Risan

This article deals with the location in Montenegro, for the Norwegian actor see Knut Risan (1930–2011).

Risan Рисан
Help on coat of arms
Basic data
State :	Montenegro
Municipality :	Kotor
Coordinates :	42 ° 31 '  N , 18 ° 42'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 30 '53 "  N , 18 ° 41' 42"  E
Residents :	2,083 (2003)
Telephone code :	(+382) 082
Postal code :	85337
License plate :	KO

Risan ( Greek Rhizon ; Latin Risinium , Italian Risano ) is a small town on the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro . The place with 3500 inhabitants is part of the municipality ( Opština ) Kotor . Risan is located in the innermost corner of the bay, below the almost 1,000 m high limestone walls of the Orjen Mountains.

The quiet place is a popular tourist destination mainly because of its many beaches. Risan is also a starting point for mountain tours on the Orjen Mountains, because from here a well-developed road leads up to the top of the pass (1,594 m). This route also connects Risan with the Montenegrin hinterland (via Ledenice to Nikšić ) and with the Hercegovina (border crossing at Vrbanje). The most important traffic connection, however, is the coastal road around the Bay of Kotor via Risan to Herceg Novi .

history

View of Risan

Risan market

Banja Monastery near Risan as seen from the Bay of Kotor

Risan originated in the 4th century BC. As a Greek colony . The safe harbor in the Bay of Kotor ( Sinus Rhizonicus in ancient times ) is the oldest settlement in the area; it served the trade with the Illyrian population. Risan was probably just an emporion and not an independent polis . In any case, the place was repeatedly under the control of Illyrian rulers. 229 BC Risan was briefly the refuge of Queen Teuta , who was besieged by the Romans. For the middle of the 2nd century, the Illyrian Ballaios is known as the ruler of Risan. He minted his own silver coins here, while only bronze coins are known of the city itself. In recent archaeological excavations, a large coin find from the time of Ballaios was unearthed in Risan under the direction of the Polish archaeologist Piotr Dyczek. This contains over 4000 coins with a total weight of 15 kg. According to the findings so far, the ancient population of Risan is assumed to have 5000 inhabitants. The remains of the one kilometer long wall testify to the size of the city with the Illyrian patron deity Medaurus .

After the Second Roman-Illyrian War , Risan, like the entire eastern Adriatic coast , came under the influence of Rome . Until the end of the republic one was content with the protectorate over the individual cities and tribes of the region. Under Emperor Augustus Risan was incorporated into the province of Dalmatia and received the status of a municipium . The imperial Risinium quickly Romanized and was able to maintain its status as a regional trading center into the 6th century.

Arthur Evans has excavated parts of villas with important mosaics from the Roman era , mostly from the 2nd century. A representation of the god Hypnos is the most important Roman mosaic on Montenegrin soil.

In the 6th century Risan is mentioned as a bishopric (Risinium); At the end of the same century, however, the city was destroyed and abandoned during the invasions of the Avars and Slavs . Risan is mentioned again in the 8th century, but not as a city, but as a Slavic settlement. The political, economic and religious center of the bay has been Kotor since the Middle Ages , where a new diocese was established in the 9th century . Risan has been an insignificant town since then, but it was fortified anyway. A small castle above the settlement bears witness to this.

In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Serbian Kingdom of Travunia from the 8th to the middle of the 13th century . From the middle of the 13th century it was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Vojinović and Altomanović . Nikola Altomanović conquered large areas in western central Serbia, before he was defeated in 1373 by a joint action by the Bosnian prince and later Serbian king Tvrtko I and the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović , and his territory was divided between the victors.

After 1370 Risan belonged to the Montenegrin principality of the Serbian Balšić dynasty. After the end of 1421, the place becomes Venetian .

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottomans managed to take Risan. Together with Herceg Novi, the place was one of the two Turkish bridgeheads on the Bay of Kotor. Risan had a small Ottoman garrison in the 16th century with around 100 soldiers and 300 to 400 mostly Serbian residents, most of whom came from Herzegovina. During the Turkish War from 1683 to 1699, the Venetians succeeded in taking Risan in 1687. The Treaty of Karlowitz with the Sublime Porte confirmed ownership to the Republic of Venice . After the end of the Mark Republic, Russian, English and French crews changed at the Bay of Kotor. Due to the regulations of the Congress of Vienna , the bay and thus Risan became part of the k. (U.) K. Monarchy. Belonging to Yugoslavia since 1918, Risan came to the Republic of Montenegro in 1944.

literature

• Goran Ž. Komar: Boka Kotorska. Kulturno-istorijski vodič. Beograd 2002, ISBN 86-83727-10-6 .
• Borivoje Ž. Milojević: Boka Kotorska (Regionalno-geografska). In: Zbornik radova (Journal of the Geographical Inst. Of the Serbian Academy of Science ) , born in 1953, pp. 1–52.

Web links

Commons : Risan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Szymon Zdziebłowski: Spektakularne odkrycie polskich archeologów w Czarnogórze . ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the PAP news agency's website "Nauka w Polsce" , June 14, 2010, accessed on August 22, 2017 (Polish)