In a speech to the French Senate in November 1813, Napoleon Bonaparte declared, “All Europe was marching with us a year ago, today all Europe is marching against us.” A month before, the emperor had indeed faced troops composed of German, Russian, Austrian, Swedish, Italian, Polish, and British soldiers in Leipzig, a town in Saxony. Emboldened by Napoleon’s failed Russian campaign, Russia and France’s former allies joined their forces to expel the emperor from central Europe. The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was the largest and the bloodiest confrontation of the Napoleonic Wars. Ending with a disastrous defeat for France, the battle marked the beginning of the end for Napoleon’s empire.

The Road to the Battle of Leipzig: The Russian Retreat

“There is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous,” Napoleon famously remarked during the long and harsh retreat from Moscow. In 1812, the Emperor of the French, who had seized power in 1799, controlled most of Europe. In a series of successful military campaigns, known as the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon had annexed the Low Countries along with large portions of the Italian peninsula and present-day Germany. In 1805, he united all the German states (except Prussia) in the Confederation of the Rhine. By the Treaty of Tilsit (1806), he extended his authority further, creating the Duchy of Warsaw in present-day Poland. A series of alliances with Austria, Prussia, and Russia secured the French emperor’s hold on continental Europe.

In 1812, as Tsar Alexander I was showing reluctance to comply with the terms of their alliance, Napoleon began to prepare a military campaign against his ally. The first French troops entered Russia on June 24, 1812. The Grande Armée arrived in Moscow in September and found the city burning. Faced with Russia’s refusal to sue for peace and the incoming winter, Napoleon began his retreat in October.

The long withdrawal through Russia was disastrous for the French army. Chased by enemy forces and exhausted by the frigid weather, the French soldiers finally crossed the frontier in early December. While the Russians suffered high casualties, the Grande Armée, one of the largest military formations ever assembled, was in shambles. Of the more than 610,000 soldiers who had followed Napoleon into Russia, only about 110,000 returned. Approximately 120,000 men were made prisoners.

Shifting Alliances

When Lithuanian novelist Sophie de Tisenhaus met Alexander I at the end of December 1812, the tsar commented on Napoleon’s disastrous campaign with the following words: “What a career he has ruined! Having gained so much glory, he could bestow peace on Europe, and he has not done so. The spell is broken.” Indeed, the failed invasion of Russia had irrevocably weakened the foundations of Napoleon’s Continental System.

The survivors of the Russian campaign witnessed firsthand the political effects of Napoleon’s defeat. “The attitude of the inhabitants left me in no doubt as to their hostility to us,” commented Lieutenant Colonel Noël upon entering East Prussia. “I was certain we should have been attacked if they had known that we were not being followed by more troops,” he added. To secure the safety of his soldiers, the French officer intimidated the local mayor into compliance, informing him that any threat would result in the burning of the village. The villagers responded by intoning scornful songs against the French. “The refrain of one of them was explained to us, ‘Five French to pay for one Prussian: it’s not too much,’” recalled Noël.

While Napoleon hoped for the continued military assistance of Prussia and Austria, the news of the outcome of his Russian campaign turned the balance of power in Europe against him. In December 1812, Prussian Field Marshal Johann von Yorck altered the system of alliances by signing the Convention of Tauroggen with the Russians. As a result, the French troops were forced to evacuate East Prussia. On January 4, 1813, the French Marshal Macdonald withdrew from Königsberg. On the same day, the Russian army entered the town. Shortly after the defection of Field Marshal Yorck, the Estates of East Prussia announced that they would no longer support Napoleon. Other regional Prussian authorities followed their example.

Pressured by the wave of anti-French sentiment spreading throughout Prussia, King Frederick William III finally decided to change sides, signing the Treaty of Kalish with Russia in February 1813. By the terms of the pact, the tsar pledged to help Prussia recover the territories lost after the battle of Jena. In exchange, Frederick William agreed to support the Russian military campaign against France. Additionally, the two sovereigns vowed not to undertake unilateral negotiations with Napoleon.

The German Campaign

On March 16, 1813, Prussia declared war on France. Two days later, the Russian troops reached northern Germany, seeking to spark a revolt against French rule. In January, they had already entered the Duchy of Warsaw. The defection of Mackenburg from the Confederation of the Rhine weakened the French emperor’s hold in central Europe. To make matters worse, the king of Sweden, Bernadotte, signed an alliance with Great Britain, joining the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon. In April, Bernadotte cemented his anti-French policy by entering an agreement with Prussia.

By the early months of 1813, Napoleon had partially rebuilt his Grande Armée. However, the heavy losses suffered during the Russian campaign had disrupted the efficient conscription system. Nevertheless, by April, the emperor had managed to amass approximately 150,000 men for the upcoming military expedition in Germany. However, most conscripts of the new army were young recruits without previous experience on the field. Nicknamed “Marie-Louises” for their youthful appearance, the teenage soldiers had also received little training. “Their extreme youth and poor physique roused a deep pity among the crowds around them,” commented Minister of Justice Louis-Mathieu Molé. Additionally, Napoleon lacked cavalry, whose ranks had been decimated in Russia.

The German campaign took off toward the end of April when Napoleon arrived in Erfurt, a city in present-day central Germany. On the field, he faced the collective forces of Russia, Prussia, and Sweden. As the emperor successfully led his men into Saxony, he hoped to recover northern Germany and cross the Vistula River as quickly as possible. On May 1, Napoleon’s army defeated the Allies in Lützen. However, his lack of cavalry prevented him from pursuing the retreating coalition formations at a quick pace. The same problem recurred in Bautzen on May 20 and 21.

Mediating Peace: Napoleon vs Metternich

As Napoleon failed to score a decisive victory against the Allies, he accepted an armistice on June 4. “Two considerations have caused me to make this decision,” declared the emperor, “my lack of cavalry, which prevents me from striking strong blows, and the hostile attitude of Austria.” While Emperor Francis I had remained neutral during the Spring campaign, Napoleon had received news of an Austrian rearmament. “People are trying to mislead Papa François,” wrote the French emperor to his wife, Marie Louise, on May 14. In particular, Napoleon was wary of Clemens von Metternich’s influence on his father-in-law. He is “a mere intriguer,” he remarked.

Despite his distrust for the Austrian statesman, Napoleon agreed to meet Metternich at Marcolini Palace in Dresden on July 26 to negotiate peace terms. During their heated encounter, which lasted at least eight hours, Metternich supposedly requested from the emperor the return of Illyria, the dissolution of the Confederation of the Rhine and the Duchy of Warsaw, and the restitution of large portions of Italy. Napoleon would also have to agree to restore the pre-1806 Prussian borders. In his retrospective account of the meeting, Metternich claimed that Napoleon rejected his terms, exclaiming: “So you, too, want war; well, you shall have it. I have annihilated the Prussian army at Lützen; I have beaten the Russians at Bautzen; now you wish your turn to come.”

Unbeknownst to Napoleon, Metternich ratified the Convention of Reichenbach the following day, which stated that Austria would enter war alongside the Allies if Napoleon rejected the peace proposals. On June 30, the French emperor and Metternich met again. They agreed to extend the ceasefire and convene a peace conference in Prague in July. When Napoleon renewed his rejection of the Allies’ requests, Austria declared war on France on August 12, two days after the end of the armistice. Napoleon’s counterterms reached the Allies only two days later. “Deceived by Metternich, your father has sided with my enemy,” lamented the emperor to Marie Louise.

The Battle of Leipzig

When the hostilities resumed, Napoleon faced three enemy forces: the Army of Bohemia led by the Austrian Prince of Schwarzenberg, the Army of Silesia under Prussian General Blücher, and the Army of the North led by Bernadotte. In July, the Allies’ commanders met in Trachenberg (present-day Żmigród) to devise a shared strategy. Following General Joseph Radetsky’s advice, they agreed to avoid a direct confrontation with Napoleon. Instead, they would concentrate their efforts against his lieutenants, thus forcing the French emperor to divide his army.

Despite achieving some victories in August, Napoleon’s forces, exhausted by the inconclusive campaign, were experiencing low morale in the Fall. To make matters worse, Bavaria declared its neutrality in September, prompting other German states to reconsider their alliance with Napoleon. In France, the population began to protest against the new levy.

By October, the Allies had concentrated their forces near Leipzig. Instead of ordering a retreat, Napoleon decided to engage his enemies. The Battle of Leipzig began on October 16. On that rainy early morning, about 180,000 French troops faced approximately 350,000 Allied soldiers. By 5 p.m., Napoleon had successfully blocked a double attack from his enemies. However, he failed to achieve a definitive breakthrough. The following day, the French emperor allowed his men to rest and sent the Allies an armistice proposal. Among his ranks, morale remained low. “It was a wretched day: the sky hung low and gray and the weather was cold and wet,” later recalled artillery officer Noël, “Illusions were shattered as everyone began to understand the situation. We saw before us a numerous, courageous enemy determined, at any cost, to regain his independence.”

The Battle of Leipzig resumed on October 18. While Napoleon’s army initially held its ground against the enemy attack, things quickly turned bleak, especially after some Saxon divisions defected to the Allies and began firing against the French troops. In the afternoon, Napoleon realized the gravity of his situation. “His face was pale and as cold as marble,” officer Johann Röhrig wrote in his diary, “only occasionally did an expression of rage cross his face. He saw that all was lost. We were only fighting for our withdrawal.”

On October 19, the last day of the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon ordered a retreat. The French army’s march out of Leipzig soon became chaotic. As they had not had enough time to build pontoon bridges across the rivers passing through the city, Napoleon’s troops were forced to cross by a single bridge. At 11:30 a.m., when the overpass was still full of soldiers, a corporal mistakenly blew it up. The effect was catastrophic. As body parts fell into the river, some officers and soldiers tried to swim to safety. Many drowned before reaching the opposite bank.

The Aftermath of the Battle of Leipzig

“Between a battle lost and a battle won,” Napoleon declared before the battle, “the distance is immense and there stand empires.” Indeed, the Battle of Leipzig marked a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of his defeat, Napoleon lost all territories east of the Rhine River, considerably reducing the size of his empire.

