Night of Fortresses (Noć tvrđava)

On 9 May — the Day of Europe — the Night of Fortresses (Noć tvrđava) throws open the gates of historic strongholds across the region for one free night. The 2025 edition, its third, connected 72 locations in 10 countries, and in Montenegro it lights up the Ulcinj kalaja along with the fortresses of Herceg Novi and Bar.

The kalaja — Ulcinj's Old Town fortress — is a place that rewards the after-dark visit the event makes possible. By day it is a maze of ramparts, gates and stone lanes on a headland over the sea; at night, lit for the occasion, its walls take on the theatrical presence they were built to project, with the dark Adriatic breathing below.

For one evening the fortress fills with concerts, exhibitions and guided tours inside the monuments — spaces normally seen by day suddenly alive after dark, with music echoing off stone that has guarded this coast for centuries. The event is an EU-backed cross-border heritage night, celebrating the fortresses as shared European heritage.

That framing matters: strongholds built to divide coastlines now host a single simultaneous celebration across ten countries, and standing in the kalaja that night connects you to dozens of other fortresses lit up the same way. Each edition adds something new — in 2025, Ulcinj opened an info-point for the archaeological site of Šas, extending the night's reach into the wider heritage of the Ulcinj region.

The guided tours are the insiders' pick: local experts lead groups through corners of the fortress most summer visitors never find, and the after-dark setting makes even familiar spaces new.

Everything is free — entry, tours, concerts. Early May is a beautiful, uncrowded moment on Montenegro's southernmost coast, and the Night of Fortresses is a singular reason to be in Ulcinj's Old Town after sunset.