Welcome back to Rosies guided tour of Kotor, Montenegro Square by Square. Today we are entering the town through the Main Gate and Rosie will show you around the Square of Arms, the Square of Flour and then tour the Town Ramparts with me.
From Rosies apartment balcony, she can tell first thing in the morning how busy the town is going to be that day by the amount of cruise ships that have sailed into the harbor by 0800.
One normally docks right on the quayside, in front of the city gates, the huge hull dwarfing the small town and its prow jutting out over the road.
Another normally anchors in the bay right outside Rosie’s window and small passenger boats go backwards and forwards all day ferrying passengers to and from town. At this time of the year the boats are here six days a week but will start to visit less frequently as winter draws in.
In 2017, 529 cruise ships of varying sizes visited Kotor, bringing with them over 600,000 tourists. As soon as the (sometimes) thousands on board are disgorged, the town gets swamped. Rosie does enjoy it when the town is full of people and I am not looking at taking any photos myself…it gives the place a real buzz and busy vibe. When there are no ships in town, there is a totally different feeling to the town, the streets are emptier and its like all of the locals have come out and are sitting around drinking coffee and wine. Rosie does not notice these people when the tourists are out…or maybe they are just absorbed in the crush.
It is a nice easy downhill walk from Rosies place along the main road which borders the harbor to the main gate of the town of Kotor.
This is the gate where, as a tourist you will enter the town for the first time either straight off your cruise ship or your tour bus which both pull up right outside. The gate in the wall is framed by large blocks and was built in 1555. The inscripted date above the gate reads the 21 November 1944 which is the date of the liberation of Kotor after WW2.
Once again before you even enter the town it is the walls and the towering hills behind that take your breath away. Palm trees and cannons flank the outside of the gate and the balconied building on top of the wall catches your eye due to its symmetrical 55 metre length along the whole frontage.. This was the old city barracks, and its most pretty side. The winged lion of the Venetian Republic is attached to the wall from its days of administering the city from the 14th -16th Century.
As you walk through the town gate you are standing in a vaulted passage way made of rough hewn beige bricks, on the right hand side is a Gothic relief from the 15th century! It is incredible being so close to an artwork that is so ancient and so well preserved from the elements in the relative safety of the passageway. The sculpted figures look almost naive and folk arty in the way they are carved. It is just beautiful.
The central figure is the Mother of God with Christ sitting on her throne. To the left is St Tryphon holding a model of the town. On the right is St Bernard holding the Eucharist. Rosie can only reach up to the ‘monkey faces’ in the relief and every time she walks through the gate she reaches up to touch it…for good luck and good coffee to come.
From the gates covered passageway, you get a glimpse of the square you are about to enter. Welcome to the Square of Arms!
This is the biggest and most spacious square in the town and right before you is the The Town Clock Tower. One of the symbols of the town of Kotor, it has the central site in the Square of Arms and is one of the first you see as you enter the Old Town.
It was built in 1602 and has never fallen during any of the major earthquakes….except it does lean a little to the west now after the most recent. And whats a medieval town without a pillory….that’s it, standing in front of the clock tower.
This area is lined with cafes and terraces that reach out into the square….Rosie can say there is an excellent cake cafe here, under the umbrellas below, that Rosie and The Operator have frequented for delicious repasts.
The Square of Arms also houses souvenir shops, banks, mobile phone stores where Rosie gets her data top ups from, the post office where she has posted quite a few cards from and other ordinary everyday stores that cater for the 6000 residents that still live within the city walls. This square has a lot of the boutique hotels in it and the cafes are an extension of them.
There are also a small concentration of Palaces that once housed the noble families of Kotor on this square. Rosie loves searching for their old Coats of Arms which are normally somewhere on the buildings. Often not where you would expect them to be….The Bizanti Family lived in this palace below and this was the family coat of arms….hidden around the back of the building, in a unexpected alley, its glory days long faded.
The Beskuka Family Palace has the most remarkable, biggest and most dramatic portal above its door…which is down a side alley off the square.
And, if you carry on down this narrow, main thoroughfare, you come to the Square of Flour. Yes, you are right, back in the day this is where the towns flour stores were kept.
The Pima Family Palace with its beautiful veranda dominates this square and is the original building built in 1667. The Pima family Coat of Arms sits above the door supported by two angels and is quite beautiful.
Across the square (the building to the left in the above picture) is the Buka Family Palace, a plain modest palace which was rebuilt after the 1667 earthquake. The buildings simplicity belies the status of the Buka family who were the most significant and influential nobles in Kotor.
The family being that of a High Official of the Serbian Court in Charge of Finances. Their simple Coat of Arms is also displayed of the palace walls.
This Square Rosie would say is used as more of a thorough fare to get to the other bigger squares. Those that pause to photograph the beautiful Pima Palace need to press their backs to the wall of the far building in order to get it all in the picture.
An outdoor terrace full of coffee and early morning beer drinkers takes up even more space and makes the square feel very small. Then a busload of 40 tourists enter….and its time to leave. Through this tunnel you can dodge back to the Square of Arms.
This too is a pretty impressive coat of arms and there is a fading and failing beautiful angel relief barely present anymore holding it. Rosie has found no history on this building at all.
In the picture below Rosie is standing in front of The Town Clock, walk right up the end of this square and duck up that thin alley. There is a set of stairs that take you up onto the ramparts of the town and gives you a glorious view over the harbor and the new town stretching up the hillside.
These are the walls Rosie is standing on as seen from the outside of the town…the Main Gate into town is to the right. The picture below that is taken from on top of the wall looking towards the Main Gate, you can see the colonnaded Army Barracks that sit on top of the wall.
The view over the harbor looking towards the horseshoe end of the bay. The new town stretches up the hill behind. 
From the other side of the wall you can see back over the river to where Rosie is staying over her side of town. Rosie would live about 100 meters behind the tallest building you can see in the picture.
Walking along the ramparts, following the dead straight wall along the River Skurda which flows below, Rosie is all on her own in the autumn sunshine. The light is weak and yellow and it shines through the leaves of the trees that grow on the wall. Yes, trees growing on the wall.
Along the top of these ramparts is a wide dirt roadway, potholed and filled with puddles and flanked by grass and rubbish. Unfortunately there is alot of rubbish up here…locals houses border the ramparts and they, or someone seems to be dumping their household waste into holes that have formed on the wall top. Walking along this dirt track in Kotor, lined with ancient buildings, church cupolas and autumnal trees swaying in the breeze, once again Rosie has a feeling of being transported back in time. Looking at the above picture..it looks like Rosie is in the middle of medieval nowhere.
This is a truly remarkable ‘remote’ olde worlde setting above the middle of a town. Then, just when you think it cant get any better…another kodak moment presents itself…the beautiful houses with the days washing freshly hung. Wow, that was a surreal, magic moment up there on the walls….and one where no tourists seem to go. The walk along the walls takes you to the back of the town and you descend the stairs into St Marys Square aka Catpiss Square – the acrid aroma, like a good dose of smelling salts quickly snaps Rosie out of the past and back into the real world.
Tomorrow we visit Rosies favorite square, The Square of Salad, take a stroll down Craftmens Street and visit the third and final gate to the town the Gurdic Gate. Stay tuned.