After the battle of Leipzig, the emperor also lost a second army within the space of a few years. Between the captured, dead, and wounded, around 47,000 men did not return to France. Many soldiers died of sickness during the disorganized retreat from Germany. “Thus one might say that on leaving Leipzig we were accompanied by all the plagues that can devour an army,” commented Captain Barrès.

On the home front, the disastrous outcome of the 1813 campaign eroded the basis of Napoleon’s power. After ten years of frequent conflicts, the population longed for peace. In December, the Legislative Body issued a critique of the emperor’s conduct, demanding more civil and political rights. The various wars had also depleted the country’s finances.

In 1814, Napoleon began reorganizing his military resources to arrest the Allies’ advance toward France. His prospects, however, were dire. All German states had changed sides. Joachim Murat had signed an alliance with Austria. The Duke of Wellington had entered southern France near Bayonne after securing a decisive victory in the Iberian peninsula. In April, the Allied armies entered Paris. Napoleon abdicated his throne and was exiled to the island of Elba. In March 1815, he escaped from his internment and returned to Paris. Napoleon’s second reign, known as the Hundred Days, ended with a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

From peasant to trusted advisor and friend of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, Rasputin is one of the most intriguing figures of the late Russian Empire. A monk with a unique interpretation of Orthodox Christianity, a self-proclaimed healer, and a seducer, Gregory Rasputin’s rise and fall inspired generations of writers and filmmakers. While his name is famous, his story is mysterious. Discover more about the enigmatic figure with 11 unbelievable facts about the “Mad Monk.”

Rasputin Life Timeline

1. Rasputin’s Childhood Is Considered a “Black Hole”

Not much is known about Rasputin’s early years before his religious conversion, and it is sometimes referred to as a “black hole.” Born on January 21, 1869, he was probably one of nine children born to his peasant parents. Potentially only one of his siblings, a sister called Feodosiya, survived to adulthood. He lived in a small Siberian village named Pokrovskoye, and harsh conditions resulted in high infant mortality rates.

His father seems to have been a farmer and local church elder, and also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between Tobolsk and Tyumen in the harsh Siberian environment. This probably meant that Rasputin received no formal education and was illiterate well into adulthood.

2. He Was Married with Children

Rasputin lived a fairly standard peasant life until he joined the Orthodox Church in the 1890s. He travelled to Abalak, another Siberian village, to find a wife, a peasant girl named Praskovya Dubrovina. He courted her for several months and then married her in 1887, taking her back to Pokrovskoye.

The couple had seven children together, three of whom survived into adulthood: Dmitry, born in 1895; Maria, born in 1898; and Varvara, born in 1900.

3. He Joined an Illegal Sect in the Russian Orthodox Church

The 28-year-old Rasputin went on a pilgrimage in 1897 that led to a religious awakening. He visited various towns and churches and discovered the Khlyst sect. One of the many beliefs of the Khlysts was that only by committing sins and repenting can one get close to God. This is based on his later religious beliefs, which aligned with Khlyst ideas, but there is no evidence that he actually joined the sect.

It is believed that he learned to read and write when he spent several months at a monastery in Verkhoturye, but did not stay because he criticized the monks for engaging in homosexuality.

Following his “awakening,” Rasputin returned home, but spent much of his time traveling around the Russian Empire, declaring himself a “Holy Man” with supernatural abilities, such as healing. When he was home, he had a small circle of followers who prayed with him on Sundays and other Holy Days, with their secret prayer sessions raising local suspicions.

4. He Was Probably a Hypnotist, Not a Healer

Shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1905, Rasputin was introduced to the Royal Household. He gradually got close to the Romanovs and, in 1907, helped stabilize the condition of the sick young heir Alexei. This event would gain him the favor of Nicholas II, and more particularly, of his wife, Alexandra.

It is unlikely that the monk possessed any of his self-proclaimed healing abilities. As a matter of fact, even the inner circle of the Royal Household disbelieved this. While he indeed helped young Alexei, he may have used hypnosis skills that he developed during his “religious awakening.” Hypnosis was very common among Orthodox priests. Rasputin often utilized his abilities, particularly to impress the ladies of the Russian nobility.

5. Rasputin Had Terrible Manners and Horrible Hygiene

According to most of his contemporaries, Rasputin’s manners were unfit for Russian nobility. Like most peasants, he was accustomed to a humble lifestyle. The use of spoons, forks, and knives had yet to be generalized among the peasantry, and thus, the monk struggled to adapt to the customs of his new entourage.

However, by all accounts, his bad manners were excessive even for the peasantry. It is said that he would lick spoons before serving others and often had food portions in his beard. In addition, Rasputin rarely washed and often had a foul odor.

6. Rasputin Called Himself “Christ in Miniature”

Following his religious conversion in 1897, Rasputin traveled around the country, supposedly healing people with his “unnatural” powers. He progressively developed a reputation as a mystic and declared himself a “holy man.” He embraced this reputation so strongly that he claimed to be sent by God to save the Russian Empire, knew the time of his death, and said to the French Ambassador that “despite his terrible sins, he is Christ in Miniature.”

Those words would have usually passed for the rambling of a madman if it weren’t for the fact that a significant part of the Russian nobility believed him and followed his words, including Tsarina Alexandra.

7. Rasputin Seduced Several Noblewomen

Despite his self-declared holiness, Rasputin indulged in several activities considered sinful. The “Mad Monk,” as he was called by many, was a heavy drinker. It is said that he rarely sobered up, and when he did, it was only to spend time with various ladies of the court.

In fact, despite his severe lack of hygiene, Rasputin managed to gain the favor of many noblewomen. It is even said that he had an affair with the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. While this is questionable, he certainly had a great influence over her,  and she blindly implemented his advice when her husband left her in charge of the country in 1916 following his departure to the front.

Both his political influence and his popularity among the ladies of Saint Petersburg gained Rasputin enemies in the upper class. The latter’s resentment only grew with time and reached a breaking point on the eve of the First World War in 1914.

8. He Influenced Russia’s Involvement In World War I

Rasputin opposed Russia’s entry into World War I. He claimed that the conflict would be disastrous for the country and have cataclysmic consequences for the monarchy. As his advice was not heeded, Rasputin insisted on going to the front to bless Russian troops. This was refused, and the army’s  Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, vowed to have him hanged if he got anywhere near the frontlines.

However, Rasputin correctly predicted the early disastrous defeats of the Russian Empire. This pushed Tsar Nicholas II to heed his advice to take command of the army, thus abandoning Saint Petersburg to his wife, who was under the monk’s influence. The Tsar’s leadership in battle did not impact the stalemate with the Central Powers and damaged his popularity.

9. Rasputin Predicted His Own Death

The correspondence of Rasputin and Tsar Nicholas II after the monarch’s departure to the frontlines indicates that the monk had quite an interest in his own death. In a letter from December 1916, Rasputin wrote: “I feel that I shall leave life before January 1st… If it was your relations who have wrought my death, then none of your children will remain alive for more than two years.”

It would indeed be the Tsar’s relations that ended the life of Rasputin. Growing weary of his lasting influence, some of the most prominent noblemen of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg’s name during World War I) plotted his assassination in December 1916, two months before the start of the February Revolution that would end Romanov rule. His prediction that the Tsar’s children would die two years after his death came true.

10. Rasputin Survived an Assassination Attempt In 1914

Due to his influence, the many enemies of Rasputin were not only members of the Russian nobility. Many priests of the Orthodox Church severely condemned the self-declared “Christ in Miniature.” Among them was Sergei Trufanov, also known as Hieromonk Iliodor. He was one of the followers of Georgy Gapon, a leading figure in the 1905 Revolution, and severely condemned the shortcomings of the late Romanov rule.

On the 12th of July 1914, a peasant woman named Chionya Guseva, a supporter of Iliodor, approached Rasputin on the streets and stabbed him in the stomach. The Mad Monk managed to run away and survived the wound. The would-be assassin was later found insane and isolated in an asylum in Tomsk. Iliodor fled to Norway right after learning of the failed attempt.

11. Rasputin Proved Hard to Kill

Prince Felix Yusupov, a nobleman and significant opponent of Rasputin, lured him to his palace on the 29th of December 1916. With co-conspirators, the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich and Deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, Prince Yusupov fed the monk some cyanide-laced cakes and drinks. But despite the high quantity of consumed poison, Rasputin did not die and continued indulging himself in the various offered commodities.

Exacerbated, Yusupov and his allies shot the monk several times. But even then, Rasputin survived. However, he found himself incapacitated by the wounds and was thrown into the Malaya Nevska River. The water found in his lungs suggests that Grigory Rasputin died by drowning at the age of 47. A few months later, the Tsar abdicated, and the Russian Empire was no more.

For four years, the world witnessed a devastating conflict that would claim the lives of 22 million people. Whilst soldiers fought in bitter conditions on fronts all over Europe and beyond, much of the strategy was devised over grand maps in Field Marshals’ offices.

Whilst these maps hide the human cost of World War I, they show its truly impressive scale, and the grandiose ideas that were conceived to help break the never-ending stalemate.

1. Europe in 1914

This map shows how a minor territory dispute between an empire and its neighbor degenerated into a full-blown conflict between the major powers of Europe.

The previous century had seen two large defensive alliance blocks form: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia). They believed that this system would create stability across the globe. This belief was proved catastrophically false when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand escalated into the Great Powers declaring war on each other.

The alliances would not prove to be rigid either. Italy would remain neutral at the outbreak of war, then switch sides. The Ottoman Empire, not part of either alliance system, would then join Germany and Austria-Hungary.

2. The Schlieffen Plan

Germany’s master strategy, the Schlieffen Plan, which made the High Command believe it could fight on two fronts, was proposed ten years before the outbreak of World War I.

