Montenegro's Southernmost Ottoman Coast Town — the historic old town is Ottoman, most of the population is Albanian, Europe's largest olive grove is here, and Velika Plaža stretches 13 km of sandy beach to the Albanian border
Ulcinj (also Ulqin in Albanian) is Montenegro's southernmost coastal town — a city of 20,000 where over 70% of the population is Albanian-speaking, creating a distinctive cultural fusion of Montenegrin, Albanian, and Ottoman-era traditions unique in the Adriatic. The medieval old town (Stari Grad) sits on a promontory above the sea — Ulcinj was a Venetian, then Ottoman port city, and the old town's stone houses, mosques, and narrow lanes feel distinctly different from the Venetian-style towns further north. Velika Plaža (Long Beach) — 13 km of wide sandy beach stretching from Ulcinj almost to…
Ulcinj was ancient Olcinium — an Illyrian settlement captured by Rome in 168 BCE. It passed through Byzantine, medieval Serbian, Venetian, and Ottoman hands over 1,500 years. Under the Ottomans (1571–1878), Ulcinj was a significant port whose harbour was used by North African corsairs — most notoriously, Barbarossa's admirals used it as a base. Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) was reportedly enslaved and possibly brought here after the Battle of Lepanto (1571) — a disputed claim but commemorated by a Cervantes monument in the old town. The Albanian population became dominant during…