Mamula fortress is located on the island of Lastavica, just before the entrance to the Bay of Kotor and Herceg Novi. The island is 3.4 nautical miles away from Herceg Novi itself.
In the mid-19th century, Lazar Mamula, an Austrian general built a defensive fortress on this island, which got its name because its shape resembles a swallow. Nobody could foresee what a notorious place the fortress would become. The Austrians never used the military potential of the fortress, which became an Italian concentration camp during World War Two. The first prisoners of the fortress during the war were women, children and men captured throughout the Bay of Kotor, who were all imprisoned on 20th of May 1944. Many of the people imprisoned there never got out of the camp, and there were even babies born on the island, as some of the women imprisoned were pregnant upon arrest. The movie “Kampo Mamula’’, filmed in 1959 by director Velimir Stojanović, tells the story of everything that happened in the year when the fortress served as a concentration camp.
Today, the fortress is closed for visits, as there is an ongoing construction of a luxurious hotel within the fortress’s walls. The construction will not damage the fortress’s look from the outside, nor will it change the island’s face.
During the tourist season peak, boats take tourists from Škver, Herceg Novi’s main pier, to the nearby Žanjice beach, and the boats also sail around the island to show the visitors what this former notorious prison looks like.
The boat ticket that travels from Herceg Novi to Mamula and Žanjice costs €5 per person.
Author of the text:
Marijana Niković licensed tourist guide for Montenegro.
If you are interested in guided tours in English, please contact me at:
(Viber) 00382 68 230 241
