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Lastavica island · The mouth of the Bay of Kotor

Mamula: A Fort, a Camp, a Hotel

An island that is almost entirely fortress, where 2,332 people were imprisoned and 130 died, and where you can now book a room.

Reading time ~12 min7 source-linked referencesInterpretive phase drawing, not a survey42.3928° N · 18.5583° E

How to read this article

Archaeologists record a building as a phase plan: every construction period gets its own colour, and the building is drawn as the sum of its phases. That convention is the colour system of this whole page. Wherever you see one of these colours — in the drawing, the timeline, the annotations, the rule beside a paragraph — it tells you who built that.

  • Austro-Hungarian1853–1918
  • Yugoslav1918–1941
  • Italian occupation1941–1943
  • Abandoned1945–2015
  • Leased · resort2016–today

Who held it, drawn to scale · 170 years

1853today

The camp occupies eighteen months of a hundred and seventy years, and it is the reason most people have heard of this island.

The phase drawing

Three storeys of casemates

Mamula is drawn in section, because a sea fort is a machine you have to see the inside of: vaulted gun rooms stacked three deep, magazines below, guns on the roof. Scroll to build it up — and to see what was later done with the same rooms.

Interpretive phase section through Fort Mamula on LastavicaA cut through the circular fort that covers almost the whole island: three storeys of vaulted casemates above the waterline, the dry moat and the bridge that could be drawn in, guns mounted on the roof by 1914 with the track of the shell that drove twelve metres into the breastwork, the whole interior hatched for the 1942–43 camp with bars across its openings, decades of abandonment shown as vegetation on the parapet, and the 2023 resort added on the roof.

1853: three storeys of vaulted casemates, filling almost the whole island.

1853 · Austro-Hungarian

A circular fort that fills its island

Built under Lazar Mamula, artillery general and governor of Dalmatia, as part of the first line of defence at the mouth of the bay. A circular multi-storey tower with flanking guns in casemates and two casemate batteries — three floors of bomb-proof vaults, magazines below, gun platforms on the roof, cisterns holding six months of water and sleeping quarters for two hundred men.

The approach

A dry moat, and a bridge you could pull in

The only way in is across a moat on the north-eastern side, over a bridge designed to be removed. The shores of the island are steep and inaccessible; everything else about the place is vertical stone.

1914 · Under fire

Three attacks, and a shell that went twelve metres in

Around forty guns at first; by 1914 four 210 mm mortars, eight 80 mm and ten more 80 mm guns. On 1 September 1914 a French fleet under Admiral Boué de Lapeyrère opened fire from 13,000 metres. On the 19th a 305 mm shell struck the breastworks and drove twelve metres through wall and soil, killing one sailor.

1942–43 · The camp

The same rooms, with bars on them

Under Italian occupation the fort became a concentration camp, opened by order of the occupation command on 30 March 1942 and disbanded in September 1943. In eighteen months 2,332 people from Boka, eastern Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia were held here. The first prisoners were 110 women and children. 130 people died of disease, starvation and execution.

1945–2015

Seventy years of nothing

After the war the island was abandoned. Nobody lived on it, nothing was done with it, and the fort fell in on itself slowly for seven decades — which is how a place with this history ends up available.

2016–2023 · The resort

A five-star hotel, over objections

In January 2016 the Montenegrin government approved a 49-year lease to a developer, and in 2023 the fort reopened as a five-star resort. Former prisoners objected. So did others, including the former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who found it strange that the only proposed solution for preserving the fort was a commercial one.

1853

An island turned into a machine

Lastavica is a small circular rock about two hundred metres across at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, and the fort covers roughly ninety per cent of it. There is essentially no island left over. That is the clearest statement of what it was for.

It was built in 1853 under Lazar Mamula (1795–1878), an Austrian baron, artillery general and governor of Dalmatia, as one of three forts — Oštro on Prevlaka, Mamula on its island, Arza on the tip of Luštica — put up between 1850 and 1854 to close the entrance to the bay. Nothing could enter without passing through all three fields of fire.

The design is a circular multi-storey tower with flanking guns in casemates and two casemate batteries, east and west, of six guns each. Inside: three floors of bomb-proof vaulted rooms, powder magazines underground, gun platforms on the roof, cisterns holding six months of water and sleeping quarters for two hundred men. It is a building designed to be sealed and to keep working.

The entrance to Fort Mamula: a crenellated stone gatehouse with a timber bridge crossing a dry moat to its arched doorway, the massive curved ashlar wall of the circular fort rising at the right, and ferns growing in the moat below.
  • The circular tower. The curved face of the main fort, in cut ashlar laid in horizontal courses. A circle has no corner for an attacker to concentrate fire on, and every point of the wall is the same distance from the centre.
  • A casemate opening. The recessed opening in the curved wall is a gun position in a bomb-proof vault. There were three storeys of these, plus two casemate batteries of six guns each, plus more guns on the roof.
  • The gatehouse. Crenellated, with machicolations above the door — openings to drop things through onto anyone at the entrance. The plaque beside the doorway commemorates the camp.
  • The bridge. The only way in, across the moat on the north-eastern side. The original was designed to be pulled in. The shores everywhere else are steep and unlandable.
  • The dry moat. Cut into the rock of the island around the fort. Seventy years of abandonment after 1945 filled it with ferns.
The gatehouse and dry moat of Fort Mamula. Photograph by Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Select a marker to read the annotation.

