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'Budva' (Serbian Cyrillic: Будва; Italian: Budua) is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 10,000 inhabitants, and is a centre of Budva municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called Budvanska rivijera, is the centre of Montenegro's tourism, and is well known for its sandy beaches, diverse nightlife, and beautiful examples of Mediterranean architecture.
Budva is 2,500 years old, that makes it one of the oldest settlements on the coast of the Adriatic sea.

Contents

History

Population

Old Town

Tourism

Transport

Climate

Trivia

Sister cities

External links

History

There is vast archeological evidence that places Budva among the oldest urban settlements of the Adriatic coast, while numerous written testimonies provide historical facts dating back to the 5th century BC A legend tells that Budva was founded by Cadmus the Phoenician, a hero exiled out of Thebes, Greece, finding a shelter in this place for himself and his wife Harmonia.
Two other civilizations also left innumerable traces: the Greek and the Roman. Upon the fall of the Roman empire and its division into east and west, the defensive barrier which 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 Middle Ages, Budva was reigned by a succession of Doclean kings, Serbian and Zetan aristocrats.
The Venetians ruled this town 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 the ottoman conquests. Most of the population spoke the venetian language until the beginning of the nineteenth century, according to the historian Luigi Paulucci in his book "Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810" (The Bay of Kotor in 1810).
In the very turbulent years to come, Budva saw a change of several of its supreme rulers – Austria, France and Russia. A union of Boka Kotorska (and Budva) with Montenegro took place for a brief period (1813 – 1814), but from 1814 until 1918 Budva remained under Austrian Empire. After WWI, in 1918 Budva came under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and was later annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1941.
World War II claimed many lives from the people of this area in the fight against fascist conquerors. Budva was finally liberated from Nazi rule on November 22 1944 and after belonging again to Yugoslavia, now is part of the newly independent Montenegro.
A catastrophic earthquake struck Budva on April 15 1979. Much of old town was devastated, but today there is little evidence of the catastrophe – almost all the buildings were restored to their original form.

Population

Budva is the administrative centre of Budva municipality, which includes the neighbouring towns of Bečići and Petrovac, and has a population of 15,909 (2003. census). Budva itself has 10,918.

Population of Budva:

★ March 03, 1981 - 4,684

★ March 03, 1991 - 7,178

★ November 1, 2003 - 10,918
Ethnic groups (1991 census):

★ Montenegrins (62.52%)

★ Serbs (22.47%)

★ Muslims by nationality (1.49%)

★ Croats (1.21%)
Ethnic groups (2003 census):

★ Montenegrins (45.33%)

★ Serbs (40.87%)

★ Muslims by nationality (1.28%)

★ Croats (1.12%)

Old Town

The Old Town in Budva has many different tales and stories of its origin. Scholars and Historians believe it to be originally an island, which later joined the shore to form a sand isthmus. The Old Town, along with the city of Budva was said to have been discovered by a Greek sailor by the name of Boutoua. Eventually the Roman Empire took over the whole Montenegrin coast influencing it greatly.
Much of the architecture in the Old Town is of Venetian origin. Doors, hinges, windows, balconies and many other small but noticeable things seem to hold the Roman style of the Republic of Venice. There are also three main churches in the old town. The first is St. Ivan's which was built in the 7th century AD, second St. Mary's of Punta dating from 840 and the third, The Holy Trinity, which was built in 1804. The venetian walls of the Old town are a famous tourist attraction.

The Old Town is also famous for the earthquakes it suffered in 1979, where the whole town had to be rebuilt; it took 8 years (until 1987) for it to be completely finished.

