Budva Old Town

Budva (Serbian: Будва, Budva, pronounced [bûːdv̞a] or [bûdv̞a], Italian: Budua) is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 18,000 (2011) inhabitants, and it is the centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budvanska rivijera , is the centre of Montenegro's tourism, and is well known for its sandy beaches, diverse nightlife, and examples of Mediterranean architecture. Budva is 3,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic Sea coast.

The Old Town in Budva has many different tales and stories of its origin. Scholars and historians believe it to have originally been 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 design. 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, 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 eight years (until 1987) for it to be finished.