliefs of the history of shipbuilding; you can see
the fortification walls climbing the mountain behind Kotor

Bronze relief of a member of the Buća family, the wealthiest
and most powerful noble family in Kotor in the 14C

Weapons including a 2 m/6.5' long rifle

Weapons decorated with mother-of-pearl and ivory

Women's traditional dress

Some of the 98 coats-of-arms of aristocratic families of Kotor

Models of ships

Karampana well pump (17C) was the town's
primary water source until 1917

Church of St Luke (1195) served both
the Catholic and Orthodox people, but
is now of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Serbian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas
(1902-1909, by Ciril Ivekovic)

On our own:

Church of St Nicholas interior

Random feeding station for cats

Church of St Mary Collegiate (1221)

Church of St Mary Collegiate with 20C
bronze doors depicting the life of Blessed
Osanna of Cattaro, whose incorrupt body
lies in a glass coffin inside (closed today)

Blessed Osanna was an anchoress/a woman who chooses to live in isolation, in this case in a room attached to a church to live a life of prayer, with one window to observe mass and another to receive food and petitions for prayer from the people. She was beatified in 1934.

The square behind the Church of St Mary is
a haven for the cats of Kotor

Elderly women were filling bowls with water from
this fountain for the cats

Dinaric Alps above Kotor

Tamiko at the Škurda River Gate (1540)

Škurda River and what looks like a millrace

Bazaar in the ruins of St Nicholas Monastery

Back at Arms Square with Napoleon's
Theatre (1810)

Entrance to Hotel Cattaro located
in Napoleon's Theatre

Venetian Arsenal (c 1104)

View from on top of the city wall

View toward St John Fortress (6C, expanded 15-17C by the
Venetians) with a section of a zigzag wall on lower right

Here the Škurda River acts as a moat,
looking back at the mountains

Škurda River passing Kampana Bastion,
heading to the Bay of Kotor

Taking the Viking Saturn lifeboat/tender back to the ship

We completed another 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, using
a regular "game" table next to the jigsaw puzzle table

We could not use the jigsaw puzzle table because
someone had started a puzzle that we had already
completed; however, no one had worked on it
for 2-3 days, thus we left them a "message"