The plan suggested a sweeping attack through Belgium, around the French defenses, to envelop the French army and quickly knock them out of the war. The German forces would then turn back eastwards to face what the German High Command believed to be the greater enemy, Russia, which would take longer to mobilize.

Whilst the strategy itself was meticulously detailed, its execution suffered from revisions and delays, meaning Germany was unable to achieve its objectives. The Schlieffen Plan was used by the victorious powers to blame Germany for starting the war.

3. Battle of the Marne

The Battle of the Marne was the closest France came to capitulation during the entire war. Germany was able to move rapidly through Belgium, forcing a general retreat of the French armies, aided by the British Expeditionary Force.

The German First and Second Armies came within miles of Paris. They were only driven back by last-ditch counterattacks by the British and French, before overstretched supply lines allowed the French to push them back.

The first month of the war was absolutely devastating, as both sides showed they were unprepared to fight a modern war. Indeed, nearly 10% of the soldiers who were killed during the entire war died in August 1914.

4. The Race to the Sea

After the initial German offensive and the subsequent Allied counterattack had stalled, both armies raced northwards in an attempt to outflank the other.

Neither side was able to break through. Thus, Germany and the Allied powers began establishing the trench networks that would stay almost stagnant for the rest of the war.

5. The Eastern Front

An often-forgotten part of World War I, the Eastern Front was much more fluid than the West. This was due to larger armies and more territory to cover. Trenches were shallowed, and combat was much more mobile.

The Russian army initially made huge advances, cutting through Austria-Hungary. However, they were driven back at the Battle of Tannenberg, slowly losing ground until 1916.

Like in the West, the early days of World War I saw a very high casualty rate on the Eastern Front. This was further exacerbated by poor planning by the Russians and the Austrians.

6. The Italian Front

Late to enter the war, Italy had initially declared itself neutral. However, secret negotiations with Britain and France caused it to join the Entente.

On the Italian Front, battles were mostly fought in the mountains on the Italian-Austrian border. The above map shows the territory changes through eleven different battles, all fought over the Isonzo River.

Perhaps the most stagnant front for much of World War I, it was finally the twelfth Battle of the Isonzo that saw significant movement. An Austrian breakthrough led to huge territorial gains and mass Italian desertions, with up to 400,000 soldiers disappearing and returning home.

7. The Balkan (Salonika) Front

The initial flashpoint of the war, Serbia initially resisted the Austrian invasion. With the Habsburg Empire’s forces soon drawn to other fronts, it seemed like the underdog kingdom could potentially have survived the war.

However, the Kingdom of Bulgaria’s intervention, on October 14, 1915, on the side of Germany, would prove decisive. Serbia would fall within a month. It would be two years before the Allies attempted to open another front in the region.

8. The Battle of Jutland

This map shows the Battle of Jutland, the only major naval clash of World War I. From the start of the war, the British had imposed a blockade on Germany, severely restricting imports of key goods and materials.

The smaller German navy attempted to break the blockade by trapping part of the British fleet. In the end, Jutland proved to be inconclusive. German media initially claimed victory as Britain suffered heavier casualties.

However, key German ships were forced to be scuttled, and the blockade remained in place. These supply issues would lead to the eventual German surrender in 1918.

9. The Battle of Gallipoli

This map shows how the Battle of Gallipoli, an attempt to open up a new front to relieve pressure in the West, turned into a disaster for the Allies.

Debates had raged amongst the members of the British Cabinet about whether to attack through the Balkans or the Ottoman Empire. Those in favor of Turkey, led by Winston Churchill, got their wish.

The whole invasion was poorly planned and poorly executed. Plans were changed when minefields could not be cleared, and the prepared Ottoman armies were able to hold the surrounding heights.

Half a million total casualties were suffered in the campaign before it was abandoned within a year.

10. The Battle of Verdun

This map shows the German attempt to break the French lines around the city of Verdun during the longest single battle of World War I.

Repeated German attacks would push the French army back towards the city, before desperate counterattacks began to reclaim the same territory. The same town, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, was captured sixteen times within two months.

With 300,000 men killed during the battle, Verdun became a symbol of French defiance and national pride for the rest of the war.

11. The Brusilov Offensive

This map shows the largest battle (in terms of manpower) of World War I, with an estimated two to three million casualties. It was also Russia’s greatest victory in the conflict.

Initially meant to draw German forces away from Verdun, a small offensive under capable general Aleksei Brusilov turned into a rout for Austria-Hungary. Its army was rendered almost inoperable and would struggle for the rest of the war.

Despite the victory, the Russian army suffered heavily. The boost in morale it gave was short-lived, and the failure to capitalize on these gains the following year helped trigger the February Revolution and then the October Revolution.

12. Battle of the Somme

Also used to distract Germany during Verdun, this British-led offensive has come to define World War I in the minds of many in the Commonwealth.

Using many inexperienced volunteers who had signed up during the early days of the war, the first day of the Somme was exceptionally lethal, with 60,000 casualties suffered by Britain alone.

The initial disaster was followed by the longest gain for the Allies since the First Battle of the Marne. Advancing over ten kilometers, they fell just short of their objective. The above map shows the contribution of Canadian divisions to the battle.

13. Operation Alberich: The German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line

After being defeated at Verdun and being driven back at the Somme, the German High Command decided to reevaluate its strategy.

This map shows how the German Army conducted a retreat to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line. This new line shortened the front, making it easier to secure, and took advantage of much deeper and easier-to-defend trench networks.

The retreat caught the Allies off guard. They suddenly found themselves advancing forty kilometers, more than had been gained since September 1914 combined.

This strategic decision would help prolong the war significantly, as the usual stasis of trench warfare resumed.

14. The Nivelle Offensive (Second Battle of the Aisne)

The map above shows the French’s disastrous attempt to force a decisive battle through the so-called Nivelle Offensive, named after its commander, Robert Nivelle.

Nivelle hoped to break the Hindenburg Line permanently and ultimately end the war. Primarily focused around the Second Battle of the Aisne, initial advances found success. However, they were not substantial enough, and the offensive soon had to be canceled.

These results were incredibly costly for the French army. Nivelle’s disregard for casualties led to numerous mutinies amongst French battalions. The commander was quickly dismissed and replaced with Phillipe Pétain.

For the rest of 1917, France would fight the war on the defensive as it regrew its strength.

15. Colonial Warfare

The above map shows how World War I was a truly global conflict, due to the involvement of each Great Power’s empires.

Fighting was scarcer in the colonial territory. Instead, colonies supplied huge amounts of manpower to Europe, whether as the tirailleurs for France or the ANZACs for Britain.

The main strategy outside of Europe was to foment uprisings and disrupt production to hinder the domestic war effort. The Entente painted themselves as ‘liberating’ German subjects, yet only managed to capture German East Africa before the war was over.

Similarly, the war in Asia and the Pacific was limited to either naval combat or individual operations. This was primarily due to Germany’s inability to defend its colonial possessions, which meant it posed no significant threat to the Allies.

16. The Mesopotamian Campaign

Despite a great victory at Gallipoli, the rest of World War I was less positive for the Ottoman Empire.

After initial Turkish gains, British forces slowly ground through Ottoman territory in Sinai, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. They used revolts by discontented Arab groups to weaken Turkish defenders.

The map above shows how, even by 1916, the Allies were considering how to proceed if/when they won the war. The final treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923, differed from this original division. Italy’s needs were largely ignored, while the Republic of Turkey was granted much larger borders.

The rest of the territory was roughly divided as the above map envisioned. This broke many of the promises the British had made to the same Arab rebels who had helped them be so successful against the Ottoman Empire.

17. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

This map shows the treaty that ended Russian involvement in the war. Germany demanded huge territorial concessions and large reparations.

The newly formed Soviet Union lost significant industrial capacity, coal reserves, and railway infrastructure. As the Bolshevik armies were busy fighting the Russian Civil War, their leadership could do little else but accept these demands.

When Germany eventually lost World War I, this treaty was nullified. However, it did establish the borders of present-day Russia, Finland, and many of the other former Soviet states.

18. The Spring Offensive

This map shows Germany’s attempt to win World War I before the bulk of US troops arrived. With a domestic crisis looming, the German High Command needed to force a victory soon.

Reinforcements from the now-defunct Eastern Front allowed German troops to break through demoralized British and French lines. Much of the territory that was lost at the Somme and other battles was regained.

However, once again, overstretched supply lines and a lack of coordination meant that the offensive stalled. Allied forces concentrated around key strategic points. Therefore, whilst Germany made significant territorial gains, as shown by the map above, much of that was of little strategic value.

Coupled with the heavy losses suffered in the Spring Offensive, this meant that it was easy for the Allies to deal the decisive blow both sides were hoping to score.

19. The Hundred Days Offensive

The Allies took advantage of these weak and overstretched German lines, quickly rallying to force them back towards the Belgian and German borders.

Fresh American troops helped overwhelm many of these scattered Germans, even managing to push through the Hindenburg Line.

The Central Powers completely collapsed. Allied forces made gains in France, Mesopotamia, Italy, and the Balkans. One by one, each of them would agree to an unconditional surrender, and so an armistice was called.

20. The Post-War Settlement

The post-war settlement imposed harsh conditions on the defeated powers and dramatically revised Europe’s borders. The primary driver of this change was the Treaty of Versailles.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided, Germany’s territory and colonies were reduced, and several independent states were created. Other cities were given a plebiscite on which country they wanted to be a part of.

Although much of the post-war settlement was determined by the Treaty of Versailles, this map also shows how borders continued to be changed even after the treaty was signed.

The war between Greece and Turkey challenged the agreements Britain and France had made at the end of the war. Turkish victory greatly expanded the new republic.

Versailles and the subsequent treaties were very unpopular and would lead to more issues in subsequent decades. However, many of the modern borders we see in Europe today were established in the period after World War I.

Located on the northern shore of the bay of Kotor, the town of Perast is home to fewer 400 people. Despite its modest population, Perast once enjoyed an international reputation for its seafaring prowess. Its wealth and prestige during four centuries of Venetian rule can still be seen in the walls of the Renaissance and Baroque palaces lining the waterfront. Read on to discover Perast’s history and heritage and the best way to experience what it has to offer.

