Fortifications of Kotor

Although the Closed City is of a reduced surface, the imposing enclosing walls which surround it have a perimeter external of 4.5 kilometers; indeed, these walls rise to the Midsummer’s Day fortress located at an altitude of 260 meters above the city. The ramparts have a 15 meters height, reaching 20 meters in height by places, and a thickness from 2 to 16 meters.

The ramparts are reinforced by bastions: most notable are the Campana Tower and the Citadel (of 13th and 14th centuries) close to the place where the Škurda river is thrown in the gulf of Kotor. Very close to the Citadel the Door of the Sea is giving access to bay. The Bembo bastion, which protects the Door from the River, was transformed into open-air theater.

It is possible to go up on foot until the high part of the ramparts, and to enjoy a splendid sight on the roofs of the city and bay.

Before reaching the Midsummer’s Day fortress, one passes thus in front of various bastions, turns, forts and stations; one Extremely meets initially the Station Saint-Marc (Položaj Sveti Marko) of the 18th century, called “the Small one”, then two smaller stations: the Station Soranco (Položaj Soranco) and the Station To disavow (Položaj Renijer).

Inside the ramparts exists a communication system as well as other buildings, like the church Our-Lady-of-Safety.

The ramparts, recently restored, contribute largely to the beauty of Kotor.

The Midsummer’s Day fortress dominates is bay of Kotor, the system of fortifications and the Closed City of almost 260 m in height. Today in ruins, it is accessible by an interminable succession from irregular stairs (moving all 1,426).

Beyond the hill which carries the fortress, a campaign mountainous and uninhabitable goes up higher towards the Lovćen mountain.

The sight offered from the top of its walls is splendid, with, on a side, the mouths of Kotor and, other, the solid mass of Lovćen.

The Door of the Sea was built at the 16th century (1555), at the time it Venetian Providur Bernardo Renier, in Renaissance styles and baroque, as testifies the pillar and the arch to it carried out in Bunjato technique.

The Door of the Sea has an arched passage; on the right side of the passage, the door is decorated of a Gothic low-relief of the 15th century representing the Virgin with the Child-Jesus; left side, holy Tryphon holding a model of the city and holy Bernard holding the “hostia”.

The Door of North was built starting from 1540, in Renaissance style, commemoration of the victory over the famous Turkish admiral Barberousse Hayreddin in 1539. An inscription above the door recalls that Barberousse besieged the city with 70 ships and 30,000 soldiers, without succeeding in taking it.

On the left of the door while leaving the city, one can see the Bembo bastion, going back to 1540; on the right, the Riva bastion, going back to 1516.

The door is defended by the bastion Gurdić (Italian Gordicchio) which was added to reinforce defenses of the door in 1470.

It is separated from the road by a drawbridge thrown above a ditch where the underground river of Gurdić emerges. The days of storm, the fresh water of the source emerges out of the cave and pushes back sea water far from the walls. The days of summer, the decreasing flow, the source disappears in the cave, and the sea water reaches the Gurdić door again.

The station Saint-François (Položaj Sveti Franjo) is just behind the Door and the Gurdić bastion; further, one meets the station Saint-Etienne (Položaj Sveti Stjepan).