Between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic – The Bay of Kotor and the Montenegrin coast in the early modern and modern times

Abstract

The article examines the multiculturaluity of the city of Kotor and its extended area. The Bay of Kotor and the Adriatic coast of present day Montenegro were divided between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic from the beginning of 15th to the close of 18th century. The area was populated by people of various religious confessions, who lived under extremely complex circumstances. In the Bay of Kotor, an area under the rule of the Venetian Republic which lay deep in Turkish territory, Catholics were the majority, followed by the Orthodox. The Turks, who had conquered the southern part of the coast and almos the entire territory of Montenegro, were the majority in the city of Bar, the see of the ancient Archbishopric of Bar, as well as in the cities of Risan and Herceg Novi, in the northern part of the Bay of Kotor. Under Ottoman government a Jewish community thrived in those cities. Boundaries between them had an ambiguous character, which in those circumstances promoted social and cultural interaction that is documented in municipal and ecclesiastical archives.