A Quick History of Perast

The area around Perast was first settled in pre-history, and the town owes its name to the Pirusti, an Illyrian tribe who lived on the Adriatic coast prior to the arrival of the Romans. Perast is first recorded as a small village with a shipyard in 1336, during the period of Serbian rule. At the time Perast itself was effectively a colony of Kotor, which controlled the Monastery of St George on an nearby island.

In 1420, the Republic of Venice assumed control of the Bay of Kotor to defend the region from advancing Ottoman forces. Perast attained greater economic and strategic significance after 1482, when the Ottomans successfully occupied the coast from Herceg Novi to Risan.

The Ottoman threat prompted the local authorities to fortify Perast, although they could not afford to build a defensive wall around the whole town. In 1570, the Venetians built the Fort of the Holy Cross on the mountainside overlooking the town. Later on, ten towers were erected within the town to serve as defensive strongpoints in the event of an enemy attack.

In 1624, a force of 2,000 Barbary pirates launched the Great Raid of Perast, devastating the local community by abducting over 400 people. Perast refused to submit and the remaining citizens raised funds to ransom their compatriots by selling property.

Thirty years later, Perast’s defenders achieved an extraordinary military success. During this period, Perast became a base for hajduks, local bandits who gained a reputation for ferocity in battle by leading constant raids into Ottoman territory. In May 1654, an Ottoman force of more than 6,000 men descended upon Perast by land.

The defenders consisted of around 50 Venetian soldiers, supported by an unknown number of hajduks possibly in the hundreds. While the civilian population sheltered in the fortress and the towers, the defenders led brave attacks against the Ottomans, killing dozens of Ottoman troops including their commander Mehmed Rizvanbegović, and wounding several hundred more. The poet and theologian Andrija Zmajević later wrote a poem entitled the Battle of Perast to commemorate the defense of his hometown.

Perast’s strategic importance and the commercial and military prowess of its sailors enabled the leading families of the town (the so-called twelve casadas) to build over a dozen palaces during the 17th and 18th centuries. The church of St Nicholas was built in 1616, while a belltower was commissioned by Andrija Zmajević in 1691. Although unfinished, the church remains one of the town’s most impressive and attractive structures.

Before long, the town went into decline after the fall of Venice in 1797. Like the neighboring towns in the Bay of Kotor, Perast experienced brief periods of Austrian, Russian, and French rule before returning to Austrian control in the 19th century. Following World War I the town became part of Yugoslavia in its various guises until Montenegrin independence in 2006.

Maritime Heritage

Perast’s rich maritime heritage can be found throughout the town. Following the town’s exploits in the victory over the Ottomans in 1654, that officers from Perast had the honor of protecting the standard of St Mark in the Venetian fleet.

Perast’s maritime prowess also reached the court of Peter the Great in Russia. In 1698, the Russian ambassador Pyotr Tolstoy arrived in Perast and left an account of the town’s military reputation. Within a few years, Tsar Peter sent 16 cadets from the Russian nobility to study with Captain Marko Martinović, an accomplished sailor, mathematician, and shipwright who founded a renowned navigation school.

In 1712, the Perast naval officer Matija Zmajević arrived in St Petersburg. He had been forced to leave his hometown in 1709 after being involved in the murder of his fellow naval captain Vicko Bujović. Zmajević was soon given command of a ship in the Great Northern War and served as a senior commander during Russia’s victory over the Swedish fleet at the Battle of Gangut in 1714. Although the Venetian Republic restored Zmajević’s properties to him after Tsar Peter’s intervention, Zmajević remained in Russia and was later promoted to vice-admiral.

Perast’s Islands

Perast is closely associated with the island of St George, around 800 meters off the coast. The only natural island in the Bay of Kotor, it was home to a Benedictine monastery and a large cemetery where members of Perast’s leading families were buried.

The adjacent island of Our Lady of the Rocks owes its existence to Perast’s accomplished seamen. According to legend, a returning sailor found an icon of the Madonna and Child was found on a rock in the sea on July 22, 1452. He brought the icon home but could not find it in the morning. After going back to sea, he discovered that the icon had reappeared on the very same rock.

From that date onwards, returning sailors have celebrated their safe return by placing a rock at the same spot as an offering to the Virgin Mary. Over time, an artificial island was formed, large enough to build a church to house the icon. The tradition continues to be honored in the fašinada festival, which takes place every year on July 22.

The small domed church boasts an ornate Baroque interior with an altarpiece of Carrara marble. The walls are adorned by silver votive tablets deposited by grateful sailors returning from perilous expeditions at sea. The church and its adjoining museum also has a collection of 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja, a 17th-century Baroque artist from Perast who specialized in maritime subjects.

Marko Martinović, Matija Zmajević, and Tripo Kokolja are three of the most famous figures from Perast history. Busts of the three men are prominently displayed in the center of town in the square in front of the church of St Nicholas.

Noble Houses and Palaces

Perast is best known for its palaces, many of which line its mile-long waterfront. Depending on definitions and states of repair, there are between 16 and 19 palaces in Perast. The largest and one of the most attractive palaces belonged to the Smekja family, part of casada Cizmaj, who emerged from relative obscurity to achieve fame and fortune during the 18th century by establishing a trading route between Venice and Genoa.

The three-story Smekja Palace was built in 1764 on the waterfront from white stone quarried from the Croatian island of Korčula. Construction began on a second structure behind the old main road which was not completed until the 1930s. Both buildings are now part of Heritage Grand Perast, a luxury five-star hotel with rooms starting at €300 each during peak season.

Another iconic aristocratic palace in Perast is the Bujović Palace, now home to the Perast Town Museum. It was built by Vicko Bujović, a prominent naval captain who led Perast’s forces in the Morean War in the late 17th century, during which the Venetians gained control of the Peloponnese in Greece from the Ottomans.

In 1694, Vicko and his brother Ivan Bujović completed their Renaissance palace at the western end of the town, designed by Venetian architect Giovanni Battista Fontana. The three-story palace is fronted by a portico of five rusticated arches with a first floor terrace. The central arch is surmounted by the family’s coat of arms.

Vicko Bujović was repeatedly elected Perast’s town captain between 1694 and 1708, but a feud with the Zmajević family led him to flee into Dubrovnik. After returning to Perast, Bujović was murdered in May 1709 in an incident that prompted Matija Zmajević to leave Perast.

The Zmajević family came to prominence in the 17th century with Andrija Zmajević, the poet and Catholic theologian who became abbot of the island monastery of St George in 1656. He moved to Budva in 1664 after being appointed vicar, and in 1671 he was made titular archbishop of Bar, then under Ottoman rule.

The Zmajević palace is located in the western part of Perast further up the mountainside. It was built during the 17th century and came to be known as the bishopric after being expanded by Andrija Zmajević. During Archbishop Andrija’s tenure, the church of Our Lady of the Rosary was built as a family chapel, and its octagonal belfry is one of the most prominent landmarks in the town.

Andrija’s brother Krsto Zmajević was also a prominent merchant and civic leader who served as town captain and led fleets against Ottoman pirates in the 1670s. His elder son Vicko Zmajević would become the archbishop of Zadar in Croatia, while his younger son Matija was to become the famed Russian admiral.

A Montenegrin Idyll

The revival of the tourism industry after Montenegrin independence has catalyzed the rejuvenation of Perast as an attractive holiday destination. Although much smaller than the likes of Kotor and Tivat, Perast offers an idyllic alternative to the hundreds of tourists who are disgorged from cruise ships into Kotor’s Old Town every day.

Despite its size, there is enough to do in Perast for one or even two relaxing days. Start off with a 15-minute stroll along the full length of the waterfront, admiring the architectural details on the palatial facades, perhaps stopping for an ice cream along the way. The waterfront is also lined with restaurants, several of which are attached to hotels.

Step into the Perast Town Museum at the Bujović Palace at the western end of the town to learn more about the town’s history and its connection to the sea. The collection includes portraits of distinguished officers who served in Venetian and Austrian uniform, as well as their personal possessions.

In the center of town, check out the interior of the church of St Nicholas, and pay a small fee to climb up the belltower. At 55 meters, it is the tallest belltower in the eastern Adriatic and offers panoramic views of Perast itself, the Bay of Kotor, including the islands of St George and Our Lady of the Rocks.

Boats to the island of Our Lady of the Rocks depart regularly from the dock near the Smekja Palace. It is worth seeing the intricate interior of the small church and the museum. The neighboring island of St George is usually inaccessible to visitors.

While Perast is one of the quietest and most attractive towns in the Bay of Kotor, the influx of tourists during peak season (between May and September) can undermine its idyllic reputation. For the best experience, visit in April or October, or avoid the crowds by arriving early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Joseph Stalin’s place in history is widely controversial because of his policies and purges. Though there are some who see him with reverence, in the Western world, his legacy is looked upon with disdain.

Universally, however, he is considered to have ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist.

Seldom is Stalin considered a family man. Nevertheless, he had a family. During his lifetime, Stalin married twice and had numerous children, though how many is a subject of academic debate.

The fate of his children was very closely linked to their father’s actions. So, what happened to them all?

1. Yakov Dzhugashvili

A quiet and shy boy, Yakov Dzhugashvili was the eldest child of Joseph Stalin and his first wife, Ekaterine “Kato” Svanidze. He was born on March 31, 1907, and was raised by his mother’s family. His mother died just nine months after Yakov was born, likely from typhus or tuberculosis.

Yakov’s contact with his father was intermittent until 1921, when he was taken to Moscow to live with his father and his new family. Yakov faced several challenges, one of which was the fact that he did not speak Russian. Like his father, Yakov was of Georgian origin and raised in a Georgian-speaking household.

His father was unkind and treated him harshly. Despite this, Yakov formed close bonds with his stepbrothers and Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin’s second wife.