Tourism

Budva is a capital of Montenegrin tourism. With over 250,000 guests in 2005 summer season, which made over 1,600,000 overnight stays, it is by far most popular tourist destination in Montenegro.
Either because of 11,310 m of sandy beaches in and around Budva, or for its vast cultural heritage and beautiful architecture, Budva is attracting more and more foreign tourists every year. Coupled with vibrant nightlife, it makes Budva the most attractive tourist destination in Montenegro.
Budva is popular among youth for its nightlife. Most visited places are open air clubs lined along the main pedestrian promenade, and few closed clubs that are opened after 01.00 AM (open air clubs are not allowed to play music after that time, because of the sound pollution regulations.)
Budva's most famous beach is Mogren. Nestled in-between several large cliffs it is accessed by a 500m pathway from Budva's Old town. Other beaches within official city limits include Ričardova glava (Richard's Head), Pizana, Slovenska (Slav Beach), Guvance. Many other beaches are located just outside of Budva in smaller adjacent towns and villages such as Bečići, Jaz, Trsteno, Maestral, Miločer, Sveti Stefan, Pržno and Kamenovo.
Many would say that Budva is "colourful" because of the majority of buildings that have a distinct variety of colours. Since Budva is a city that is more focused toward new age architecture, much like Miami, the city outside its old town, does not hold many historical sights.
In the near vicinity of the town of Budva there are exclusive resorts such as town-hotel Sveti Stefan and Miločer, places frequented by various celebrities as well as local businessmen and politicians.
However, there are a few drawbacks in development of tourism in Budva. The biggest is inadequate infrastructure of the town. The most quoted problem in Budva, as in all of Montenegrin coast, is shortage of tap water. Scarse watersheds around Budva became completely inadequate for growing town in the early 2000s, so taps in Budva become dry during daytime for most of the summer months. Recently, as number of tourists at peak times reach 100,000 in Budva, electricity shortages also became a commonplace.
The other significant problem is traffic and parking in and around Budva. As most of the beaches are located around Budva, tourists returning from beaches in the afternoon usually jam the roads along the coast, so the trip from Sveti Stefan to Budva, some 10km, takes around an hour.
Car parking is also a major problem. Increasing number of tourists are coming to Budva with their own car, so there is overwhelming demand for parking space around the town center. Sometimes one has to wait in line to get a space on a parking lot up to an hour.
Hotels are usually spared from these problems, as they have privileges when it comes to water and electricity supply .

Transport

Budva is connected to inland Montenegro by two-laned motorways. There are two ways to reach Budva from Podgorica - either through Cetinje, or through newly built Sozina tunnel. Either way, Podgorica is around 60 km away, and is main road junction in Montenegro.
Budva is connected to the rest of coastal towns of Montenegro by Adriatic Motorway, which extends from Ulcinj on the far south to the Herceg-Novi, and on to the Croatia.
Tivat Airport is 20 km away. There are regular flights to Belgrade and Zurich, and dozens of charter planes land daily on Tivat airport during the summer season.
Podgorica Airport is 65 km away, and it has regular flights to major European destinations throughout the year.

Climate

Budva has a typical Mediterranean climate, with warm summers and mild winters, and 97 sunny days in a year. Budva comes among the warmest Mediterranean towns with an average temperature of 8°C in January and 23,9°C in July. The average summertime temperature is 23,1°C and 9,3°C in the winter. The temperature of the sea reaches up to 24,7°C in the summer months, while it keeps between 18°C and 19°C in the autumn.

Trivia

★ Budva is called ''Montenegrin Kuwait'', because of the immense number of millionaires, compared to its small population. Following a real estate boom in 2000s, many of the native families sold their properties in and around Budva to foreign buyers, mostly Russians, Irish, and Britons. Once barren and undeveloped fields of steep hillsides are being sold for as much as 1000 euros per square meter. This resulted in once poor fisherman's village to became town with most millionaires per capita in Europe [1]. Many of the newly rich re-invested their money in real-estate, buying flats in central Podgorica and Belgrade, which further raised the prices of living space in Podgorica.

★ Budva is the smallest town to host a concert of The Rolling Stones. They held a concert on July 9th, 2007, at Jaz beach, as a part of their . The show saw an attendance of some 35,000 spectators, three times the population of Budva town itself.

Sister cities

★ Novi Sad, Serbia

★ Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

★ Ohrid, Macedonia

External links

★ Budva official page

★ Budva Online

★ Budva Tourist Guide

★ Budva Tourism Organization

★ Destination-Montenegro.com

★ Visit-Montenegro.com

★ Photo-Montenegro.com

★ National Tourism Organization of Montenegro

★ Foundation for Culture and Tradition of Boka Kotorska "Project Rastko-Boka"

★ Foundation Rastko-Boka News

★ fotokate.pl