Budva
Budva is a town in the Coastal region of Montenegro. It had 17,479 inhabitants as of 2023, and is the centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, known as the Budva Riviera, is the center of Montenegrin tourism, renowned for its well-preserved medieval walled city, sandy beaches, and diverse nightlife. Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.
Etymology
In Serbo-Croatian, the town is known as Будва or Budva; in Italian and Latin as Budua; and in Greek as Bouthoe and Butua.History
A legend recounts that Bouthoe was founded by Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, Greece. When exiled from Thebes, he found a shelter in this place for himself and his wife, the goddess Harmonia.The first record of Budva dates back to the 5th century BC. Originally, the site belonged to the state of Illyria. In the 6th century BC, during the Greek colonization of the Adriatic, a Greek emporium was established. In the 2nd century BC, the area of Budva became part of the Roman Republic and from 27 BC, of the Roman Empire. Upon the fall of the Empire and its division into east and west, the defensive barrier that separated the two powers happened to run across this area, subsequently making a lasting impact on the history and culture of this town.
In the 6th century, Budva was part of the Byzantine Empire, and in the following two centuries, Slavs and, to a lesser extent, Avars began to arrive in the area, mixing with the native Roman population. Budva bay was reportedly known as Avarorum sinus during the Avar incursions. In 841, Budva was sacked by Muslim Saracens, who devastated the area.
In the early Middle Ages, Budva was ruled by a succession of Doclean kings, as well as Serbian and Zetan aristocrats.
, it became the see of a Roman Catholic Diocese of Budua, which lasted until 1828 and was nominally revived as a Latin titular bishopric.
It was controlled by the Balšić family for some decades and was shortly controlled by the Albanian Zaharia family in the 14th century. The Venetians ruled the town for nearly 400 years, from 1420 to 1797. Budva, called Budua in those centuries, was part of the Albania Veneta and was fortified by powerful Venetian walls against Ottoman conquests. According to the historian Luigi Paulucci in his book "Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810", most of the population spoke the Venetian language until the beginning of the 19th century. One of the most renowned theater librettists and composers, Cristoforo Ivanovich, was born in Venetian Budua. Nevertheless, Budva was briefly under Ottoman rule between 1572 and 1573 due to the conquest by Occhiali. It was returned to the Venetians under the conditions of the Treaty of Constantinople. In 1675, a French Archaeologist, Jacob Spon, visited Budva and stated that Budva is like a border between Albanians and Venetians.
With the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797, Budva came under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy. During the Napoleonic Wars, Montenegrin forces allied with Russia took control over the city in 1806, only to relinquish the city to France in 1807. French rule lasted until 1813, when Budva was ceded to the Austrian Empire, which remained in control of the city for the next 100 years.
A union of Boka Kotorska with Montenegro took place for a brief period, but from 1814 until the end of World War I in 1918, Budva remained under Austria-Hungary. The southernmost fortress in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Fort Kosmač, was constructed nearby to guard the road from Budva to Cetinje. After the war, the Serbian army entered Budva after it was abandoned by Austrian forces, and it came under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1941, with the beginning of World War II, Budva was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy. Budva was finally liberated from Axis rule on 22 November 1944 and incorporated into the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.
A catastrophic earthquake struck Budva on 15 April 1979. Much of the old town was devastated, but today there is little evidence of the catastrophe – almost all the buildings were restored to their original form.
Montenegro became an independent country in 2006, with Budva as its primary tourist destination.
In 2022, the city became the center of Ukrainian, Russian, and Turkish immigrants in Montenegro after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting in a sharp population increase.
City Assembly (2024–2028)
Mayor
The Mayor of Budva is the head of the town and Municipality of Budva. He acts on behalf of the Town, and performs an executive function in the Municipality of Budva. The current mayor is Nikola Jovanović.List of Mayors since Montenegrin independence :
- Rajko Kuljača
- Lazar Rađenović
- Srđa Popović
- Dragan Krapović
- Marko Carević
- Nikola Divanović
- Marko Carević
- Milo Božović
- Nikola Jovanović
Demographics
Ethnicity
Source: Statistical Office of Montenegro - MONSTAT, Census 2011| Ethnicity | Number | Percentage |
| Montenegrins | 6,847 | 51.33% |
| Serbs | 4,779 | 35.82% |
| Russians | 132 | 0.98% |
| Croats | 130 | 0.97% |
| Bosniaks | 95 | 0.71% |
| ethnic Muslims | 72 | 0.53% |
| Albanians | 65 | 0.48% |
| Macedonians | 54 | 0.4% |
| Romani | 7 | 0.05% |
| Other | 126 | 0.94% |
| not declared | 765 | 5.73% |
| Total | 13,338 | 100% |
Source: Statistical Office of Montenegro - MONSTAT, Census 2011
| Religion | Number |
| Eastern Orthodoxy | 11,865 |
| Islam | 340 |
| Catholicism | 304 |
| Christians | 54 |
| Protestants | 7 |
| Buddhist | 6 |
| Adventist | 26 |
| Agnosticism | 15 |
| Atheism | 236 |
| Undeclared | 403 |
| Other | 82 |
Cityscape
Old Town
The Old Town of Budva is situated on a rocky peninsula, on the southern end of Budva field. Archaeological evidence suggests that an Illyrian settlement was established on the site of the Old Town before Greek colonization of the Adriatic. While the site was permanently settled since the Roman era, most of the remaining city walls and buildings were erected during the Venetian rule.The entire town is encircled with defensive stone walls. The fortifications of Budva are typical of the Medieval walled cities of the Adriatic, complete with towers, embrasures, fortified city gates, and a citadel.
