Day Trip to Budva ,

Day tour with the clients from lux hotel in Podgorica in lux car Skoda Superb by Ilan as a shuffler we did an amzing day trip to Budva .

Budva is a coastal city on the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro. The city has about 18,000 inhabitants and is the seat of the municipality of Budva. The area around the city, along the coast, is also known as the Budva Riviera. The Riviera is the center of Montenegrin tourism, known for its sandy beaches and nightlife. Important tourist facilities are located within the Venetian walls from the 15th century, which surround Budva’s Old Town. The old town was heavily damaged in the devastating earthquake of 1979, but was completely rebuilt. Bečići tourist center is located near Budva.

Budva was changed by many conquerors, and the Venetians and Austrians, who left the city in 1918, stayed the longest in the city area.

Budva is about 3,450 years old and is one of the oldest cities on the Adriatic Sea

A fortified city existed in this area since ancient times. Historians believe that it was originally an island, which later merged with the coast and created a landmass.

Although the Greeks founded many colonies in the Mediterranean, apparently in the part of the coast of the Adriatic Sea, in the area of ​​present-day Montenegro, they did not succeed in settling colonists, because the native Illyrian population did not allow them to do so. Instead, there were only individual Greek market centers – emporia. One of them, during the VI. – 5th century BC, was in Budva (Butua). We find the first mention of this Illyrian city in the 5th century BC, by Sophocles, and Pseudo-Xylax states that the journey from it to Durres is by sea day and night, and by land for three days. The land of the Illyrian tribe Enchileja, on which the city of Budva was founded, is mentioned in the myths related to Kadmos and Harmonia, immigrants from Greek Thebes.

Kadmos’ son, according to myth, was named Illyrios: the eponym of the ancient Illyrians. According to a fragment of Philo, cited by Stephen the Byzantine, Kadmos came among the Enchileians to the city of Budva, on an ox cart, in order (according to Apollodorus) to help them in the war against other Illyrian tribes (“Illyri proprie dicti”). After the Illyrian-Roman wars, Budva fell under the rule of Rome. Convents or opida (oppida civium Romananorum) were settlements of colonized Roman citizens, who moved to Illyricum, that is, the later province of Dalmatia. Among such settlements, Butua-Butuanum (Budva) is also mentioned. Apart from Italiko, there are also a large number of merchants, Greeks and Orientals in these cities, and the developed craftsmanship influences the formation of craft colleges.

With the destruction of ancient Duklja by the Avars and the arrival of the Slavs, a large number of Romanized natives retreated to fortified coastal cities. In the early Middle Ages, Budva was a Byzantine city, with a Greek military crew (garrison) and an Illyrian-Romanian population, and it was also inhabited by Greek and Italian merchants. Slavs live in parishes and were subjects of the Byzantine emperor for several centuries. After the independence of the Principality of Duklja, Budva became part of it, and later also part of the Kingdom of Duklja. After 1181, it was in the state of Stefan Nemanja, the Kingdom of Serbia and the Empire. Modeled after Dušan’s code, it was created during the reign of Emperor Stefan Uroš IV. Nemanjića – Statute of the city of Budva.

In the later period, this city was under the rule of Balšić, Crnojević and Serbian Despotism. Taking advantage of the Turks’ incursions into the Balkan Peninsula, the Venetians did not occupy large estates at once. With long and patient work in the field, they won over “house by house” with promises.

By 1435, they had taken everything from the Serbian despotism, on the coast of Zeta, except Bar and Budva. However, after the first fall of the Serbian despotism under Turkish rule in 1439, the Venetians took advantage of this situation: having overtaken the Turks, by 1443 they occupied the entire coastal strip of Donja Zeta, from Bojana to Kotor. Thus, the cities of Ulcinj, Bar and Budva also fell under their rule. In the places handed over to them, the Venetians appointed their own nobility as rectors (chiefs), in the period from 1441 to 1797. The names of these rectors are preserved in the Venetian archives. After the fall of the Republic of Venice, Budva became part of Austria-Hungary.

Budva bore the name Stari Grad in the Middle Ages. Most of the architecture of the Old Town is of Venetian origin. Doors, windows, balconies and many other things are in the Roman style of the Venetian Republic. There are four basic churches in the Old Town. The first is St. John’s, which was built in the 7th century and was a cathedral until the abolition of the Budva diocese, the second is the Church of the Virgin Mary (Santa Maria in Punta) which dates from 840, the third, the Holy Trinity, which was built in 1804 and the fourth Saint Sava the Sanctified. The Venetian walls of the Old Town are an interesting tourist attraction.

The Old Town is also known for the earthquakes that damaged it quite a bit in 1979. Some houses were completely demolished, and part of the walls were cracked. It took 8 years (until 1987) to completely rehabilitate the houses, streets and ramparts.