Ulcinj, one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic Coast, is a mixture of East and West. For the first time visitor, the sights of Ulcinj’s three thousand year history are dramatic. The Old Town and its’ ramparts and towers, the ruins of the ancient Svac, the Episcopal town of Zeta from the Middle Ages, which, it is said, had as many churches as days in the year, and the numerous coves and hidden bays with sandy beaches, are all the settings for many a legend about pirates and adventures who found refuge there.
Old Town
After entering the Old Town, one finds a treasury of cultures surrounded by thick medieval walls. Entry through either one of the town gates from the sea or land, in the stones of the narrow streets of the ancient town one can read traces of the various dominations as well as one of the most beautiful stone buildings such as the Balsic palace or the Renaissance church – mosque in which the town museum is now located. You can also see ornaments which shall take you back to the time when Ulcinj was ruled by Ancient Greeks, Romans, Illyrians, Byzantiums, Turks and Venetians.
Beaches
More than half of the beaches of the Ulcinjska Riviera are sandy beaches, among which the longest spans an amazing thirteen kilometers!
On the delta of the Bojana River, swimmers can enjoy both a great afternoon in either the fresh waters of River Bojana and salt water of the Adriatic at the mouth of the river. For those a little more adventurous, the nudist tourism settlement “Ada Bojana” is located on an isolated stretch of sandy beach. This is the place where your body will, on finest sand, have undisturbed contact with Mother Nature.
History
Ulcinj is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast. It is believed that ancient Ulcinj was founded in the 5th century BC by Greeks from Colchis, during the colonization of this region. Illyrians lived in that region at the time, and under Greek influence they built immense Cyclopean walls. These walls are the remains of the oldest habitation in today’s Old Town (Stari Grad) and Ulcinj’s Cyclopean Walls.
Ancient Colchinium became Olcinium in the 2nd century BC, when the Romans took it over from the Illirian tribe of Olcinates (163BC).
Seafaring in Ulcinj
Ulcinj is a town with a long and rich maritime and merchant tradition. The peak of seafaring was in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Ulcinj’s own merchant marine traded between the larger ports and trading centers of the Adriatic, Levant and Mediterranean. They shipped wheat to Venice, Istria and Trieste, wool to Genoa, tobacco into several Adriatic ports. A bustling port, Ulcinj was among the largest in the Adriatic.
Ulcinj’s pirates
Ulcinj’s pirates were already mentioned in the 14th century, but after the Candian War (1669), the town was settled by 400 Arabian Corsairs and in the 17th and 18th centuries it became a dangerous centre of piracy. At the beginning with small galleys and tartans, later using larger ships and galleons which they built in the shipyard under the Old Town, they attacked traders sailing under various flags, robbed them and quickly sailed back into shelter. The Venetian fleets suffered the greatest damage from the dangerous attacks of pirates commanded by the Karamindzoja Brothers, Lika Ceni, Ali Hodza, Uluc Alija and others. To appease its rivals Austria-Hungary and Venice after the Morean War (1714-1718), the Porte decided to destroy piracy in Ulcinj.
Interesting to note, during the days of the Ulcinj pirates a flourishing black-slave trade was also part of the everyday commerce of the Pirates. Tripli was the main port of export in which slaves from various parts of Nothern Africa were purchased, including quite a lot of children between 2 and 3 years old. The pirates sold the slaves or put them to work on their own land or ships. By 1878 there were 100 Negro houses in Ulcinj, and the square in the Old Town, on which, according to tradition, the famous writer Cervantes was held as prisoner, became the Slave Market.
Today Ulcinj is the only town on the Adriatic that has a Negro population of several generations old.
Svac
This ruined medieval fortified city of the old state of Zeta, near Ulcinj, on the raised ground above the Sasko Lake, is one of the most interesting dead cities of the Adriatic coast.
Svac (Shas) was mentioned for the first time in the 11th century as a bishop’s city. In about 1183 it was taken by Stevan Nemanja and joined to Raska, together with the other towns of ancient Zeta. It was destroyed by the Mongolians in 1242 and renewed by Queen Jelena. It was completely deserted after it was taken by the Turks in 1571.
Old Ulcinj
On a small island or rock to the northwest of Ulcinj, in Kruce Bay, there is a ruin that was thought to be the remains of Old Ulcinj – Dolcino Vecchio. Venetian historic documents indicated that classical Olcinium had been located between this rock and the mainland, and that it had sunk. However, later archeological research established that there had been a small signaling station (specula) on this islet in the classical times, and in the Middle Ages a fortress that served as a vantage point. When the foundations for a house were recently dug up in Kruce Bay, the remains of a large Roman villa were discovered. This large villa was most likely that of a large plantation owner that probably spread over the whole area of the bay. The mosaics, ceramics and coins found on the location date the villa to the 4th century AD and show it to be, after the Illiryan Wall was erected in the Old Town. This was the most important excavated complex in the Ulcinj region.
