Antiquity Ulcinj is an ancient seaport. The wider area of Ulcinj has been inhabited since the
Bronze Age, based on dating of
Illyrian tombs (tumuli) found in the village of
Zogaj, in the vicinity of Ulcinj. The town is believed to have been founded in the 5th century BC by colonists from
Colchis, as mentioned in the 3rd century BC poem by
Apollonius of Rhodes. Illyrians lived in the region at the time as there are traces of immense
Cyclopean walls still visible in the old Citadel. From circa 820, the city was the see of a
Diocese of Ulcinj, which was only suppressed in 1532, and would be revived as a Latin
titular bishopric.
Medieval period In the 9th century, it was in the
Dyrrhachium theme, a military governorate of the
Byzantine Empire. In 1010,
Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria (r. 997-1014†) failed to conquer the town during the
war against the Byzantines. By 1040,
archon Stefan Vojislav of
Duklja conquered the region. In 1183,
Serbian Prince Stefan Nemanja conquered Olcinium and the town prospered as one of the most significant coastal towns. Ulcinj remained in Nemanjić hands in their
Kingdom and
Empire, and after the death of
Emperor Dušan (r. 1331-1355†), the region, known as
Lower Zeta, was under the supervision of
gospodin Žarko, a
voivode of Emperor
Uroš the Weak until his death in 1360. Žarko's lands were then held by the
Balšić family. Under Balšić control, Ulcinj continued to be an important town and also
minted coins.
Venetian and Ottoman rule According to historian Luigi Paulucci at the time of the Venetians the town was half Albanian, a quarter Venetian and one quarter Slavic. In 1496
Arnold von Harff created a German-Albanian
dictionary simply by interacting with the population of the city. The Venetians attempted to capture the town twice, in
1696 and
1718, but were unsuccessful on both occasions. During the 19th century, the town began to regain its position as a flourishing port. The geographer
Antonio Baldacci reported a
merchant marine of 500 ships plying the trade routes between the Adriatic and Mediterranean coasts. In 1867, Ulcinj became a
kaza of the
İşkodra sanjak of
Rumeli veyalet. After the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, borders between Montenegro and the Ottoman Empire were redrawn, with
Plav and
Gusinje being ceded to Montenegro. But Muslim Albanian resistance prevented the Montenegrins from taking over Plav and Gusinje, so the Great Powers in 1880 decided to reverse the territorial transfer and offered Ulcinj, then also known as Dulcigno, to Montenegro as compensation. This led to a dispute between the Ottoman Empire and the Principality of Montenegro as the Ottoman Empire initially refused to recognize the treaty's provisions regarding Dulcigno. The Ottoman garrison in the town had been in place since the 16th century, but Montenegro claimed that the town and its surrounding territory were historically part of its territory. In May 1880, the Great Powers (Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia) protested diplomatically and organized a naval demonstration off the coast of Dulcigno to put pressure on the Ottoman Empire to resolve the
dispute peacefully. The Ottoman Empire eventually agreed to cede the town and surrounding territory to Montenegro in exchange for compensation. 1880 The surrender of Dulcigno to Montenegro marked a significant expansion of Montenegro's territory and was seen as a diplomatic victory for the Great Powers, who had prevented a potentially violent conflict in the region. After the city's annexation to Montenegro, of its 8,000-strong population about 3,000 Albanians left and settled elsewhere in northern Albania. 142 Montenegrin families were brought to settle in the outskirts of Ulcinj in the 1880s. The population of Ulcinj steadily decreased until the post-WWII period.
20th century to present Ulcinj became a part of the
Kingdom of Montenegro from 1878 until 1918 when Montenegro was absorbed into the
Kingdom of Serbia for a short time before all would be incorporated into the first of the
Yugoslav federations at the end of the year. Ulcinj remained within a Montenegrin entity whilst a South Slavic state had existed until 2006 when which it became part of an independent Montenegro following a referendum. During the 20th century, Ulcinj survived heavy declines and new ascents. Ulcinj was the second biggest town of Montenegro when it joined the kingdom in 1880. In just three decades, it slid back to 6th place for economic development and number of inhabitants (after Podgorica, Niksic, Cetinje, Tivat and Plava). During World War I Ulcinj was conquered by Austria-Hungary in 1916 and Italy on November 4, 1918, and since 1920 it was part of the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom, later known as the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As the southernmost city of the coast of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ulcinj had a strong turnaround in the 1930s with the development of the tourist industry. At that time hotels were built such as Krištja, Republic, Jadran and Koop (later Galeb). World War II halted economic momentum. From 1941 to 1944, Ulcinj was under the Albanian administration. On November 7, 1943, Ulcinj was bombarded by Allied forces, with over 46 people killed and many more injured. The
Yugoslav Partisans took Ulcinj on November 26, 1944, and the city become part of
Socialist Yugoslavia. The 1950s and 1960s marked the greatest period of economic development for Ulcinj, with the construction of a range of modern hotels in the city and the Great Plain, as well as major economic collectives (NHT "Riviera of Ulcinj", "Agroulqini", Primary Building Company, "Otrantkomerc", "Ultep" and others). It demarcated the southernmost end of the
Adriatic Highway ("magistrala"), also constructed in the 50s and 60s. In the catastrophic
Montenegro earthquake on April 15, 1979, the city was severely damaged, but after only a few years, with the solidarity of the citizens of entire Yugoslavia, it was quickly renovated. Ulcinj at the end of the eighties had about 40 percent of the tourist turnover in Montenegro, while two-thirds of the guests were foreign, mostly German. During the
Kosovo War, in 1998 and 1999, thousands of
Kosovo Albanians flocked to Ulcinj and its surroundings, where they were welcomed in the best possible conditions by the ethnic Albanian population of Ulcinj and the surrounding area. == Geography ==