PI Maritime museum of Montenegro in Kotor in cooperation with Cultural Centre Nikola Đurković, Public library and reading room Kotor, with the objective of promoting Stories about our community’s place in Europe’s heritage, suggest organizing a walking tour for children and young people, named ,,Tales of the St. John Fortress’’. When a city is over two thousand years old, such as Kotor, a UNESCO World Heritage site, there are many stories to tell. And what better way to explore them than on a walking tour, where students would stretch their bodies and imagination while walking and climbing. The fortress Saint John (St. Ivan), one of the miracles of the mastery of medieval fortifications, lies above the walls of the old town of Kotor. Our plan is to present, in an entertaining and educational way, some of the most famous legends and stories related to the history of the fortress and Kotor. (the legend of the origin of Kotor, the legend of the Fairy Alkima, stories about the church of Our Lady of Health, Venetian Lions, Hayreddin Barbarossa's attack on Kotor and miraculous powers of Blessed Osanna of Kotor). In specially planned locations, along the fortress, we would set up the QR codes with selected stories, and then we will organize a tour with young students, where we will present the selected stories to them. We plan to hire professionals and make a short film about the walking tour, ,,Tales of the St. John Fortess " which we will present during ,,European heritage days'' , at the end of Septembre 2023. The film will be broadcast on local and national television channels, the websites of the Maritime Museum and the Public Library of Kotor and social networks.

Tales of the St. John Fortess Our European heritage Story is ,,Tales of the St. John Fortess’’. The bay of Kotor is a unique bay of the Mediterranean - an exceptional cultural landscape that makes the harmonious symbiosis of natural phenomena and architectural heritage. The ST. John fortress (St. Ivan), one of the miracles of medieval fortifications mastery is situated above the walls of Kotor’s Old town. The fortress was one of the main reasons for the inscription of Kotor and its natural and cultural district on the list of World Natural and Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in 1979. Climbing to the St. John fortress or as the people from Kotor like to call it, San Djovani, starts with the serpentines from the eastern part of the Old Kotor, which goes to the very top of the fortress on 280 m above sea level. Kotor had fortune to remain one of the few cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea to conserve completely the belt of fortifications despite war devastations and earthquakes in the past, or sanitary and urbanistic regulations of the 19th century, when many fortification in other cities were demolished by the order of authorities .The City walls are about 5 km long, 20, high, and about 10 m wide, completely preserved and as such represent a unique sample of the fortification architecture in Europe. We begin our story with climbing to the top of the fortress. We thought that it would be a good way of connecting cultural heritage with nature. We will contact the professional tour guide who is also a hiker and teachers from the local schools and we will organized educational and amusing walking tour to the top of the ST. John fortress for a limited number of students from Kotor. The aim of the tour is to help students to connect with cultural and natural heritage of their town. During this walking tour we will present to them a few of the most famous legends and stories related to the history of the fortress and Kotor. The storytellers will be: Fairy Alkima, Venetetian provider, Blessed Osanna, Barbarosa and Our Lady of Health. We will start with a legend about the town’s origins. Legend has it that Kotor’s foundation, at this very place happened because of a Fairy named Alkima, who lived in a cave called Vilinica, on the steep rocks of Pestingrad. As the legend goes, Akima was a fearless fairy. She rode the seas and the earth and did many good deeds. People respected her and glorified her name, and the gods loved her cheerful nature and sought her company. Than we will talk about Venetian lions. One of the most beautiful examples of Venetian lions in Kotor is the one placed at the very entrance of the St.John fortress, at the highest elevation in the city at approximately 260/280 m above sea level, put there immediately after Venice had gained power over Kotor. The whole sculpture, carved details and the composition show that it was work of a very skillful and inspired anonymous sculptor. This eternally awake guardian of the city has been watching over it for centuries, standing alone above the rocky hill, above the fortification created through symbiosis of God- given fragile rocks of St. John fortress and human hands and it is the biggest tourist attraction of modern Kotor. Then , we will present to them with one of the most important event in the history of Kotor, the successful defense of the town from a Turkish invasion led by the Minister of the Navy in The Turkish Empire, Hayreddin Barbarossa. Barbarossa submitted the town of Herceg Novi and then proceeded towards Kotor, entered with his 70 galleys and 30 000 soldiers in the northern arm of the river Škurda and for few days unsuccessfully attacked the North gate of Kotor on 1539. On that occasion, Kotor Bishop Luka Bisanti personally asked Blessed Osanna to come before the people and encourage them to defend their town. Together with soldiers on the bastions Riva and Bembo, the citizens of Kotor, actuated by the Kotor holly woman, Dominican nun, Blessed Osanna, fought against Turkish fleet, and the assault was rejected. Barbarossa, Read Beard, as he was known, had to retreat. As for Blessed Osanna, she, while still living, will become hugely venerated both in the Church and in the Town. Pope Pius XI on 1927 allowed public and ecclesiastic veneration of the Blessed Osanna, by which this Montenegrin shepherdess, a Kotor maid and Dominican nun, became the first south-Slav to be pronounced a Catholic saint. Many venerate her as a representative of ecumenism – the movement for the unification of Eastern and Western Churches. The last stop of our walking tour will be in front of the church of Our Lady of Health, halfway up the St. John fortress where students will hear the story about the church from 1518. Named Our Lady of Repose, and after one of numerous plague epidemics, the church became the votive church and received the name ‘’of Health’’. Kotor celebrates its municipal day on November 21, which is the day when believers celebrate Our Lady of Health and St. Arandjel Day. We will create QR codes with stories that we will place at carefully selected points on the Fortress. If we got a grant, we would make a short film. We would hire a professional director to design and film a short movie (20 to 30 minutes) about the walking tour, ,,Tales of the St. John Fortress " and actors who would tell stories acting as main caracters which we would present at the end of Septembre 2023. during ,,European heritage days." Then, the film would be displayed on local and national TV, websites of Maritime museum and Public library Kotor and social networks.

The harmonious relationship between nature and Kotor's rich cultural heritage, created and maintained through the centuries, makes this region a cultural landscape with outstanding values. Two different cultures, the East and the West, have exerted influences on one another, leaving their traces in art and culture, while remaining so close, impregnated and respectful of one another. Due to its unique mix of diverse cultural influences, Kotor's cultural heritage has been inscribed on UNESCO's World Cultural and Natural Heritage List since 1979 with 60% of all Montenegrin's cultural heritage within its territory. It is a magical place in which the past co-exists with the present. By telling our story, we will introduce participants to the rich history of Kotor, from the legends of the origin of the Kotor and the patron of the town Fairy Alkima, through Venetian times and battles with Turkish pirates and Christian patrons of the town, Our Lady of Health and Blessed Ozana, to the present day. With this project, ,,Tales of the St. John Fortress ", we are working on promotion of the cultural diversity of Kotor by connecting the heritage, culture and history in an amusing and informative way, with the active participation of the local community, primarily young people. Also, using digital technologies as QR codes and short films, we want to engage a new and wider audience and provide access to all interested in this topic. All future visitors,tourists and locals, to the St. John Fortress will be able to read about legends and stories from the history of Kotor.