"Ulcinj/Ulqin" a Ulcinj Travel Page by JLBG

Ulcinj/Ulqin stands at the southernmost end of the Montenegrin coast. The place has been inhabited since prehistoric times and Illyrian tombs, found in the village of Zogaj, in the vicinity of Ulcinj, date back to the Bronze Age. The city was founded in the 5th BC by Greeks from Colchidia and thus named Colchinium. Parts of the cyclopean walls they built remain in the old city but I have not spotted them. When the Roman took the city from the Illyrian tribe of the Olciniates, it became Olcinium. Later, it became successfully part of the Byzantine empire, of the Serbian Empire (12th to 14th), of the Venetian Republic (1405-1571), of the Ottoman Empire (1571-1880) under the name of Olgun. At the end of the 16th, Uluz Ali, vice-king of Algiers and pirate established 400 of its men in Ulcinj that remained for almost a century a pirates' base. In 1880, the town belonged to Montenegro and since 1920 to Yugoslavia. It has been part of the 'New Yougoslavia' from 1990 to 2003, which became the Serbia and Montenegro Federation (Serbia i Crna Gora = SCG). Since June 3rd 2006, Montenegro is an independent state.

This photo is not the best but allows understanding how the city developped. The oldest part of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1444 and its ruins can be seen underwater. Stari Grad, the new old city, was built by the Byzantines and the Nemacic on Bijela Gora, a high peninsula from where this photo was taken. The city walls were built in the 13th. The city later grew outside of the city walls, along the beach, at the bottom of the bay and thus looks like an amphitheater. Still later, it grew up in the narrow valley at the bottom of the bay (left of the photo) and (not seen on the photo) extended behind those mountains, where is now most of the modern town, that does not face the sea.

I have burrowed this aerial photo from a leaflet of the tourist office but it is the only way to show the whole old city and its situation vs the bay and the city beach.

While the population of Montenegro is mostly Slavic (mainly Montenegrin and Serbs) and Albanians account for 7% (2003 survey), the population of Ulcinj/Ulqin is 85% Albanian and all road signs are bilingual. Along the centuries, it has assimilated descendants of Barbary Moors from Algeria who were brought here by Turks to defend the town and settled, and Blacks, descendants of the numerous slaves brought here from Africa.