In 1928, Yakov announced that he wished to marry Zoya Gunina. He was around the age of 21 while she was just 16. Stalin forbade the marriage and sent Yakov spiraling into depression. He attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest, but he missed his heart and survived the attempt.

He and Zoya did eventually marry and had a child who died of pneumonia after just eight months. The couple split up but did not officially divorce.

Stalin initially did not allow his eldest son to study at university but relented when Yakov was 23. In 1935, Yakov graduated from the Institute of Transport and thereafter worked as a chimney sweep for a few years.

In 1936, Yakov’s relationship with his girlfriend, Olga Golysheva, resulted in the birth of a son, Yevgeny. Stalin never recognized Yevgeny as his grandson.

In 1937, he joined the Artillery Academy and graduated in May 1941, just a month before the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Yakov also married Yulia Meltzer, a Jewish Ukrainian ballerina. The couple bore a daughter, Galina.

Ordered by his father to “Go and fight!” Yakov spent a short time at the front and was captured after only a few weeks. A few discreet rescue attempts were made but to no avail. Yakov remained a prisoner of the Germans, and when the Germans offered to exchange him for Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who had been captured at Stalingrad, Stalin refused.

On April 14, 1943, Yakov died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At first, it was suggested that he was attempting to escape, but later interpretations of the events suggest that he knew the consequences of his attempt would lead to his death, and he was, in fact, trying to commit suicide. His body was cremated.

In 1977, Yakov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War First Class.

2. Artyom Sergeyev

Born March 5, 1921, Artyom Fyodorovich Sergeyev was the adopted son of Joseph Stalin. Artyom’s biological father, Fyodor Sergeyev, died in an aerowagon train accident in July 1921. It was suspected that Fyodor’s death had been premeditated, and Trotskyists were blamed for putting stones on the track that caused the derailment, but nothing was proven.

Lenin charged Stalin with looking after Fyodor’s widow and son, and thus, Artyom officially became Stalin’s son by adoption.

In 1938, at the age of 17, Artyom began his military career and fought against the Germans in the Second World War. He was made a lieutenant colonel at the age of 23 and continued to serve in the military after the war.

Artyom died in 2008 at the age of 86 and was buried in Kuntsevo Cemetery in Moscow.

3. Vasily Stalin

Vasily was born on March 21, 1921, the eldest of two children born to Joseph and his second wife, Nadezhda.

Vasily was mostly raised by a nanny since his mother spent much of her time pursuing a professional career. On November 9, 1932, Nadezhda committed suicide after a heated argument with Joseph. The marriage was an unhappy one, and Nadezhda suspected her husband of infidelity. She shot herself out of anger and despair.

Vasily and his younger sister, Svetlana, were not told the truth about their mother until ten years after the event. They were told that their mother had died of peritonitis, a complication related to appendicitis.

Vasily took the death of his mother hard, and at the age of just 13, he was developing alcoholism. His battle with alcohol plagued him his entire life and eventually led to his death. Vasily’s alcoholism also resulted in bouts of violence, and he did not treat his younger sister very well. This was exacerbated by the fact that his father ceased paying his children any attention after Nadezhda’s death. Stalin ignored the letters that Vasily sent him.

Vasily was a poor student at Moscow Model School No. 25, and in 1937, he was transferred to Special School No. 2, but his behavior did not improve. At the age of 18, he enrolled in the Kachinsk Military Aviation School. At this school, Vasily improved as a student, and he graduated in 1940 with the rank of lieutenant in the air force. Later that year, he married Galina Burdonskaya, who was studying at the Moscow State University of Printing Arts.

The following year, the Soviet Union was thrown into turmoil when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22. Vasily was sent to the front, but due to being the son of Joseph Stalin, he was given relatively few combat missions. He did, however, shoot down two enemy aircraft.

Vasily was not well-liked by his peers. They thought him an informant for his father and reckoned that he received softer treatment in the military. After the Red Army had mitigated the German threat to Moscow, Vasily was posted to the capital, where he was plagued with boredom. To relieve this state of affairs, he dropped explosives into the Moskva River, injuring himself and killing another.

Vasily was demoted but quickly rose through the ranks again to become a general—the youngest general in the Red Air Force.

After the war, he was transferred to Germany as part of the occupation force.

After his father’s death in 1953, Vasily lost much of his prestige. The USSR’s process of de-Stalinization included dealing with Stalin’s son. Vasily was charged with denigration of Soviet leaders and anti-Soviet propaganda and sentenced to prison.

He was released in 1960, but his life had been completely ruined. He was a chronic alcoholic, and his addiction caused his death in 1962.

During his lifetime, Vasily married four times and fathered a son. In 2002, he was exhumed from his grave in Kazan and reburied next to his fourth wife, Mariya Nusberg, in Moscow.

4. Svetlana Alliluyeva

Stalin’s youngest child and only daughter, Svetlana, was born on February 28, 1926. Her mother was Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Svetlana was just six years old when her mother shot herself.

In 1933, Svetlana and her older brother, Vasily, began their schooling at Moscow Model School No. 25. Their heritage did not afford them special treatment; they were treated the same as all the other students.

Ten years later, Svetlana finished her schooling in 1943 after completing her 10th grade. At the age of 16, she fell in love with Aleksei Kapler, a Jewish-Soviet filmmaker who was 22 years older than her. Stalin disapproved of the relationship and exiled Aleksei to the coal-mining town of Vorkuta for five years, after which he was sentenced to another five years in labor camps.

Svetlana married Grigory Morozov, a student at Moscow University’s Institute of International Affairs. Although Stalin never met the man, he disapproved of the relationship, possibly because Morozov was Jewish. The couple had a son, Iosif, born in 1945 before the two divorced in 1947. Despite the divorce, they remained good friends.

Stalin took a direct hand in Svetlana’s next marriage and arranged for her to marry Yuri Zhdanov, the son of Andrei Zhdanov, a close political ally of Stalin. The two had a daughter, Yekaterina, but Andrei had little time for his wife, and the marriage was dissolved in 1950.

Svetlana graduated from Moscow University in 1949. After her father’s death, she returned to become a lecturer from 1953 to 1965. Although her father had forced her to study history and political thought, Svetlana’s true passion was literature and writing.

In an interview, Svetlana stated that her father’s refusal to let her study her passion and his treatment of Kapler were the two times that her father “broke my life.” She loved her father but stated that he was a simple man who could be very cruel and rude.

In 1962, she married Ivan Svanidze, the nephew of Stalin’s first wife. The marriage did not last, possibly due in part to his poor health, and it was dissolved within a year.

In 1963, she met Kunwar Brajesh Singh, an Indian communist visiting Moscow. The two fell in love, but when Svetlana applied to the government for a marriage license, she was denied.

Singh became gravely ill in 1966, and after being misdiagnosed with tuberculosis, he died in a hospital in October. Svetlana was permitted to leave the Soviet Union to scatter Singh’s ashes, and while in India, she went to the US embassy and defected.

After arriving in the United States, Svetlana wrote her memoirs in the form of two books. She lived in New Jersey before moving to Wisconsin.

While in the US, Svetlana married an architect, William Wesley Peters, in 1970. The two had a daughter, Olga. Svetlana and William divorced in 1973.

Svetlana received her US citizenship in 1978, and in 1982, she moved with her daughter to live in Cambridge, England. Two years later, with the relaxing of policies in the Soviet Union, Svetlana was able to return to her native land and her Soviet citizenship was reinstated.

She published a third book, The Faraway Music (1984), in which she detailed her disenchantment with the West. Nevertheless, life was not any easier for her in the Soviet Union. After clashing with Soviet authorities, Svetlana renounced her Soviet citizenship and left the country.

She spent the rest of her life in the United States and Britain. She lived the last two years of her life in Wisconsin and died on November 22, 2011, from complications linked to colon cancer. She was 85 at the time.

5. & 6. Illegitimate Children: Alexander Davydov & Konstantin Kuzakov

Stalin had spent four years in exile in a remote part of Siberia from 1913 to 1917. During his time there, he met a young girl, Lidia Pereprygina. Joseph Stalin was 35 at the time, and Lidia was just 14 when she bore him a child. The child died soon after birth and was not named. In 1916, the two had another son, Alexander. Stalin, however, showed no interest in being a father.

Lidia married Yakov Davydov, who adopted Alexander, and Alexander took his adoptive father’s last name.

This episode of Stalin’s life is contested, however, and it has been suggested that it is nothing more than propaganda promulgated by Stalin’s enemies.

Another claim of illegitimacy was made by Konstantin Kuzakov, who, in 1995, said that he was the illegitimate child of the former Soviet leader. Konstantin claimed that his mother, Maria, was Stalin’s landlady and mistress during his exile in Siberia. According to historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin had already departed before Konstantin was born on September 11, 1911.

It is suggested that Stalin knew about Konstantin. He allegedly helped his son enter Leningrad University, and Konstantin was ordered never to reveal the source of his parentage.

During World War II, Konstantin served as a colonel in the Red Army, and in 1948, he was accused of being an American spy and dismissed from the Communist Party. Sebag Montefiore claims that Stalin prevented the arrest of his son.

After Stalin’s death and the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria, Konstantin was restored to the Communist Party and served in various high-ranking positions, eventually dying in 1996 at the age of 85.

Joseph Stalin is not immediately thought of as a family man. Yet his legacy is incomplete without mentioning the family he had. Their father’s actions, however, would result in his children leading difficult lives as they tried to escape his influence and his political legacy.

At the start of World War I, it was expected that hostilities would be over in a few weeks, and perhaps everyone would be home for Christmas. This thinking was understandable given the historical precedent for short wars that involved battlefield maneuvering, a few clashes to determine who held the upper hand, and the hammering out of a political deal.

But four years later, in the miserable mud and churned up hell of the Western Front, soldiers were still facing off, with millions having become victims while the frontlines remained mostly static.

Why Was This War Different?

World War I was a war like no other. It was the first truly total war in which the resources of entire nations were pitted against one another. This type of warfare blurred the distinction between combatants and civilians, as is shown by the bombing of towns and attempts to starve civilian populations. This war unlike many before it, involved states mobilizing all of their human and material resources.

