Kotor

The city occupies a narrow strip between the water and the cliff face, its layout unchanged in any significant way since the Venetian period. The inner streets…The city occupies a narrow strip between the water and the cliff face, its layout unchanged in any significant way since the Venetian period. The inner streets are a dense grid of lanes, squares and baroque facades pressed tightly together within a perimeter wall that climbs the limestone massif to the fortress of San Giovanni at 280 metres.

Kotor's recorded history stretches back to Roman times, but the city reached its most prosperous period under Venetian rule from the fifteenth to the late eighteenth century. The Cathedral of St Tryphon, consecrated in 1166, is the oldest and most important building in the city, and the wider Old Town contains medieval churches, Venetian loggia buildings and merchant palaces that reflect successive periods of maritime wealth. The UNESCO World Heritage designation in 1979 recognised the integrity of the urban fabric that has survived largely intact within the walls.

Visitors to Kotor will find most of what the city offers within the Old Town and along the waterfront just outside. Boat tours and speedboat tours depart from the quay below the Sea Gate, covering the inner bay circuit to Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks and full-day routes to the Blue Cave. Restaurants and cafes fill the squares and lanes inside the walls. Hotels range from boutique Old Town properties to larger waterfront hotels in Dobrota. The directory covers accommodation, tours, transport, restaurants and services across Kotor and the wider bay.