Ulcinj`s Old town is a lot like many other medieval towns on the Montenegrin Coast. It is encircled by big stonewalls and fortresses, which for centuries have been the keepers of the Ulcin`s: history, culture, and tradition. For the Old town people from Ulicnj say that it is a fortress of a unique beauty. Bulwarks, which surround it, come out directly from the sea and their surface is 3 ha. They are composed of citadel – a part which is still called upper town an a fortress of a military character, which is located on a highest stone plateau, and city community which encircles the south area which is gird by the defensive walls. It is considered that the real builders of the Old town in Ulcinj were Greeks from Epir, who built the town at the end of the V and at the beginning of the IV century B.C. That that period can be considered as the time for which the genesis of the town can be tied with, testifies a record on the pedestal for the icon of a goddess Ara on which it is written: “The union of the stonemasons (erects) to Artemida Elafavoli (a goddess of hunt)”. That leads us to a fact that the “Cyclops” walls, as they are still called, the bulwarks of Ulcinj, were erected by the Greek masons. The town, which was made by the Greeks, was ruined in the earthquake in the V century, so for the now – day look of the Old town Ulcinj, the credit mostly goes to byzantine era, in the VI century. With the Old town many stories are connected. Up to the year 1900 in Ulcinj 100 black people lived. For the arrivals of the first men of black complexion the most important is the period when Ulcinj, that is, at that time Port Valdanos was a pirate asylum. Because of the trading of slaves from the countries of the Mediterranean, the main square in Ulcinj even today carries a name Slave Square. Also, even today you can hear a story that the famous Spanish writer Miguel de Servantes was one of the imprisoned pirate captives and slaves in Ulcinj. In Ulcinj Servantes has spent 5 years. Later, on his returning to his homeland, Servantes writes his famous work named “Don Quixote”. It is supposed that the two female characters that are mentioned in that work are precisely inspired by the Servantes` imprisonment in Ulcinj.
