Palaces of Kotor & Perast

Introduction

There are many palaces in the settlements around the Bay of Kotor (Бока Которска, Boka Kotorska) in Montenegro. Most of these are, in their current form, from the time when these settlements were ruled by the Republic of Venice. The city or Kotor (Cattaro in Italian), which acted as the capital of the region, had accepted the suzerainty of the Venetian Republic in 1420, to find protection against the rising threat of the Ottoman Empire. The case was the same for the other towns in the southern and eastern parts of the bay, such as Dobrota, Prčanj and Perast. The northern parts of the bay, which included the city of Herceg Novi, belonged to the Ottomans for two centuries and were only captured by Venice in 1687.

These settlements, ruled as part of the province known as the Venetian Albania (Albania Veneta), were relatively prosperous, especially in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The great amount of the palaces built by the families of the local nobility, most of whom were of Slavic or Dalmatian origin, is evidence of this. In Kotor these palaces are almost all partial or total reconstructions of the older, often medieval structures that the great earthquake of 1667 had destroyed. In the other settlements of the Bay area, such as Perast, that older layer is much less visible, making them perhaps better suited to illustrate the specific type of a Baroque palace that was developed here at the time.

The palaces of the Bay of Kotor were designed by either professional architects or, more often, by their owners themselves. They found inspiration from the architecture of the local townhouses as well as from Italian (mostly Venetian) palaces. They used local materials, mostly limestone from the nearby quarries. Because that stone is not easily workable, all the elements that required finer modeling, like frames of portals and windows as well as balustrades of staircases, terraces and balconies, were made using stone from the Korčula Island in Croatia. Some palaces were entirely made of Korčula stone.

The palaces are generally symmetrical, with the emphasized vertical axis in the middle of the main façade, formed by the entrance portal, a balcony on an upper floor, and a narrow floor protruding from the roof in the form of a belvedere. The ground floor was generally used for commercial purposes, as a storage area or a granary. Guests were received and events were celebrated on the first floor, while the private rooms of the family members were usually on the second floor. The spaces on these floors were arranged following the Venetian model, with the central salon and four rooms on its sides. If the palace was built at the coast, the salon was always on the side facing it. The attic floor had a kitchen and utility rooms. There were more floors in larger palaces.

The palaces often had a paved courtyard on the back side, surrounded by storage spaces, enclosures for domestic animals, and a cistern. Sometimes the courtyards extended into gardens, which were often located on terraces and were enclosed by walls. The coastal palaces generally had their own quay known as a ponta, with stone seats and sometimes flowers and trees. Here were also enclosures for boats (mandrać) and a system to pull the boats on the land.

A lot of information about the palaces of Kotor and Perast can be found from the following publication: V. Gligorić, A. Kapetanović & T. Rajić, Palaces of Boka Kotorska, 2nd Edition, Kotor: EXPEDITIO Centre for Sustainable Spatial Development, 2019.

Sites

Below I will introduce ten major Venetian palaces in the Old City of Kotor as well as four beautiful palaces in Perast.

Proveditor’s Palace | Трг од Оружја, Kotor | after 1667
Bizanti Palace | between Трг од Оружја & Трг од Брашна, Kotor | 14th century; 1641; 1670s-1680s
Beskuća Palace | between Трг од Оружја & Трг од Брашна, Kotor | 15th century; 1776
Buća Palace | Трг од Брашна, Kotor | early 14th century; significantly modified after 1667; 19th century
Pima Palace | Трг од Брашна, Kotor | after 1667
Drago Palace | Трг светог Трипуна, Kotor | 14th-15th centuries; late 17th century
Vrachien (Vrakijen) Palace | Трг од Салате, Kotor | second half of 18th century
Grgurina Palace | Трг Бокeлjске Морнарице, Kotor | first decade of 18th century
Lombardić Palace | Трг светог Луке, Kotor | mid-18th century
Grubonja Palace | opposite the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, Kotor | late 16th century
Bujović Palace | northwestern part of the coastal road, Perast | Giovanni Battista Fontana, starting from 1694
Smecchia (Smekja) Palace | next to the Church of Saint Mark, Perast | 1764
Kolović Palace | southeastern part of the coastal road, Perast | first half of 18th century
Bronza Palace | southeastern part of the coastal road, Perast | mid-18th century

My portfolios are definitely not complete and they do not include the palaces in the other towns of the Bay of Kotor. The most notable omission is the town of Dobrota, located north of Kotor, and especially the Tripković Palace here, often said to be the most beautiful Baroque palace in the entire area. It was also one of the last Venetian palaces here, built during the final years of the maritime republic or even slightly after its fall in 1797.