Venice put the bay’s quarantine on this shore and the navy put its hospital beside it. The lazaret is a hotel now; the hospital went back into public health in 2023.
Meljine er et fredelig kystsamfunn på Herceg Novi-riviera, plassert mellom Igalo og Zelenika like utenfor sentrum. Dets karakteristiske landemerke er Lazaret, et historisk kompleks som ble påbegynt av venetianerne i 1732 som karantenestasjon og sykehus som voktet inngangen til Bay of Kotor, senere utvidet under østerriksk-ungarsk styre. De vakre gamle byggene, med sin keisertidens arkitektur og maritime fortid, ligger fortsatt ved vannkanten, og deler av komplekset har blitt restaurert som fem-stjernet Lazure Hotel and Marina, med anleggingsplasser for besøkende seilbåter og en elegant strandpromenade.
Meljine on the water
Hvor lang tid trenger du i Meljine?
Noen timer
1Walk east from Savina on Pet Danica — the last 1.7 km of the promenade, finished in 2025
2The Lazure basin at the end of it: the 18th-century quarantine compound, restored, with the marina in front
3A swim off the pebble beach and its bathing pier
4Coffee on the waterfront, the hospital’s nineteen buildings up the slope behind you
An hour here explains why Herceg Novi grew where it did: this is where ships had to stop.
En hel dag
1Savina monastery first — the small church, the great church of 1777–1799, the treasury
2Down to the shore and east along the promenade into Meljine
3Mussels on the waterfront, then the afternoon on the beach
4The full 7 km of Pet Danica west, through the old town, to Igalo
Hvor bo i Meljine
The lazaret waterfront
Best for the restored Venetian compound — rooms and residences with the marina at the door
Above the coast road
Best for apartments up the slope, five minutes down to the promenade, cheaper than anything on the water
Savina
Best for the monastery hill and its old grove, between Meljine and the old town, with the bay below
Zelenika, next along
Best for the old railway terminus one headland east — more rooms, the same shore, no marina prices
Population change by settlement, Herceg Novi municipality, 2011 to 2023
Meljine gained people while the town it belongs to lost fourteen hundred. Inland Kuti nearly doubled in the same twelve years and is left off this scale.
MONSTAT censuses 2011 and 2023, settlement level
Hvem besøker Montenegro
Andel av utenlandske gjesters overnattinger, 2025
MONSTAT · 2025
Hvem bor her
Folketellinger, Meljine kommune
One of the few addresses on this shore that grew: 1,123 people in 2011, 1,283 in 2023, up 14 per cent — while Herceg Novi itself lost fourteen hundred. Đenovići, Sutorina and inland Kuti are the others.
Who ruled this shore
Meljine is a suburb of Herceg Novi and changed hands with it. What made the place was one Venetian decision: put the bay’s quarantine here. Widths are to scale.
Lazaret Meljine heritage record; Herceg Novi chronology; Monitor; Government of Montenegro.
A day in a hospital suburb
Two clocks: the wards and the promenade
07:00staff cars and ambulances on the coast road — the one hour Meljine has traffic
10:00the bathing pier at the end of the promenade is empty and the water is flat
14:00lunch on the waterfront while the marina’s day boats come and go
19:00half of Herceg Novi is out on Pet Danica, and Meljine is where the walk turns around
22:00the lazaret walls, lit from the water
I verdenspressen
The hospital has been the town’s news story since 2008 — a privatisation, a bankruptcy, and a return.
2015
MonitorSold to Atlas grupa in 2008 for €25m paid in bonds, with €119m of investment promised over seven years. Three million arrived.
2023
MondoFrom 1 March the hospital works inside the public system, as an organizational unit of Kotor General Hospital.
Bankruptcy proceedings opened in 2019 are still with the courts, and the Kotor arrangement was announced as temporary.
1732
I mellomtiden, i 1732
The year the bay got its quarantine
Meljine,1732: Venice finishes the lazaret it began three years earlier — walls without battlements around a hospital block, three smaller buildings, two piers and a courtyard with the chapel of St Roch. Ships and cargo were held and inspected here before they were let up the bay.
