Herceg Novi: the back story

About Herceg Novi: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Podgorica Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Herceg Novi climbs from the sea at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor, about two and a half hours by road from Podgorica. It is a town of steps, flowers and sunshine, with an old town between two fortresses and a long seafront that runs on to Igalo.

A town of steps

The old town of Herceg Novi is built up a steep hillside, and the national tourist board jokes that its countless steps make it a city of athletes. The scent of Mediterranean flowers drifts through its lanes, and the gardens of Novi are celebrated each year.

Fortresses

Kanli kula, the “bloody tower”, a monumental Ottoman fortress of 1539, stands at the top of the old town; Forte Mare guards the entrance from the sea. Between them, the Clock Tower, built in 1667 and 16 metres high, is the gateway to the old town and its best-known landmark.

Herceg Novi is a town of steps: the national tourist board calls it a city of athletes, and its gardens are the reward for every climb.

Writers and artists

Herceg Novi has long drawn creative people. The Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić had a house here, near the regional museum and the church of the Holy Saviour at Topla, where Njegoš once went to school, and a museum is dedicated to Mikhail Bulgakov.

Savina and Orjen

East of the centre, Savina Monastery and the vineyards of the Savina winery, whose story the family traces through a Venetian land register of 1753, sit among cypresses above the sea. Behind the town rises Mount Orjen, now a nature park on the borders with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Our advice: start at the Clock Tower, climb to Kanli kula for the view, then walk down to Forte Mare and the seafront for lunch. Spring and September are ideal; Herceg Novi is also the gateway to Mamula Island and the Luštica peninsula.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Herceg Novi: the back story before you go.