THURSDAY, MAY 23
LEARNING KOTOR’S HISTORY
Marko, our guide in Kotor, began our morning free tour (though it really cost 20 euros in tip) at the Old Town’s Sea Gate entrance, then moved inside to the Palace Square. Tall and fair, with blond hair, he had distractingly thick and downturned eyelashes.
KOTOR VS. MONTENEGRIN HISTORY
As part of the Venetian/Roman empire, Kotor’s was a close ally of Italy. The people still have many traces of the Italian influence from the architecture to the language and food. The first records of the city of Kotor date back to the 800s, and the Old Town has examples of architecture from as early as the 1100s. Aside for one small Orthodox Church, the buildings are a cobbled construct of one century on top of another. Kotor has been shaken by over 100 earthquakes, the last time in 1979. The people rebuilt over what still stands time and again. Reconstruction is as familiar as the walls that surround the Old Town.
Kotor, like Dubrovnik, is a city/republic that was a separate state. It is now part of Montenegro but this didn’t happen until after WWII, when Montenegrins destroyed many of the Old Town’s churches, in an attempt to wipe out the “Italian” identity and make the city part of the rest of the country. Above the Sea Gate is the Soviet star, and an inscription, written in 1944, that says something to the effect of, our country belongs to us.
After the Italians came domination by Napoleon then the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1918, Montenegro became part of Yugoslavia. During WWII, it joined the Axis forces under Italy’s directorate of Dalmatia.
The country changed markedly after 1963 when Tito became dictator of Yugoslavia, a conglomeration of many countries, peoples and languages. Marko greatly admired Tito, and praised his free medical system, the way he instituted rewards for worker’s committed long term to one company, and free education. He lauded Tito’s ability to both hold the many different countries together, and also withstand influences and pressures of the Soviets and the US superpowers. “Houston, We Have a Problem,” a documentary about Tito’s relationship with the US, was one of Marko’s favorites because it demonstrated Tito’s imperviousness. Tito died in 1980, and without him, Yugoslavia began unravelling. Slovenia was the first country to officially secede in 1991.
CUSTOMS AND PALACES
Our next stop was a former palace where Marko and his family live with thirteen other families. As he spoke, he leaned against the stone railing, neighbors passed him on the stairs. He said hello to a couple of older women, and patted a young boy on the head, as he explained, and showed us, how family and social connections are strong and important in this small community.
It used to be that when a person cheated, lied or was caught doing anything disruptive to the social order, that person had to stand in front of the “stone of shame” in Palace Square. The stone is still there. Visitors stand in front of it now for photographs. But this public shaming was effective and powerful when used. A person’s entire family would be effected, losing status within the community. No where to hide in Kotor!
The Italian-ness is an exclusively Kotor characteristic as the rest of Montenegro was not under Venice’s influence. The people of Kotor say ciao, allora, bravo. Their food specialties are prosciutto, pasta and seafood. They aren’t exactly like the Italians…a little bit less worldly, but also very kind.
Kotor has only been open to outsiders for the last ten years, isolated as they were under the Soviets. But now during the summer months, cruise ships arrive daily, dropping off up to 10,000 people.
KOTOR AND TOURISTS
The Montenegrins are learning to cope with this onslaught, but it seems to have come like a tsunami. Kotor’s entire population is 20,000, with only 300 Montenegrins living inside Kotor’s Old Town. In it’s entire history, the largest population in Old Town was 3,000 occupants.
Today there are over 100 gift shops selling souvenirs. Restaurants are busy and overpriced. Waiters and shopkeepers vie for the tourists euros. Outside the city gates, fancy apartment buildings are spreading on the mountainside. Many people who aren’t working directly in the tourist industry have turned their homes into airbnbs.
Outside the city walls though, the people are sweet and genuinely kind. Fewer people speak English, most communicate in their language, Montenegrin, a local Serbo-Croatian.
TOURISM AND CUSTOM
“Best not to ask questions of the locals regarding the recent history, politics or religion. They are taboo,” warned Marko. People continue to hold varying allegiances, with the Russians or with the West, with Orthodox Christianity, Catholic Christianity or Islam. And with their tribes or families, of which there are 43.
The only time tensions take a back seat is during Slavic, which each family has on their saint’s day celebration. Like the number of families, there are 43 saints in Montenegro. On a family’s saint’s day, they throw a hell of a bash. Family members and all extended family are invited, and each person can bring one guest. The thing is once someone has been invited to the Saint’s day party, they are welcome forever, each year, and so the size of the gatherings grow exponentially. It isn’t uncommon for 300 people to come to Slavic. Parties carry on for three days with music, food, and drinking, a show of generosity for which families often go in debt.
Croatians, Serbs, Catholics, Orthodox, people from different tribes all come together for those three days but once the three days end, fighting starts again.
TIME INSIDE THE CITY WALLS
The tour ended and we were on our own again. Many people, including locals, spend hours at tables in squares or in the narrow streets drinking a coffee or glass of wine. For all the tourists, there is an easy pace, a calm in the town, if you find the right spot.
We had lunch at Scala Santa restaurant recommended by Marko. It turned out to be a good suggestion. I had a seabass with a potato/chard. A small bowl of garlic and herbs in oil as the condiment. Chloe had a satisfying pasta with tomato sauce loaded with garlic.
KOTOR’S ST. JOHN’S FORTRESS
The Maritime Museum, the Cathedral of St. Typhron (the largest and most photographed Orthodox church in Kotor), and the old city wall are among the main attractions in Kotor but nothing compares to St. John’s Fortress, reached by 1,300 stairs and built between the 9th and 19th centuries. It only takes about an hour to wander through the town, but several hours to climb to the fortress remains.
THE CLIMB TO THE FORTRESS
Locals know that you can climb to the fortress without paying, it’s an easier way to get up the steep mountain than taking the stairs and you can come down via the stairs. That’s what we did, winding up the side on a pebbled and dirt trail, passing donkeys grazing on the mountain cliffs; a man who lives high up on the path in a small one-room home with a single, metal-framed cot, and sells cold drinks; a small abandoned church with a donkey inside!; and a few other intrepid travelers.
We crawled through an old fortress window and connected with the 1,300 stairs near the top, joining visitors who had climbed via the old stone stairs. Near the climb’s finale, a small metal bridge crossed a deep natural crevice. The bridge was missing screws, bounced slightly and was clearly unstable. Then there was an ancient, stone enclosure to pass through. I could see the cracks in the ceiling and wondered if anyone else was thinking of earthquakes. I was totally freaked. The fortress was impressively high. At the top (and all the way down on the stairs), the cliff face dropped precipitously. I suffered my height-induced vertigo.
The 1,300 wobbling, often broken, slippery-from-wear, stone stairs are wide. We could cover most of them in one step but people with shorter legs had to take two steps. Red-faced, out of breath people lined the winding stairway. Heart attacks must occur every now and then, particularly in heat of the summer when it reaches 40 degrees.
Whoever says that this is an easy climb is crazy. And it will take longer than 1.5 hours as the Montenegrins tell you. It took us over two hours and we moved quickly compared to many others. But every step, wobbly or vertiginous, is worth it.
