Zelenika

Zelenika
Зеленика

Help on coat of arms

Basic data

State :

Montenegro

Municipality :

Herceg Novi

Coordinates :

42 ° 27 ' N , 18 ° 35' E Coordinates: 42 ° 27 '3 " N , 18 ° 35' 22" E

Height :

149 m. i. J.

Residents :

1,444 (2003)

Telephone code :

(+382) 031

Postal code :

85346

Zelenika is an urban settlement on the coast of Montenegro . It is the youngest town on the so-called Riviera of the Herceg Novi municipality .

history

The place was created around 1900 around the southernmost station of the Danube Monarchy and the associated loading port . The opening of the beach hotel in 1902 is considered the beginning of modern tourism in Montenegro.

Zelenika is a lively town with a campsite and overnight accommodation in private houses. The village of Meljine with the venerable Venetian hospital and a small hotel on the beach is located near the village .

“Zelenika” can be translated as “little green”. As a national-Slavic name, it is identical to the holly (ilex aquifolium) - a decorative bush plant.

Zelenika is originally a hamlet of the hinterland village of Kuti; - this was already inhabited in prehistory. Kuti is documented as a district center in the early Middle Ages, today still memorable due to the ruined church from the 10th to 11th centuries with excellent early Romanesque art objects in the Herceg Novi museum . Only when the fortress was founded in 1382 did this regional importance pass to Herceg Novi, but Kuti was still considered a model village under Turkish rule until Venice besieged Herceg Novi in 1687. On this occasion the name Zelenika appeared for the first time - for a torrent - or for its marshy waters on the sea coast; this also as a demarcation to the west, from the subsequently Venetian newly settled village Sasović, this also in the hinterland. The Napoleonic occupation followed when a passable road was built around the swamp - assumed with the first settlers on the sea coast.

In the 19th century the area belonged to Austrian Dalmatia. Due to the new survey cartographies, the place name Zelenika appeared in 1838 - on the eastern Kuti side. In the 1880s, the two coastal strips were directly connected by means of a new road over three bridges straight through the morass, already as preparatory work for the second most important naval base in Austria-Hungary, obviously with further settlements on site - as well as Dr. Antal Magyar, even from Budapest, built his villa on the west side of the village around 1899, immediately before the whole area turned into a construction site. With the construction of a tunnel and the removal of one side of the hill, the platform for the southernmost terminus of the Danube monarchy appeared in 1901, and a loading port along with a logistical military warehouse - built on the heaped mud. The station building - on the west side - got the inscription Zelenika: This means that the east-west division of the village has been finally eliminated. And the said Villa-Magyar, with the beginning of additions as a “Pension am Grünen Strande”, was immediately opened for tourism in 1902, apart from other private business initiatives around the train station and the harbor. However, Zelenika is still considered the cradle of the Montenegrin hotel industry, not only because of the oldest hotel, but also because the first organized tourist trips to the then Principality of Montenegro were held here.

In the inter-war period, during the reign of Yugoslavia, tourism developed increasingly, but the “Strandhotel Zelenika”, with foreign guests, remained an important part of Herceg Novi's economy. For the otherwise up-and-coming Zelenika, the castle-like hotel with three towers - along with the associated park and three villas - was the actual decoration of the town. Otherwise, apart from the remaining military operations, the coastal village stood out as a pulsating business center, regionally with food and building materials trade and also internationally through the expedition entrepreneur Obren Dunđerović. For two decades of peace, Zelenika has been the main tax collector in Herceg Novi County.

The post-war regime then nationalized everything and dragged it into Herceg Novi. Otherwise the military withdrew. In addition, a new axis was funded in the Republic of Montenegro: capital Podgorica - port city Bar. When the Dalmatian Railway to Zelenika was also abolished, the village stagnated completely. Even the historic hotel has been degraded to a children's recreation area. Although an “Adriatic Magistrale” was built, the increasing amount of car traffic was directed through the agglomeration that had arisen up to now . However, because of the logistics of the mass tourism that was being promoted at the same time, the port and storage facility in Zelenika increased in importance again - now with a customs office. The two original villages increasingly lost their inhabitants, since the war, but behind the coastal agglomeration of Zelenika, the settlement - private house building - increased significantly. Apart from a wooded car camp, hardly any tourists came here.

A new development opportunity for Zelenika may open up again through the system change after 1990 - or state sovereignty in 2006 - at best thanks to the customs port and again liberated private initiative, especially since Herceg Novi is spatially stifled, while Zelenika has a wide hinterland - already with lively activity along the Coast: very differentiated trade and commerce, in addition to a small marina that is bursting at its feet, but without relevant spatial planning. The ostensible human problem is through traffic: This can be significantly redesigned by separating the lanes and the roundabout - this creates free space for pedestrians. This conversion is inevitable in the town center, where an attractive piazetta can also be created in the harbor area. The abandoned Bahnhof-Riva is available for excellent tourist rehabilitation, with the most new aparthotel on the green steep slope behind it, including a historic hotel that is now in ruin - in front of it with a much sought-after large marina.

Web links

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

Private website about Zelinika

Individual evidence

↑ See: Strandhotel Zelenika .

[1] See: Strandhotel Zelenika .