Ulcinj

Olcinium: Illyrians, Romans and an ancient city

Ulcinj is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast, with more than two thousand years of history on its rocky headland overlooking the sea. The name comes from the Illyrian tribe of the Olciniates, who lived in this region and gave the place its name. Like the rest of the coast, the area belonged to the Illyrian world, with its reputation for sailors and pirates, before it fell to Rome. The Romans conquered the town and called it Olcinium. Under their rule it flourished as a municipium with trading privileges, first as part of the province of Dalmatia and later of Praevalitana.

A curious old tradition held that the town was founded by settlers from Colchis (in the Caucasus). Like other Adriatic towns, that tied it to the world of Greek myth and the legend of the Argonauts. Legend aside, Olcinium was certainly a prosperous and well-fortified port. After the Roman Empire split, the town fell within the Byzantine orbit, and over the following centuries it passed through the hands of various powers fighting over this Adriatic frontier. The walled headland was easy to defend and was always the heart of the town. Layer by layer, Illyrians, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans left their mark on it, and those traces give the old town its ancient character today.

The Middle Ages and the Venetian period

During the Middle Ages, Ulcinj was a small maritime town that changed hands many times, a sign of how unstable this frontier between worlds was. It belonged to Slavic principalities and kingdoms on the coast, such as Duklja and later the Serbian kingdom of the Nemanjić dynasty. Under the Nemanjićs it enjoyed some prosperity, with trade, salt and shipping. It was also a bishop's seat, with its own churches and monasteries. Like its neighbours, it lived off the sea and its strategic position on the Adriatic routes.

Serbian power broke up, and a series of local lordships followed, such as that of the Balšić family, who ruled the Zeta region. At the end of the 15th century Ulcinj came under the control of the Republic of Venice, which governed it along with other towns on the coast. As in Kotor and Budva, the Venetians strengthened the town's walls and defences and made it part of their chain of fortified towns along the eastern Adriatic, facing the Ottoman advance. Ulcinj, which the Venetians called Dulcigno, was a frontier town, exposed to Turkish attacks and to the tensions of a contested region. That fragile balance ended for good in 1571, when the town fell to the Ottoman Empire. This opened the longest, most intense and most famous chapter in its history.

The Ottoman era: corsairs and the slave market

The Ottoman conquest of 1571 marked Ulcinj forever. For more than three centuries the town (Ulqin in Albanian, Dulcigno to the Italians) was part of the Turkish Empire, and it became as prosperous as it was notorious: a nest of corsairs. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ulcinj used its harbour and position to become one of the most feared pirate bases in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. According to the chronicles, its fleet grew to hundreds of ships. Their crews were corsairs of Albanian origin and also North Africans, some from the Barbary world, who attacked ships and coastlines, seized merchants and travellers for ransom, and traded the plunder.

This trade had a particularly dark side: Ulcinj held the largest slave market in the Adriatic. In the so-called Slave Square (Trg robova), in the old town, people captured in corsair raids were bought and sold. Many of them came from North Africa, and for generations they formed a Black community in the town. It is a painful chapter, and it deserves to be remembered accurately and plainly: Ulcinj's pirate wealth was also built on human trafficking. This period also gave the town its most famous and most disputed legend. It claims that the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes was held captive here after corsairs captured him, and that a woman from Ulcinj (Dulcigno in Italian) inspired his Dulcinea del Toboso. Historians, however, place Cervantes' real captivity in Algiers, not Ulcinj, so this is a literary tradition rather than a proven fact. The Ottoman era left the mosques, the hammam and much of the Eastern character that still sets the town apart.

From the Ottomans to Montenegro (1880) and the 20th century

Ottoman rule ended amid the great Balkan crisis of the late 19th century. After the Russo-Turkish War, the Congress of Berlin in 1878 redrew the map of the Balkans and recognised Montenegro's independence. It was then decided that Ulcinj would pass to the young Montenegrin state. The handover was neither immediate nor peaceful. Locals resisted, tensions ran high, and the great European powers had to make a naval show of force before the town was handed over. In 1880 Ulcinj finally became part of the Principality (later Kingdom) of Montenegro. This gave the country a wider outlet to the sea and a valuable port, though its population was mostly Albanian and Muslim, very different from the rest of the country.

In the 20th century Ulcinj shared Montenegro's ups and downs. It became part of Yugoslavia after the First World War. During the Second World War it was occupied, with the area under Italian control and linked to occupied Albania, and then came the socialist post-war years. Throughout, the town kept its strong Albanian identity and its own character. In 1979 the great earthquake that devastated the Montenegrin coast also hit Ulcinj, damaging the old town and its monuments, which had to be restored. In the second half of the century tourism also began to grow, built on the natural treasures of the south: the vast Velika Plaža and the island of Ada Bojana.

Ulcinj today: beaches, nature and an identity of its own

Yugoslavia broke up, and Montenegro became independent in 2006. Today Ulcinj is the southernmost town in the country and one of its most distinctive. Most of its people are Albanian and Muslim, which gives it a unique cultural identity within Montenegro. Albanian is the main language, minarets shape the skyline, and the food and customs reflect this crossroads of worlds. The old town, with its ancient walls, mosques, hammam and Slave Square, still tells the story of a town that was Roman, Venetian, Ottoman and Montenegrin, and that lived through golden pirate years and the shadow of slavery.

Today the town is driven mainly by beach and nature tourism. Velika Plaža, with 13 km of sand, has become one of the best kitesurfing spots in the Adriatic and a magnet for families. Ada Bojana, with its naturist beach, its riverside fish restaurants and its rich nature, draws a more bohemian, eco-minded crowd. The Ulcinj salt pans faced years of threats from development but are now protected as one of the most important bird reserves in the Balkans, where flamingos turn the lagoons pink. The town faces the challenges of development, such as building pressure and the need to conserve its natural and cultural heritage, and is looking for a balance between growth and protecting what makes it special. Ulcinj is the gateway to Albania and to Lake Skadar, different and fascinating. It rounds off Montenegro to the south: an ancient town where its pirate past now sits alongside kitesurfers' sails and flamingos in flight.

📚 Bibliography

• Wikipedia (EN) — «Ulcinj»: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulcinj
• Wikipedia (EN) — «Albanian piracy»: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_piracy
• Wikipedia (EN) — «Ulcinj Salina»: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulcinj_Salina
• TO Ulcinj (official) — «Miguel de Cervantes»: https://ulcinj.travel/en/miguel-de-cervantes/
• Encyclopaedia Britannica — «Ulcinj»: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ulcinj
• Adriatic Ways — «The Ulcinj Guide»: https://adriaticways.com/ulcinj-travel-guide/
• Wikivoyage — «Ulcinj»: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Ulcinj
• Adria Fun — «Ulcinj was the home of famous pirates»: https://adria.fun/en/ulcinj-was-the-home-of-famous-pirates-the-legend-also-mentions-writer-miguel-de-cervantes/
• Montenegro Spirit — «Velika Plaža Ulcinj Guide»: https://www.montenegro-spirit.com/guides/velika-plaza-ulcinj-guide/