Island of Mamula
The fortress known as Mamula is built on the small, rocky isle of Lastavica, of a circular shape and with a diameter of about 200m, which is located at the entrance of the Boka Kotorska Bay, 3.5 nautical miles away from the town of Herceg Novi. The isle is listed in the cadastral records Radovanići, as cadastral parcel no. 3438, with the surface of 31,848m2, registered in the Deed of Title 215 as state property of Montenegro 1/1.
The fortress Mamula nowadays represents on of the biggest and best preserved Austrian fortifications on the Adriatic, characterised by monumentality, prominent building precision and perfect functionality of form. The fortress is protected as a second category cultural monument. Furthermore, there are expressed interests from earlier for the revitalisation of the Mamula Fortress and in that sense certain preliminary designs have also been created, with solutions to turn this interesting fortification structure into an exclusive tourism and hospitality facility, while respecting its basic monumental qualities. However, apart from creating the preliminary designs, the development of this idea did not go any further, so the fortress is still unused today. The platforms and plateaus of Mamula, as well as the premises of the massive fort, offer a selection of new, modern functions, especially those that would serve to satisfy the needs and demands of a wealthy clientele. Fort Mamula could get a new, modern purpose, while respecting the process prescribed by law regarding its reconstruction and revitalisation. While making the project documentation for the reconstruction of this fortification, the investor must comply with the conservation conditions, which the investor is obligated to request from the competent Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, before carrying out any kind of works on the fort.
With the aim of finding new, future solutions for using the Mamula Fortress, before creating the preliminary design, it is necessary to achieve timely cooperation between the planners and the experts for protection of cultural monuments and approach the creation of the preliminary and main project in compliance with the conservation conditions and the basic principle that the selected function meets the specifications of the monument. The future modern purpose of the fortress Mamula must be planned so as to preserve and protect the monumental properties of the structure, which generally means keeping the basic form of the structure, layout and size of openings, roof solutions, preserving the inscriptions on the facade and other features of this fortification cultural monument, which will be specified in the conservation conditions. The investor is obligated to submit the project documentation created on the basis of the conservation conditions to the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in order to obtain prior approval.