By the same token, victory would not be just on the battlefield but by the complete domination of the defeated enemy nation. The struggle was military, economic, and political. This is shown by the peace treaties after the war, which addressed all these issues in the hope that this was “the war to end wars,” in a phrase coined by H.G. Wells. It was, like most wars, one of science and technology, but now this was harnessed to modern industrial power, which could mass-produce weapons of destruction.

How Did the Battlefield Become Deadlocked?

The Western Front was the decisive theater of the land war, and it was here that each side deployed most of its resources. When the war began, both the French, with Plan XVII, and the Germans, with the Schlieffen Plan, hoped for a rapid and decisive victory, but by early November 1914, both had failed. A stalemate ensued and lasted for most of the next four years. The front moved less than one hundred miles west to east between October 1914 and the armistice in November 1918.

Despite enormous losses, such as 337,000 Frenchmen lost at Verdun, there was no breakthrough. New technologies, such as poisonous gas, aircraft, flamethrowers, and tanks, all promised much but were ultimately countered. Defense, in the form of sophisticated trench systems, was always dominant. Additionally, railways could easily reinforce a defensive position while supplies for the offence were carried by horse-drawn wagons or trucks, often operating over severely shelled terrain. It was only with the arrival of American troops and equipment that a breakthrough was achieved. German resistance began to falter in July 1918, but it was not until November, with their front line still intact, did Germany asked for an armistice.

Economic Warfare

With neither side achieving a breakthrough on the battlefield, the war became one of attrition. Both sides tried to destroy the enemy’s economy and civilian morale by cutting vital imports. Britain and France had blockaded Germany from the start of the war, while Germany’s U-boats and surface raiders attacked British and French ships at sea. This type of warfare obviously took time to have an effect due to pre-war stockpiles and government controls.

Economic warfare was effective, however, and Germany introduced civilian food rationing in 1915, followed by Italy, France, and Britain. This became more severe as the war progressed. The adoption of the convoy system and the entry of the USA into the war in April 1917 began to defeat the U-boats. In Germany, by 1916, the blockade was affecting the economy, the population was gradually starving, and the front-line troops were not as well fed as their British and French counterparts. There were food riots as early as Autumn 1915, and cases of death by starvation increased among the civilian population.

Overall, the economic power of France and Britain was 50% more than Germany, and they had more men of military age. Time was on their side, even after Russia was knocked out of the war. All the protagonists were unprepared for this new type of total, attritional conflict, and output of many vital supplies declined initially. Eventually, all the major powers had transformed themselves into war economies, completely dedicated to victory, but it took time.

Could There Have Been Peace Before 1918?

There were several attempts during the war to reach a settlement, beginning with international socialists in 1914 and 1915. With the impasse on most fronts, the strain on all combatants was beginning to tell by 1916. In November, Austro-Hungary tried to leave the alliance with Germany, negotiating with the Entente. There were anti-war demonstrations in Germany from 1916; in 1917, there were mutinies in the French army; and in Britain, there was government consideration of a negotiated peace.

President Wilson of the USA tried to mediate between the fighting powers in December 1916, but the war aims of the major powers were incompatible, and the initiative foundered. Russia and Germany agreed to an armistice in December 1917. This was followed by a peace treaty in March 1918. This, however, had the effect of lengthening the war as it enabled Germany to transfer huge forces to the Western Front and launch the Michael Offensive that month. Although the attack failed, it advanced the German line 40 miles, which had to be retaken by the Allies in the final battles.

The ‘Nation in Arms’: No Quick Victory

France and Britain, even without the USA, were by 1918 industrially and militarily superior to Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany, however, was still a large, powerful, and resource-rich nation. The war became one of attrition on the military, civilian, and economic fronts. The latent superiority of the Allies took time to realize, and even by Autumn 1918, when the German army was beginning to crack, it still took more than two months before an armistice could be called. In this new type of total war, the entire nation had to be defeated, not just its armies or navies, and this took time.

The Middle Ages were the age of castles on the European continent. Germany alone is estimated to have at least 25,000 structures that can be deemed a “castle.” However, many never made it past the end of the Middle Ages (15th century). They were foremost military installations, so many ended up in ruins. However, the ones that survived into modernity preserved history within their battlements. From urban citadels to water castles and hilltop forts, the following 10 castles offer a glimpse of medieval architectural grandeur.

1. Edinburgh Castle, Scotland (UK)

Castle Rock started its life as a volcanic plug that had survived glacial erosion to tower over the Scottish capital today. Indeed, Edinburgh grew around the fortress on the rock, which offered a clear strategic advantage.

At the beginning of the 12th century, King David I began erecting the first stone buildings here, such as St. Margaret’s Chapel, which is the oldest surviving structure. Throughout the Middle Ages, the fortification served as Scotland’s royal residence, safekeeping the crown jewels among other valuables.

Edinburgh Castle saw a lot of military action throughout its long history, changing hands between the Scots and the English several times. Although it is a tourist attraction, the castle still houses a military garrison, albeit for ceremonial purposes.

Annually, around two million visitors walk up to Edinburgh Castle along the Royal Mile, the castle’s main link to the city below. In times of peace, royalty would tread this path, but in times of war, this sloped accessway would witness some heavy fighting.

2. Eltz Castle, Germany

Although the castle that is often said to have inspired Disney, Neuschwanstein Castle (1886), is a modern edifice, Germany does have a fairytale-like castle that dates back to at least the 12th century. This was the time when the keep was erected to protect valuable trade routes in Frederick Barbarossa’s Holy Roman Empire. Miraculously, Eltz Castle managed to evade destruction to become a showcase of 800 years of German architectural heritage.

Eltz Castle is the epitome of a medieval castle, boasting eight towers up to 35 meters high, turrets, and an exterior timber frame structure. The secluded yet picturesque location further enhances the medieval feel. Perched on a 60-meter-high rock, Eltz Castle sits in a valley, surrounded by forest on all sides.

Despite restoration work in the mid-19th and early 21st centuries, the fortification has preserved much of its medieval fabric from the time when the House of Eltz constructed it in 1157.

3. Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Situated near the Swiss-French border, Chillon’s etymology reveals its unique location: “a rocky platform.” This tiny limestone rock, some 100 meters long and 50 meters wide, has been home to a fortification since at least 1150.

The Counts of Savoy chose a strategically important location next to the Via Francigena, a medieval route from Italy (Rome) to France and, further north, to Germany and England. A single garrison stationed at Chillon Castle would control the road and charge a toll to travelers.

The square donjon is the oldest part of the waterside castle that is connected to the mainland via a bridge that used to be a drawbridge. Despite its relatively small size, Chillon has three main courtyards.

For a period, the castle was a prison, which inspired Lord Byron to write his lauded poem The Prisoner of Chillon (1816), about François de Bonivard, the islet’s most famous captive. Notable figures who visited Chillon include Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, and Queen Elizabeth II.

4. Malbork Castle, Poland

Malbork Castle, unknown author, 2019. Source: Tourist Information Center, Malbork

The full name of the next fortification on our list is the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, which reveals who built it in the 13th century. The German crusaders named the structure Castle of Mary, or Marienburg, in their native language.

During the Middle Ages, every power that held the castle expanded it, so by the very beginning of the 15th century, Malbork Castle had become the largest brick structure in Europe (and still is). It is located in the town of Malbork, southeast of Gdańsk, in the historic region of Pomerania.

After the Thirteen Years’ War (1457), the castle on the banks of the Nogat River became Polish and would remain so for the next three centuries. It had managed to stay out of harm’s way up until the end of World War II (1945), when heavy shelling nearly turned it into ruins.

The restoration of the Gothic castle has been ongoing since the 1960s, and Malbork Castle was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

5. Castle of Loarre, Spain

A fine example of Romanesque architecture, the Castle of Loarre dates back to the 11th century. At the time, the nearby town of Loarre, in what was then the County of Aragon, sat on the frontier between Muslim and Christian lands. Sancho el Mayor, the king of neighboring Pamplona, began the construction of the castle that would later play a vital role in the Reconquista. As part of this effort, a community of the St. Augustinian order was established here.

The outer walls were constructed around the 13th century. Although time took its toll on the structure, several restorations in the 20th century helped preserve one of the oldest castles in Spain. Ironically, some structures at the entrance to the fort were removed at the time for a better view of the castle. This did not stop the English filmmaker Ridley Scott from using Loarre Castle as a filming location for his 2005 epic Kingdom of Heaven.

6. Golubac Fortress, Serbia

Golubac Fortress is as mysterious as it is impressive. Its first mention dates to 1335 as a Hungarian stronghold, but its present-day appearance is probably earlier, dating back to the Serbian medieval state.

Likewise, there are many legends surrounding the origins of its Slavic name, literally, “Place of Pigeons.” For centuries, Golubac was on the border between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary, until it finally came under Serbian rule in 1867.

The reason why so many nations wanted to conquer it was its location: Golubac stands on a cliff on the banks of the river Danube, at the entrance to the Đerdap Gorge.

Modern archeological excavations have confirmed Roman and subsequent Byzantine presence, proving that the area was of strategic importance in Antiquity as well. Today, all nine picturesque towers in the inner and outer city have been reconstructed, turning Golubac Fortress into one of the nation’s main tourist destinations.

7. Conwy Castle, Wales (UK)

Since its construction in the late 13th century, Conwy Castle has changed little in appearance. The price of the structure was a hefty £15,000, which was a sum the King of England, Edward I, was willing to invest as part of his Conquest of Wales.

For those who watched the 1995 historical drama Braveheart, this king is known as Edward Longshanks or the Hammer of the Scots. The fortification is located in North Wales, near the mouth of the eponymous river where it meets the Irish Sea.

Set on a coastal ridge overlooking an important river crossing, Conwy Castle’s most noticeable feature is its eight round towers and a fortified gateway (barbican). Its appearance is one of the finest examples of military architecture in Europe of that age.

