This island is the biggest in Montenegro, located in the southern part of the Adriatic Sea, right across from the Old Town of Budva. Its length is 2 kilometers, and its geographical position closes off Budva Bay. From it to Slovenska Beach runs a shoal that, at low tide, is only 0.50m deep. Legend has it that St. Sava, heading for the holy mountain of Budva, could not board his ship because of heavy waves, so he threw a few stones and created a shallow crossing by which he transferred to and boarded the galleon.

On the island stands the Church of St. Nicholas, after which the island got its name, first mentioned in the 16th century. The church is surrounded by a large number of old graves, which legend says belong to crusaders who were struck by an epidemic while camped near Budva. This peaceful oasis is covered in lush Mediterranean vegetation, mainly coniferous trees, and is a true bird sanctuary, rich in small wildlife.

The most important cultural monument is, of course, the Old Town of Budva, home to the Church of St. Ivan, Our Lady “in Punta,” the Church of St. Sava the Consecrated (15th century), and the Church of the Holy Trinity built in 1804. Not to be missed is the Citadel, the town’s fortress on a rocky elevation in the southern part of town. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, taking its current appearance in the first half of the 19th century under Austrian rule. Today, the Citadel is used for the summer “Theatre City” festival.

Urbanization of the Old Town began toward the end of the 15th century, when the town walls were erected. The urban structure consists of narrow, winding streets and small squares, or piazzettas, with tiled roofs characteristic of Mediterranean architecture. Life in the town was long regulated by its own Statute, testimony to its historical independence. It received its present-day appearance after a major earthquake in 1667.

While digging the foundations for the Hotel Avala, located just across from the Old Town’s main gate, between 1936 and 1938, workers discovered several graves from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Precious material was found within, including gold and silver jewelry, various containers, glass, ceramics, and weapons. Studies continued twenty years later, and especially after the earthquake of 1979.

The necropolis consists of two parts: an older section belonging to the Hellenistic period, from the 4th to the 1st century BC, and a later section from the Roman period, 1st and 2nd century AD. A total of 450 graves have been found, and it is believed the necropolis was in use for more than a millennium.

Sveti Stefan was built in the 15th century on a small, rocky island as a shelter for local citizens fleeing the Turkish invasion. The town-fortress was funded by the rich spoils the Paštrović family took in their attacks on Turkish ships during the battle near Kotor.

The settlement was named after the church devoted to St. Stefan, located on the most prominent cliff, which was built by the Serbian Nemanjić dynasty several centuries before the town itself existed.

Budva is considered one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast, with archaeological evidence suggesting it had developed into an urban area as early as 500 BC. The existence of an Illyrian tribe at the time is confirmed even in the plays of the Greek tragedian Sophocles. In the following centuries, it developed into a wealthy Hellenic center, colonized by the Greeks for several hundred years.

The prosperity it enjoyed during this period made it an attractive target for the expansionist Romans, who took control of ancient Budva in the 2nd century BC and ruled continuously for half a millennium, until their downfall in the late 5th century AD.

After the Romans, the town came under Byzantine control at the beginning of the 6th century. Although this nominally remained the case until the 12th century, Slavic tribes gradually began moving into the area as early as the 7th century and were well established by the mid-9th century, when the town was sacked by the Saracens, the name Europeans used for Arabs in the medieval period.

Byzantine Emperor Basil I (867 to 886) drove the Arabs from the eastern coast of the southern Adriatic. Testimony to Budva’s relatively fast recovery and rise in the 9th to 11th centuries is the fact that, between 1089 and the mid-12th century, it became an episcopal center with the Cathedral of St. Ivan, becoming a subject of dispute between the archbishoprics of Bar and Dubrovnik.

In addition to Raška, the first Slavic center of the Serbian state, Zeta formed in the 11th century as a former Duklja, part of the old Roman province of Praevalitana, which included Budva. The Crusades of 1096 passed through and camped here.

After the death of Đurađ Stracimirović, Budva fell into the hands of the Venetians, who in 1403 ceded it to Montenegrin ruler Balša III. Under his administration, with brief interruptions, Budva remained until 1419, when the city was again taken over by the Venetians. During their long rule, the Old Town of Budva took on its present-day appearance.

The fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797 placed Budva under Austrian occupation. From 1806 to 1807, the city was controlled by a joint Russian-Montenegrin government, and between 1807 and 1813 it came under French occupation, before returning to Austrian rule until 1918, when it was freed by the Serbian and Montenegrin armies.