Herceg Novi —the bay’s first quarantine, opened inside the town in 1700, is given up: the clifftop city was slipping, and inspection needed flat ground on the water. Nine years after Meljine opens, a pipe brings water down from the Savina monastery next door.
Virginia:George Washington is born on 22 February.
London:George II grants James Oglethorpe the royal charter for the Province of Georgia on 21 April.
Stemmer
“The institution was one of the largest and best-equipped military hospitals in the former Yugoslavia.”
Youth Initiative for Human Rights, December 2022
Written during the privatisation dispute, when the hospital still had 155 staff across nineteen buildings.
“Lightning destroyed the Venetian galley sent to lay waste to the monastery, below the monastery itself.”
Lokal legende
Why Savina’s icon is called miraculous
Sammenlign alle hoteller i Meljine
Søk blant tusenvis av hoteller og leiligheter med oppdaterte priser.
Meljine er et tettsted rett øst for Herceg Novi, i praksis en forlengelse av byen langs nordsiden av Kotorbukta. Det ligger mellom Savina-området og Zelenika, omtrent 2 km fra gamlebyen.
Hva er Meljine kjent for?
Meljine er mest kjent for sykehuset sitt, som vokste fram av en østerriksk-ungarsk marinesykestue og lenge fungerte som militærsykehus, og for beliggenheten ved strandpromenaden, en kort spasertur fra Savina-klosteret.
Ligger Savina-klosteret i Meljine?
Savina ligger i den skogkledde skråningen mellom Meljine og Herceg Novi, så det er lett å gå dit fra begge. Anlegget rommer to Marias-hensovnelseskirker og en mindre middelaldersk, samt en rik skattkammersamling, blant sypresser over bukta.
Finnes det strender i Meljine?
Ja, steinstrender og badeplattformer langs promenaden, skjermet og rolige. Det er vanlige lokale strender snarere enn resortstrender, og derfor holder de seg roligere enn Igalo selv i august.
Kan man gå fra Meljine til Herceg Novi?
Uten videre. Strandpromenaden går hele veien, så gamlebyen ligger rundt 25 til 30 minutters gange unna ved sjøkanten, med Savina-klosteret i skråningen rett over ruten. Bussene går ofte hvis du heller vil kjøre.
Er Meljine et bra sted å bo?
Det passer reisende som vil ha Herceg Novis gamleby i gangavstand, men roligere og billigere innkvartering. Vent private leiligheter framfor hoteller, hverdagslige konobaer og butikker, og bukta rett over veien.
Har Meljine flyplass?
Nei — den nærmeste er Tivat lufthavn (TIV), 24 km unna langs vei.
Hvor varmt er sjøen i Meljine?
Fra rundt 13 °C i februar til 25 °C i august. Den holder seg over 22 °C fra juni til september — badesesongen. Regionale normaler fra stasjonen Bar, ikke en måling for byen selv.
Hvor langt er det fra Meljine til Herceg Novi?
2,1 km langs vei, omtrent 4 min med bil.
Er Meljine trygt?
Det britiske utenriksdepartementet (FCDO) fraråder ikke reiser til Montenegro; rådene ble sist gjennomgått 13. august 2026. Det er deres vurdering av landet som helhet, ikke vår og ingen dom over Meljine — les den selv før du reiser. Nødnummeret i Montenegro er 112.
Meljine gjennom året
febMimosa Festival — Herceg Novi’s spring festival, three kilometres west, running every February since 1969
augVelika Gospojina at Savina — the monastery just west of Meljine keeps its patronal feast, the Dormition, on 28 August
sepThe quiet return — warm sea, empty promenade — the best weeks on this shore
Den lokale tallerkenen
Dagnje na buzaru — mussels in their own broth
The Boka farms its mussels on ropes in the inner bay. Buzara is the preparation that matters: white wine, garlic, olive oil, breadcrumbs, and bread to finish what is left in the pan.
Hvor The waterfront konobas in Meljine and along Pet Danica towards Savina
