Historical background
The medieval city of Kotor, bordered by fortress
walls was, through the centuries, the cultural and trade center of
Kotor bay. This bay is one of the most magnificent “fjords” on the
Mediterranean and is flanked by an exceptionally rich variety of
cultural monuments from all ages.
The bio-geographical conditions of the Kotor
region favoured the emergence and development of a succession of
civilizations and cultures. The earliest signs of civilization in
this region are Neolithic artifacts found in the Spila cave; there
are also cave paintings in the Lipici grotto. Burial mounds and the
ruins of the town of Teuta are all that remain of the Illyrian
civilization that flourished here in the 3rd century B.
C. Next sailors and traders of the Hellenic age established a
trading post. They were followed by the Romans who built a fort for
one of their military units. From this period there remains a
mosaic floor, of a 3rd century Roman villa, that depicts
Hypnos the Roman God of sleep.
Naturally protected by a steep cliff from inland
attack as well as by the sea, Kotor successfully survived the great
barbarian migrations of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
From the time of Justinian I, it became one of the Byzantine
strongholds on the Adriatic sea. The remains of an Episcopal
basilica to St. Mary of the River discovered near the city gates
illustrates the importance of Kotor in the 6th
century.
At the end of the 12th century Kotor,
as Serbia’s main port and economic and cultural centre, had a
powerful influence on the development of education, the arts and
crafts; a grammar school was established in the 13th
century and a school of fine arts in the 14th
century.
In this period between 12th and
14th centuries the Byzantine ramparts were reinforced
and a great number of houses, palaces of the aristocracy and
churches were constructed in the Romanesque and Romanesque-Gothic
styles. The great St. Tryphon cathedral was built in the style of
the Romanesque basilicas of southern Italy; it houses the town’s
patron saint St.Tryphon. The domed, single-nave basilica of St.Luke
was built and decorated with frescoes in 1195; the church of St.
Mary of the River, with a dome and roof of stone slabs, was built
in 1221; the little church of St. Anne’s dates from the same period
as St. Paul’s church built in 1263.
From the 15th to the 18th
century Kotor was ruled by Venice. With the rise of Turkish power
in the Balkans Kotor was forced to adapt its old fortifications for
defense against firearms.
Due to big earthquakes in the 16th and
17th centuries a great number of architecturally
significant buildings were damaged. The remains were later
incorporated into new Baroque style structures.
A strong earthquake in 1979 damaged many
buildings in Kotor; it also provided an opportunity to examine the
town’s architectural past and led to an investigation of its
origins. As a result of the earthquake Kotor was added to the List
of Endangered World Cultural Heritage Sites during a conference in
Cairo, held in October 1979. Its dossier number in Paris is
125/79.
Kotor town has, among other things problems with:
water supply; salt water intrusion; sewage; waste-water treatement
and disposal; marine pollution; flood control in the old part of
the town and solid waste treatement and disposal. These problems
need to be tackled with the preservation of Kotor’s unique cultural
heritage in mind.