Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Before continuing on, enjoy this square's lazy ambience. The big building fronting the
square is a music school, and the students practicing here fill this already pleasant public
space with an appealing soundtrack.
• If you go down the street to your left as you face St. Nicholas, you'll wind up back at the
Square of Arms. But first try getting lost, then found again, in Kotor's delightful maze of
streets.
The town's final attraction is above your head. To go there directly, face St. Nicholas'
Church, turn right, and walk straight for two blocks until you reach St. Mary's Church
(named for one of four Catholic saints who came from the Bay of Kotor—which some faith-
ful locals call the “Bay of Saints”). If you carry on straight past the church—down the nar-
row lane with two arches—you'll find the entrance to the town walls.
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Town Walls (Gradske Zidine)
Kotor's fortifications begin as stout ramparts along the waterfront, then climb up the sheer
cliff face behind town in a dizzying zigzag line. If there's a more elaborate city wall in
Europe, I haven't seen it. A proud Kotorian bragged to me, “These fortifications cost more
to build than any palace in Europe.”
Imagine what it took to create this “Great Wall of Kotor”—it's nearly three miles long
and sits on some extremely inaccessible terrain. It was built in fits and starts over a millen-
nium (9th-19th centuries, though most of it was completed during the Venetian occupation
in the 17th and 18th centuries). Its thickness varies from 6 to 50 feet, and the tallest parts
are65feethigh.Sectionshigheronthehill—withthinnerwalls,builtbeforetheageofgun-
powder—are the oldest, while the thick walls along the water are most recent. It was all
worthit:Thefortifiedtownsurvivedmanyattacks,includingatwo-monthOttomansiegein
1657.