Up to the English Civil War in the 17th century, it saw numerous battles, after which it became an inspiration for painters. Today, Conwy Castle attracts several hundred thousand tourists each year.

8. Castel del Monte, Italy

The “Castle of the Mountain,” in Italian, sits on a rocky hillock south of the town of Andria. This is the region of Apulia, or the “heel” of the “boot” of the shape of Italy.

The unusually shaped 13th-century citadel dates back to the time of King Frederick II, who inherited the land from his mother. The exact purpose of the structure is still up for debate, with some considering it to have been a hunting lodge, while others claim it was a proper castle with curtain walls.

Castel del Monte boasts an octagonal plan with eight closely spaced octagonal towers. The design is atypical of the region and may have been influenced by the layout of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which Frederick II saw in person during the Sixth Crusade in 1229.

Although the citadel lost its original marble walls and columns, the only military action it saw was during World War II, when the Americans used it as a navigational aid station.

9. Hohenwerfen Castle, Austria

The rocky cone above the market town of Werfen in the Austrian Alps was the perfect setting for a fortification. The Archbishop of Salzburg started constructing Hohenwerfen Castle in the latter half of the 11th century.

After several extensions, around the year 1500, the fortress got the look it has preserved to the present day. Its surroundings are picturesque, as it sits in a narrow valley formed by the Salzach River, connecting Salzburg to Villach in Carinthia.

The castle’s design was inspired by the more famous Hohensalzburg Fortress in Salzburg, some 40 kilometers to the north. Hohenwerfen served as a state prison for a number of centuries, which gave it a somewhat sinister reputation that the movie industry exploited.

In the 1968 adventure war film Where Eagles Dare, starring Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton, and Mary Ure, the fort became the fictional Schloß Adler, a Nazi stronghold. Likewise, Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle TV series, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, placed the Führer‘s headquarters there.

10. Beersel Castle, Belgium

Today, Beersel Castle sits on the green outskirts of Brussels, but in its heyday, it lay at the frontier of the Duchy of Brabant.

The moated fortress got its present shape in the mid-14th century, and its main building material was brick, which was an oddity in the Medieval Ages. The three chestnut-colored towers, a large inner courtyard, and a picturesque circular moat gave the castle its unique, postcard-like appearance.

Beersel was sacked twice, in the 14th and 15th centuries, but it was swiftly rebuilt each time. However, in the following centuries, the structure fell into disrepair. At one point in the 19th century, a cotton factory operated inside its walls.

Even the famous French writer, Victor Hugo, who lived in exile in Brussels, lamented over Beersel’s decrepit state. Château de Beersel underwent major restoration in the 1930s, so today it is a museum open to the public.

Located on the Adriatic coast between Croatia and Albania, Montenegro is a small country known for its natural beauty. While Montenegro’s beaches and mountains are its chief attraction, The country also has much to offer for discerning travelers with an interest in the Montenegro’s rich history, which combines strong Venetian, Ottoman, and Serbian influences with a distinct Montenegrin national identity. Much of Montenegro’s history can be found within the walls of the cities and fortresses below.

1. St John’s Fortress, Kotor

The port town of Kotor located on the eastern part of the eponymous Bay of Kotor is one of Montenegro’s most popular tourist destinations. The town owes its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to four centuries of Venetian rule between 1420 and 1797, when it was known by the Italian name of Cattaro.

Kotor’s well-preserved network of fortifications surround the triangular Old Town and extend up the steep western slopes of Mount Lovcen to the Fortress of St John, built by the Venetians on the site of a Byzantine fortress. After the fortifications were severely damage during a major earthquake in 1979, significant repairs were carried out in the early 2000s to develop the site as a tourist attraction.

Visitors can reach the fortress either by climbing the stairs along the ramparts from the Old Town, or by taking the Kotor Ladder, an old mule track behind the town which leads up towards Mount Lovcen and beyond towards the old capital of Cetinje.

While the crumbling structures at the top of the fortress are of limited interest in themselves, the climb to the top offers unforgettable panoramic views of the Bay of Kotor and the Old Town below.

The small Old Town below the fortress has also plenty to offer to visitors. While it is worthwhile to simply get lost among its narrow streets and alleyways, Kotor’s main attractions include St Tryphon’s Cathedral, a 12th century Romanesque building catering to the Roman Catholic population, and the domed Orthodox Church of St Nicholas from the early 20th century.

Like the other towns along the bay, Kotor’s history is closely connected to the sea. The Kotor Maritime Museum offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the maritime heritage of the town and the wider Bay of Kotor. During the 18th and 19th centuries, several sailors from the Bay of Kotor went on to achieve great distinction with the Russian and Austro-Hungarian navies. Matija Zmajević from nearby Perast entered Russian service in 1712 and played a major role in the victory over the Swedish fleet at the Battle of Gangut in 1714 and was later promoted to vice-admiral. Kotor is also known for its large feline population and visitors can enter the small Kotor Cats Museum for a small fee.

2. The Fortified Island of Sveti Stefan

The fortified island of Sveti Stefan is one of the most picturesque spots on the Montenegrin coast. A few miles south of Budva, the island was home to the Paštrovići clan and served as a haven for anti-Ottoman pirates during the 15th century. The extant fortifications were built by the Venetians in the 16th century.

From the 1960s onwards, the island began to attract a clientele of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Princess Margaret, and Elizabeth Taylor. While tourism was disrupted by the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, Sveti Stefan has experienced a revival after Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006.

Since 2009, the island itself is part of a private 5-star hotel resort alongside the nearby Villa Miločer, built in the 1930s for Queen Marija Karađorđević, the widow of the assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

Although it is no longer possible to visit the island without emptying your pockets for a stay at the Aman Sveti Stefan resort, the small village on the mainland has a stretch of beach and a quaint charm of its own. Roadtrippers with access to a car can drive up the mountains to the viewpoint at the Church of St Sava for the picture postcard view of the island.

3. The Old Royal Capital of Cetinje

A quiet little town of some 12,000 people, Cetinje is the old royal capital of Montenegro and one of the most significant sites in Montenegrin history. Founded by Ivan Crnojevic in 1478, Cetinje was home to the prince-bishops of Montenegro between 1516 and 1852.

While Montenegro was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1496, the Montenegrins who retreated inland into the mountains continued their armed resistance and maintained a considerable degree of autonomy from the Turks. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Montenegrins often fought alongside the Venetians in their wars with the Ottoman Empire.

During the reign of Metropolitan Danilo between 1697–1735, the office of prince-bishop or vladika was transformed into a hereditary possession of the House of Petrović-Njegoš. Since officeholders had to be celibate, this typically meant that the succession passed to cousins or nephews.

The vladika exercised his power from Cetinje Monastery, founded by Ivan Crnojevic in the 1480s and restored by Metropolitan Danilo in the early 1700s. Danilo was the first Montenegrin ruler to seek protection from the Russian Empire, although this did not prevent the Ottomans from launching occasional incursions into Montenegro in the 18th century.

Montenegro reached new heights in the 19th century under prince-bishops Petar I and Petar II. The former ruled for almost half a century between 1782 and 1830 and was a talented military leader and statesman who centralized power and steered the country through the Napoleonic Wars. He was canonized as Saint Peter of Cetinje shortly after his death.

Petar I was succeeded by his teenage nephew Rade Petrović, who assumed the throne as Petar II. Although he achieved less military glory than his uncle, Petar II established formal political institutions. Known as Njegoš to most Europeans, he is also revered as Montenegro’s national poet, and his epic poem The Mountain Wreath is considered the Serbian national epic. (The Montenegrins considered themselves Serbs until the 20th century.)

In 1838, Petar II began construction of a new palace near the Cetinje Monastery known as Biljarda after its billiards table. Following Petar’s death in 1851, he was buried in a mausoleum on Mount Lovcen, the “black mountain” that gives Montenegro its name. Both Biljarda and the Njegoš Mausoleum are managed by the National Museum of Montenegro.

In 1852, Petar’s nephew and successor Danilo II transformed his realm into a secular principality. Danilo left no son after his assassination in 1860 and was succeeded by his nephew Nikola, who extended Montenegro’s frontiers to the Adriatic coast after capturing the fortresses of Bar and Ulcinj from the Ottomans, leading to formal recognition of Montenegrin independence in 1878.

Nikola became the first and only king of Montenegro in 1910 but was forced into exile during World War I prior to the abolition of the monarchy in 1918. Between 1867 and 1916, he lived at the Cetinje Royal Palace opposite Biljarda. The two-story palace is now a museum that houses the crown jewels of Montenegro and other exhibits connected to Montenegrin royalty. The neo-Renaissance Government House built in 1910 to house the royal administration is home to the National Museum of History and Art.

Although the Montenegrin monarchy was never restored, Cetinje remains an important center of Montenegrin national identity, and the Blue Palace in Cetinje serves as the official residence of the President of Montenegro.

4. Stari Bar Fortress

The port of Bar in southern Montenegro was known in antiquity as Antibari since it lies across the Adriatic from the port city of Bari in southern Italy. After several hundred years of Slavic rule between the 6th and 14th centuries AD, Bar developed rapidly under two centuries of Venetian rule until it was captured by the Ottomans in 1570. The Ottomans ruled the port for three centuries until it was successfully besieged by Prince Nikola in 1878.

Bar is divided into the modern port of Bar on the Adriatic coast, and the town of Stari Bar or Old Bar around two miles inland. Located on a hill overlooking the coast, the Fortress of Stari Bar remains largely intact. Visitors can climb up the walls of the citadel for panoramic views of the region and wander through the well-preserved old town.

Stari Bar was largely abandoned following the 1979 earthquake that damaged the 16th century aqueduct that supplied water to the town. The population relocated to the coast and built the modern town. A summer palace built by Prince Nikola in the 1880s now serves as the city museum. Another impressive landmark in the modern town is the towering Church of St John Vladimir, built between 2006 and 2016.