1942 – 1943

Eighteen months

After Italy occupied the coast in 1941, the fort was turned into a concentration camp. It was opened by order of the Italian occupation command on 30 March 1942 and disbanded in September 1943.

In those eighteen months 2,332 people were imprisoned here, from Boka Kotorska, eastern Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia. Herceg Novi accounted for 810 of them, Kotor 356, Tivat 122, Budva 110. The first prisoners brought to the island were 110 women and children.

130 people died on Lastavica, of disease, of starvation, and by execution. In 1959 an ossuary was found on the island containing the bones of 58 people, mostly from Dubrovnik, Korčula and Trebinje.

These figures come from Herceg Novi’s own municipality, which commemorates the camp’s dissolution each year on the island. They are more precise than the accounts in wide circulation, and they are the ones this article uses.

2016 – today

And then it was for sale

After the war Lastavica was abandoned. Nobody lived there; nothing was done with the fort; it decayed quietly for seventy years. That is the condition in which heritage becomes a development opportunity.

In January 2016 the Montenegrin government approved the conversion of the site into a luxury resort under a 49-year lease to a developer, and in 2023 Mamula reopened as a five-star hotel. Former prisoners objected. So did the former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who said he was surprised that the only solution proposed for preserving and using the fort was a business arrangement.

This article is not going to tell you whether to stay there. It will point out what is not in dispute: a place where 2,332 people were imprisoned and 130 died now takes bookings, the decision was made by a government, it was opposed by people who had been held there, and the fort — which was falling down — is standing.

Surprised that the only solution for preserving and using the fort is a mere business arrangement and privatisation agreement.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN Secretary-General, on the Mamula lease

1853 → today

The full timeline

Dated events only. Where sources disagree, the conflict is stated in the entry rather than resolved silently.

siege or conquestbuilding workeverything else

Austro-Hungarian

1853–1918

  • 1850–1854

    The first line of defence goes up

    Oštro on Prevlaka, Mamula on Lastavica and Arza on Luštica, closing the entrance to the Bay of Kotor.

  • 1853

    Fort Mamula is built

    Circular multi-storey tower; three floors of casemates; two casemate batteries of six guns each; magazines, cisterns for six months and quarters for 200 men. Named for Lazar Mamula (1795–1878).

  • 1 Sep 1914

    Shelled from thirteen kilometres

    Admiral Boué de Lapeyrère’s fleet opens fire. It is the first of three attacks.

  • 19 Sep 1914

    A 305 mm shell hits the breastworks

    It penetrates twelve metres of wall and soil and kills one sailor.

  • 1918

    A prison for mutinous sailors

    The fort holds sailors from the mutiny in the bay, inspired by the October Revolution.

Italian occupation

1941–1943

  • 30 Mar 1942

    The camp opens

    By order of the Italian occupation command. Wikipedia gives 30 May; Herceg Novi’s municipality and the fort’s own history both give 30 March.

  • 1942–43

    2,332 prisoners, 130 dead

    From Boka, eastern Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia — 810 from Herceg Novi, 356 Kotor, 122 Tivat, 110 Budva. The first were 110 women and children. 130 died of disease, starvation and execution.

  • Sep 1943

    The camp is disbanded

    The municipality gives 14 September, the fort’s own history 30 September. Both make it eighteen months.

Abandoned

1945–2015

  • 1959

    An ossuary is found

    Containing the bones of 58 people, mostly from Dubrovnik, Korčula and Trebinje.

  • 1945–2015

    Nobody lives on the island

    The fort is left to decay for seventy years.

Leased · resort

2016–today

  • Jan 2016

    The government approves a resort

    A 49-year lease to a developer. Former prisoners object, as does former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

  • 2023

    Mamula reopens as a five-star hotel

Corrections

What the internet gets wrong

These claims circulate widely online and do not survive checking. If you have read about Mamula elsewhere, you have probably met at least one of them.

Dates differ

The camp opened on 30 March 1942, not 30 May.

Wikipedia gives 30 May 1942. Herceg Novi’s municipality and the fort’s own published history both give 30 March 1942, and both make the camp eighteen months long. Use 30 March.

Figures

2,332 prisoners and 130 dead.

Round numbers like “over 2,000” and “more than 1,500” circulate widely. The municipality, which commemorates the camp annually, gives 2,332 held and 130 dead, with a per-town breakdown. Those are the figures to use.

Not a Nazi camp

It was run by Fascist Italy.

Mamula is often described loosely as a Nazi camp. It was established and operated under Italian occupation, which is a matter of record and worth getting right.

Check before you go

The island is a private hotel.

Since 2023 Lastavica has operated as a five-star resort under a long lease. It is not a public monument, and access is on the operator’s terms.

Sources and image record

Dates and interpretations are tied to the archive and research sources below. Where they conflict, the conflict is named in the text rather than smoothed over.

Herceg Novi Then and NowForte MareKanli KulaŠpanjolaCitadelaSahat kulaArzaTajno brdo
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