December 28, 2018 - NGO Expeditio- Centre of Sustainable Spatial Development from Kotor organises a promotional hiking tour on the pedestrian path Glavati-Gornji Prčanj-Gornji Stoliv-Donji Stoliv on Sunday, 30 December. This activity is a part of the project "Paths through the World Heritage" realised during 2018 under the auspices of the Kotor Municipality. Co-workers on the project were the Kotor Tourism Organization and the Mountain Club Vjeverica, whose hikers lead the Sunday hiking tour. Hiking starts at 9.30am.
“The goal of the "Paths through the World Heritage" project was to improve the tourist offer of the Natural and Cultural-Historical Area of Kotor located on the UNESCO World Heritage list and to encourage the active life of the citizens of this area," explains TMN project coordinator Aleksandra Kapetanović. Within the project, NGO Expeditio has worked on activating alternative types of ecological, active and cultural tourism through the analysis, mapping and production of information and promotional material on hiking trails. Part of the activities included field work on cleaning paths and old roads.
"The network of pedestrian paths and trails connecting the coastal settlements in the bay with older settlements in the upper zone and the hinterland, as well as the network of roads formed as part of the defence system, constitute a significant segment of the cultural landscape of Kotor. These roads and paths, suitable for hiking, enable the values of the cultural landscape of the world's heritage to be fully seen and experienced from all angles," says Aleksandra.
The natural and cultural-historical area of Kotor, part of the bay of Boka Bay, is one of over 1000 sites from around the world that is on the UNESCO World Heritage list because it has an exceptional value for humanity. The harmonious relationship between the extraordinary nature of the bay and the diverse and rich cultural heritage, which is maintained over the centuries, gives Kotor the characteristics of a cultural landscape of exceptional universal value. By promoting the value and importance of the cultural landscape, Expeditio has been fighting for more than two decades to preserve it, which is a challenging task due to numerous issues.
"Walking trail Glavati (Sv.Ane bay) - Upper Prčanj - Upper Stoliv - Donji Stoliv has remarkable potential and so far has not been used to the fullest. As part of the project, we carried out cleaning of grafted parts as well as the marking of individual components, which were helped by the mountain club Vjeverica. We have also created an information map, which we will distribute to all interested parties, and will also be available at informative points of Kotor Tourist Organization.
While the network of roads that have emerged as part of the Kotor defence system is nominally recognised as a valuable segment of cultural heritage, the pedestrian routes linking settlements are not the subject of institutions for the protection of cultural heritage, although they represent one of the critical segments of the cultural landscape.
"The main paths of pedestrian roads in the area of Vrmac connecting the upper villages with settlements along the coast, as well as the villages of each other, were most likely to have occurred in the Middle Ages. At Kotor’s side of Vrmac, the main line was the main upper village road parallel to the coast, at a distance of about 200 m and at the height of 150-200 m. It connected all villages at the Kotor side to each other, and then with the villages on the Tivat side of Vrmac. Don Niko Lukovic calls it "an ancient country road" and the Austro-Hungarian plan from the first half of the XIX century marked this path as the Strada Sottomonte (the road below the mountain). From this main pedestrian path to the shore, it led to more crossroads. These crossroads are made of stairs and straight segments or mild ramps, and are often enclosed by stone walls in the drywall," explains the architect-conservator Aleksandra Kapetanović. The walking trail Glavati (St. Anna bay) - Upper Prčanj - Upper Stoliv - Lower Stoliv is part of that old pedestrian path. This trail runs through a variety of landscapes with attractive views of the bay, through the remains of the resorts in Gornji Prčanj and Gornji Stoliv, and the specificity of the trail is that there is a higher number of sacral buildings - chapels and churches," explains Aleksandra.
There are two options available for Sunday promotional hiking tours. For participants with low physical fitness, they will walk along the segment of the Glavati-Old parish church-Prčanj (site Grasovo) for 50 minutes. The passage of the entire trail, which runs from Glavati to Donji Stoliv, leads through the remains of the settlement in Gornji Prčanj and Gornji Stoliv, through the centuries-old chestnut woods, leading to Donji Stoliv. This course in mid-length hiking tours is required for about 2 h 40 min. On the return, the organisers provide transportation from Donji Stoliv to Glavati (St. Anna bay).
