St. John Fortress Hike — Kotor City Walls Climb

The main entrance to the walls is found in the north-east corner of the old town, a short walk from the North Gate and from Pjaca od Salate. A second entry point exists near the south (Gurdic Gate) — both lead to the same climb, and both require a ticket.

Buy your ticket here before starting. Check the time: the gate closes at 20:00 and the descent in darkness is not something you want to attempt on unlit ancient steps. The route ahead is marked throughout — orange arrows on the stone guide you upward at the decision points.

Take a moment at the bottom to look at what you're walking into. The walls directly above are visible from the square below — stepped bastions climbing the cliff face, narrowing as they rise. The mountain behind them reaches 260 metres to the summit. That is where you are going.

The first significant terrace on the route gives you your first clear view back over the old town below. From here you can see the full layout of the walled city — the Cathedral of St. Tryphon, the twin towers of St. Nicholas, the Square of Arms, and the Sea Gate opening onto the cruise quay — compressed into a remarkably small footprint, the fortification walls running around it in all directions.

The bay is visible too: the first wide reach of the Kotorski zaljev, with the Verige strait — the narrowest point, barely 340 metres across — visible in the distance where the water bends behind the hills. Across the water, the village of Muo is directly opposite.

Rest here for a moment. The steps become steeper above this point, and the path narrows. The first section is genuinely the most accessible part of the climb; pace yourself before committing to the upper route.

The section the locals call the "ladder" is the exposed zigzag traverse cut directly into the mountain face. The path is a series of sharp switchbacks with a near-vertical drop on one side. This is where the walls stop following the ground and start following the cliff itself — the builders in the medieval period had no easier option.

The steps here are among the oldest on the route and the most irregular: different heights, different widths, occasionally angled toward the drop. The surface is worn smooth by centuries of use. Grip soles are not optional here — they are load-bearing.

Look up as you climb through this section. The walls run almost vertically above you, the same pale limestone as the mountain. In places it is genuinely difficult to tell where the fortification ends and the natural rock face begins.

You will hear it before you see it: the small bell turret appears above a flat terrace with just enough room for a dozen people to rest. The Church of Our Lady of Remedy (Crkva Gospe od Zdravlja) was built in 1518, during the period of Venetian rule, inside the fortification network on the slope of the mountain. It is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, built on a site where archaeological work has uncovered evidence of an early Christian structure dating back to the 6th century — making the ground beneath it the oldest known ecclesiastical site in Montenegro.

The church is small, single-nave, built in the same limestone as the walls. Its main function in the 16th century was as a waypoint and place of rest for the garrison troops who patrolled this section of the fortifications. The view from the terrace in front of it — roughly two-thirds of the way up in terms of elevation gain — gives the best mid-route panorama of the bay: the old town directly below, the bay stretching west, the Adriatic visible in the distance on a clear day.

Rest here, drink water, and look at what you've climbed. The summit is still above you, but the hardest structural section is mostly done.

Above the Church of Our Lady of Remedy the path narrows again and the bastions become more exposed. The walls here are military architecture at its most serious: thick, minimal, built to withstand siege cannon rather than to impress visitors. Several small embrasures — firing apertures cut through the stone — still face down toward the bay.

The upper section also has the fewest handholds. In places the steps are cut into near-vertical rock faces with an unguarded drop to one side. Take it steadily and stay on the marked path. The orange arrows are your guide through the confusing sections — do not improvise a shortcut.

As you climb, the scale of the bay becomes clearer. The inner arm of the bay — Boka Kotorska proper — is visible in its entirety from this height, with Perast and the islet churches visible in the far distance on a clear day.

The fortress at the summit occupies a roughly rectangular enclosure at around 260 metres above sea level. What remains is the shell of the medieval fortification: thick walls, several vaulted storage rooms, and an open upper platform. San Giovanni — the Italian name under which it appears on old Venetian charts — was the command post for the entire wall system, the highest defensible point in the chain of bastions that runs from the sea gate at water level to this summit.

From the upper platform, the full extent of the bay becomes visible in a way that is impossible from any lower point. The Bay of Kotor, all 28 kilometres of it, curves away to the west through successive narrows. Directly below: the old town, its walls, its rooftops. Across the water: Muo, Prčanj, the coastal road heading toward Tivat. On a clear day, the Adriatic Sea is visible beyond the mouth of the outer bay.

Take time here. This is the payoff for 1,350 steps.

The highest accessible point of the fortress — a flat open terrace where a Montenegrin flag typically flies — gives a three-sixty view that the walled platform itself does not. From here you can see both sides of the mountain simultaneously: the bay to the west and south, and the Lovćen massif rising steeply to the east and north. The road to the Lovćen cable car (opened in 2024, connecting to Lovćen National Park in eleven minutes) is visible cutting up the hillside below the ridge.

This terrace is the natural place to eat, drink water, and photograph. It is not crowded even in high season — the 1,350 steps are a reliable filter. The number of people at the summit is always a fraction of the number in the Square of Arms below.

When you're ready, return the way you came. The descent takes slightly less time than the ascent but is harder on the knees — slow down through the steeper zigzag sections.

The same route down is the standard return. Take it steadily: the steps that required grip on the way up are just as slippery on the descent, particularly if the afternoon sun has heated the upper stone and created a slight shimmer on the smooth sections.

Knees feel the descent more than the ascent — if your knees are sensitive, pace the downhill sections deliberately. The zigzag traverse is the most technically demanding part in both directions.

Back at the base, the North Gate is a few minutes' walk into the old town. Pjaca od Salate is the nearest quiet square for sitting down, and the cafe terrace there is reliably good for the post-climb coffee. If you still have energy, the old town self-guided loop starts from the same square.