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Old Town[edit]
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Churches in Old Town
Old Town by night
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 (Porta Pizana, Porta Pizana 1 and 2, and Porta Pizanella), 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 (17th century), Santa Maria in Punta Church (840 AD), St Sava Orthodox Church (12th century), and The Holy Trinity Orthodox church (1804).
The Old Town suffered extensive damage in 1979 earthquake; repair and reconstruction took eight years (until 1987), 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[edit]
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Budva mountain view
Miločer
Petrovac
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 (built in 1939), the Mogren hotel, and the Slovenska plaža hotel complex (built in 1984). 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 (E65/E80) 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 (an area featuring local government offices, schools, sports center, police and fire station, health center and bus station), 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 (in large part from Russia), 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.
Left: Praskvica Monastery, Centre: Reževići Monastery, Right: Podmaine Monastery
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 (Obilaznica, a crescent road that circles the northern ends of Budva field, with ends connecting to the Adriatic Highway) 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 ("Budvanization") 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.
