The former president of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, owned tens of vacation houses and villas for leisure and vacation in all parts of the former country, and Herceg Novi, or, rather, Igalo, was no exception. The villa is located close to the Institute for Cardiovascular Disease Treatment “Dr. Simo Milošević”.
Tito used this villa, which was named “Galeb”, as a summer residence. It was built in 1976 and was last visited by Tito on the 25th of January 1977. He spent time in the villa on four separate occasions with his wife Jovanka, spending between 5 and 10 weeks at a time, and taking in many visitors and aids. The villa spreads over an area of 5500 m2, and is four-story tall, with an area of 75000m2 covered by a park decorated with various flowers, palm trees and other plant species. The villa contains Tito’s conference hall, work room, the blue apartment, which was Tito’s bedroom, the pink apartment, the bedroom of Tito’s wife Jovanka, a cinema where Tito spent his leisure time watching Western movies. Tito’s personal items are on display at the villa, as well as photos of him in his everyday life, as well as from his travels, his time spent with celebrities, actors, musicians and statesmen who visited Tito at the villa itself. You can also see Tito’s blue bathroom, made out of blue Brazilian marble, Tito’s private cabinet, the truck hall containing authentic furniture from the time.
The basement of the villa is where the nuclear shelter is at, in case of any sort of unrest, where Tito kept his aquarium. Tito picked this exact spot for the construction of his villa because of the close proximity of the beach which contains therapeutic mud, as well as a place where a balcony overlooking the island of Mamula could be constructed. When Tito last visited the villa, on the 15th of April 1979, a catastrophic earthquake struck the bay at 7:20 am. On the same morning, Tito travelled around the Bay of Kotor, asking aid from all the former republics of Yugoslavia to help repair the damage dealt by the earthquake. Thanks to the help he gathered, all of the damage in the towns of the Bay of Kotor was undone.
Entrance fee for the villa: €3
Tourist guides who speak Serbian, English and Russian are available to visitors.
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
