While Jay was planning our trip, I read an article about Kotor, Montenegro,  It was described as beautiful, remote, and on the brink of being taken over by luxury resorts catering to Russian billionaires. So it seemed like a good time to go.

Kotor is a classic example of a fortified town. It is surrounded by a wall that extended to the Adriatic on one side, and by a wall built into the mountain and going up to the peak on the other. Here’s the wall  that faces the sea:

On the day we arrived, the city was being guarded by Pippi Longstocking.

Entering through one of two gates we found the maze of streets that is Kotor

We we’re in town by 10;00  to avoid the crush of cruise passengers. We wandered,  listened to some fantastically energetic street musicians, had a bite, and headed back to our hotel in the early afternoon, passing this behemoth on the way. Note the size in comparison to the other boats. And the mountains.

We returned later for dinner and a short walk up the first steps along Kotor’s other defensive wall, this one designed to deter invasions from the side or from over the mountains to the rear of the city.

In this picture you can see the castle.

Another view. The church is Our Lady of Remedy, built in 1518 to mark the end of the Plague.

It’s hard to capture the scale of these walls. The wall in the mountains is nearly three miles long and sits on sheer rock face. The sea wall is similarly massive. But it was all worth it  – Kotor was protected from many attacks, including a two month siege by the Ottomans in 1657.  In the 16th century, at least, it seems like walls were  the way to go.