Originally, there were gates on all of the four sides of the walled city. However, sea-facing gates were closed up over the years. The main city gate is Porta di Terra Ferma, the grand entry to the city from the west. It is also the beginning of the city's main thoroughfare, Njegoševa Street. There are also four more gates on the north wall, facing Budva marina, and one small gate facing the southwestern beach of Ričardova glava.
The layout of the town is roughly orthogonal, although many streets deviate from the grid, resulting in somewhat irregular pattern, with many piazzas connected with narrow streets. Today, the entire city within the walls is pedestrian-only.
The town citadel is situated on the southern tip of the city. Originally known as the Castle of St Mary, the fortification was continually rebuilt and expanded through the Middle Ages, reaching its final form during the Austro-Hungarian rule. The sea-facing 160m long ramparts of the citadel, complete with eastern and western towers, are intricately connected to the rest of the city walls. Austrian stone barracks form the most prominent structure within the castle, separating the citadel from the rest of the walled city. Ruins of the Santa Maria de Castello church, after which the entire complex was originally named, are located within the citadel.
A large public square is located to the north of the citadel, containing all of the churches of the old town - St. Ivan Church, Santa Maria in Punta Church, St Sava Orthodox Church, and The Holy Trinity Orthodox church.
The Old Town suffered extensive damage in 1979 earthquake; repair and reconstruction took eight years, but traces of the damage are now hardly noticeable. Today, it is a prime visitor attraction of Budva, packed with tourists during the summer months. Its narrow cobbled streets are lined with restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops.
Outside the Old Town
Although confined to the walls of the Old Town for most of its history, Budva started significant expansion into the adjacent Budva field in the 20th century, with the development of the tourism industry. Hotels started springing up near the Old Town and to the west of it, along the 1600m long Slovenska beach, including the landmark Avala hotel, the Mogren hotel, and the Slovenska plaža hotel complex. Development near the Old Town and along the longest city beach was done in a planned and sustainable manner, with parts of Budva built in the SFRY having all the characteristics of a well-organized resort town. Most of the hotels and facilities built during this period are situated to the south of the town's main traffic artery, a portion of Adriatic Highway that crosses the city parallel to the Slovenska plaža beach.However, the rest of the Budva field, to the north of the Adriatic Highway, developed in a less uniform manner. The western part of Budva field, containing a civic center, Rozino, Dubovica, and Golubovina neighbourhoods, was developed relatively in accordance with principles of urban planning.
In contrast, the eastern part of the Budva field and the slopes of the hills surrounding it saw the emergence of the chaotic urban sprawl. Spontaneous growth began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as a combination of high demand and inability of the state to enforce urban planning, as the Breakup of Yugoslavia took place. This trend continued into the 2000s, with prices of real estate skyrocketing following Montenegrin independence. Overwhelming demand, fueled by the influx of foreign capital, meant that all the undeveloped lots in the Budva field and surrounding hills were quickly being turned into construction sites. Local and state authorities have failed to keep up with the developers, resulting in the unfortunate lack of urban planning in much of the area. Thus, large parts of Budva are connected with an irregular grid of narrow streets, and have overall inadequate infrastructure. This trend continues even today, with limited land forcing developers to turn to building towering high rises in place of small detached residences that made up for majority of Budva field in the early 1990s.
The pressures of the real estate market and neglect of urban planning have resulted in a chronic and severe lack of parking spaces and frequent traffic jams during the summer. Even the water and electricity supply have failed to keep up with the explosive growth in the 2000s, but those issues have since been addressed.
A testament to the urban sprawl, the city bypass is a bypass only in name, as it is now a busy urban street, swallowed by the city's expanding urban area.
The term Budvanizacija has been used regionally to denote a form of chaotic and massive urban growth, tailored to the needs of individual land owners and developers, without regard for sustainability or environment.