5. Budva Citadel

Around 25 miles up the coast from Bar, Budva is the largest city on the Montenegrin coast and a major tourist hotspot. Founded as a Greek trading settlement in the 5th century BC, the city is known for its attractive Old Town built during the period of Venetian rule between the 15th and 18th centuries. Visitors can learn more about the city’s history in the small Budva City Museum in the Old Town.

Budva’s imposing citadel is integrated into the city walls at the southern end of the Old Town. For a small fee, visitors can climb up the ramparts to enter the citadel, where they will find a large library, a small collection of model ships, and panoramic views of the city and the so-called Budva Riviera.

After wandering through the streets of the Old Town and admiring the views from the citadel, visitors can relax at the Mogren beach, accessible via a passage carved through the cliff. A short distance to the south of Budva’s Old Town lies the island of Sveti Nikola. It is a popular excursion for visitors to the city and has been ambitiously nicknamed Hawaii by local tour operators. Boat tours run on a regular basis from the city pier, around 15 minutes away from the Old Town by foot.

6. Fort Lesendro, Lake Skadar

Straddling the border between Montenegro and Albania, Lake Skadar is the largest lake in southern Europe. Known for its rich biodiversity, the northern shore of Lake Skadar was home to the medieval principalities of Duklja (10th-12th centuries AD) and Zeta (12th-15th centuries AD).

After the Crnojević dynasty seized control of Zeta in the mid-15th century, the fortress of Žabljak Crnojevića near the lake briefly served as Zeta’s capital until 1478, when the Ottomans captured the Albanian city of Shkodër at the southern end of the lake. After retreating from Žabljak, Ivan set up his new base at Cetinje in the mountains.

The Montenegrins reoccupied the northern shore of Lake Skadar in 1832 and Prince-Bishop Petar II built Fort Lesendro to protect the entrance to the lake’s northern section and to collect customs revenue. However, after eleven years the fortress fell to the Ottomans in 1843, and Petar II spent the rest of his reign unsuccessfully trying to take it back. The fortress returned to Montenegrin control after Prince Nikola’s victory over the Ottomans in 1878.

In April 1913, Montenegrin troops captured Shkodër and the lake from the Ottomans after a six-month siege with the loss of some 10,000 men. Their costly success was short-lived as Montenegro was soon forced by the great powers to cede the city to newly independent Albania.

Since Fort Lesendro is next to a busy highway and railway line, it is not recommended to visit on foot. The fort can be seen from Vranjina on the eastern shore, where the Lake Skadar Visitor Information Center is located. Visitors can get a closer to the fort by taking the many boat tours of Lake Skadar from Vranjina or from Virpazar on the other side of the lake.

On April 15, 1979, an earthquake in southern Montenegro measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale devastated a host of towns along Montenegro’s Adriatic coast. In the small city of Kotor, the attractive Old Town and its Venetian walls suffered extensive damage. While Kotor received financial support from UNESCO in its rebuilding work, Montenegro experienced further instability with the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Discover the history of Kotor and its extraordinary revival as one of Montenegro’s top tourist destinations.

Early History

The city of Kotor is located at the southeastern end of the Bay of Kotor, a secluded inlet on the Adriatic Coast. In antiquity, The Bay of Kotor was originally inhabited by the Illyrians, and the town of Risan at the northern end of the bay served as the base for Queen Teuta, who was known for leading a pirate fleet against the Romans in the late 3rd century BC.

Kotor itself is traditionally associated with the Roman settlement of Ascrivium or Acrivium, first mentioned in 168 BC when the kingdom of Illyria was conquered by the Romans and transformed into the province of Illyricum. Ascrivium was on the Roman road that connected Aquileia in northern Italy to Dyrrachium, present-day Durrës in Albania.

The Bay of Kotor was occupied by the Ostrogoths after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Shortly after conquering the city, Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great built a fortress on the hill overlooking the city in 535 AD, which was known by the Byzantines as Dekatera. The city remained in Byzantine hands but was sacked by Muslim raiders in the 9th century. The local population took refuge in the hilltop fortress and the city was rebuilt by Slavic lords, who called the place Kotor.

One of the oldest buildings in Kotor is the cathedral of St Tryphon, dedicated to a 3rd century Christian martyr. The first cathedral on the site was built in 809 after the remains of the saint were brought from Constantinople. The present structure was built in the 12th century and consecrated in 1166. After suffering heavy damage during an earthquake in 1667, the Romanesque cathedral was rebuilt with two towers adorning the façade.

The Venetian Golden Age

In the 11th and 12th centuries, Kotor was part of the Serb duchy of Duklja, whose allegiances switched between the Bulgarian and Byzantine empires. In 1185, Kotor was conquered by the Serbian prince Stefan Nemanja, whose son Stefan II Nemanjic founded the kingdom of Serbia in 1217. During two centuries of Nemanjic rule, Kotor was granted considerable autonomy and thrived as the most important trading port within the Serbian kingdom.

In the decades after the disintegration of the Serbian empire in 1371, Kotor changed hands between the Republic of Venice, the kingdom of Hungary, and the kingdom of Bosnia. Although Kotor regained its independence in 1391, the threat from the Ottoman Empire led city elders to seek protection from Venice. In July 1420, Pietro Loredan took possession of Kotor, which was incorporated into the Venetian province of Albania Veneta.

Kotor often found itself at the frontline of hostilities between the Ottomans and the Venetians, but Venetian rule also gave Kotor its iconic fortifications. Kotor’s walls resisted several Ottoman sieges in 1539, 1569, 1572, and 1657. After these walls were damaged by the earthquake in 1667, the Venetians refortified the city and raised fortifications up to the hilltop fortress of St John.

Kotor’s Old Town takes the form of a roughly equilateral triangle, nestled between the foothills of Mount Lovcen to the east, the sea to the west, and the River Scurda to the north. Together with the walls and the Fortress of St John, these natural features made Kotor a formidable defensive bastion, ensuring that it remained under Venetian control for almost four centuries.

There are three gates built into the walls of the Old Town. At the southern tip of the triangle, the Gurdic Gate leads south towards Budva. The Sea Gate to the west leads to the waterfront and the port of Kotor, while the River Gate to the north leads to a bridge over the River Scurda.

A short distance from the River Gate is the start of a trail known as the Ladder of Kotor. This old mule track consists of dozens of hairpin bends snaking up the southern slopes of the Scurda Canyon. For centuries, the Ladder of Kotor was the only route connecting the Adriatic Sea with the Montenegrin heartland around Cetinje and Mount Lovcen.

Founded in the late 15th century, Cetinje was the capital of the prince-bishopric of Montenegro, a Serbian Orthodox realm that maintained significant autonomy from the Ottoman Empire. Under the rule of the House of Petrovic-Njegos, Montenegro became an independent principality in 1878 and a short-lived kingdom between 1910 and 1918 until it was absorbed into Yugoslavia.

Between Great Empires

In 1797, the Republic of Venice was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte. The French revolutionary general used Venice as a bargaining chip in his negotiations with the Austrian Habsburgs, and the Treaty of Campo Formio resulted in the transfer of the Venetian lands to the Habsburg Empire in exchange for Habsburg territories in northern Italy.

In 1805, after Austria was defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon annexed the former Venetian lands to the Kingdom of Italy, a satellite of the Napoleonic empire. Before Napoleon’s men could take possession, Russian admiral Dmitry Senyavin’s fleet occupied Kotor. The Russians were forced to withdraw in 1807 after the Franco-Russian Treaty of Tilsit.

Following an administrative reorganization in 1810, Kotor became directly subordinate to the French Empire as part of the Illyrian Provinces governed from Laibach, the present-day Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. In late 1813, a British naval squadron combined with a small Montenegrin army to besiege the French garrison in Kotor, which surrendered in early 1814. Kotor returned to Austrian rule as part of the kingdom of Dalmatia and continued to be known by its Italian name of Cattaro.

During more than a century of Austrian rule, Kotor expanded beyond the Old Town and became the base of the Austrian Fifth Fleet. The Austrians also built several forts in the mountains above the southern approaches to the city. In 1884, a few years after Montenegro formally obtained its independence from the Ottoman Empire, a modern road known was built to the south of Kotor to replace the Ladder of Kotor as the main road linking Kotor to Cetinje. Known as the Kotor Serpentine, the road contains 25 harpin bends and offers breathtaking views of the Bay of Kotor.

The World Wars

Austria-Hungary and Montenegro fought on opposing sides during the First World War. During the early stages of the conflict, French and Montenegrin forces attempted to attack the Austrian naval base at Kotor but decisively defeated. After Italy joined the Allies in May 1915, Austrian ships from Kotor steamed across the Adriatic to attack Italy’s east coast.

Further inland, the Serbian army had been overwhelmed by the Austrians and retreated into Montenegro in autumn 1915. In January 1916, Austrian forces launched a land invasion of Montenegro from Kotor. The Allied forces were defeated at the Battle of Mount Lovcen between January 7-11, and a few days later Austrian troops marched into Cetinje and forced King Nikola of Montenegro into exile.

While the Austro-Hungarian Navy remained largely intact up to 1917, as the war turned against the Central Powers, sailors in Kotor staged a mutiny in February 1918 which was suppressed within days. At the end of the war, Kotor was garrisoned by a multinational army of occupation under French command.

After the war, Kotor joined neighboring Montenegro in the kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. During World War II, Kotor was occupied by Italian forces between 1941 and 1943. After the fall of Mussolini, the city came under German occupation until its liberation by Josip Broz Tito’s Partisan Army on November 21, 1944. Montenegro was one seven constituent republics of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia founded by Tito in November 1945.

An Award-Winning Destination

For Kotor, the second half of the 20th century proved to be as troubled as the first. Following the devastation of the 1979 earthquake, rebuilding work was supported by UNESCO, which recognized the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor in its World Heritage list later that year.

During the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, Kotor served as a major naval base for the Army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was reduced to Serbia and Montenegro. Although the town of Kotor saw little direct military conflict, it gained a reputation as a hub for smuggling and organized crime.

While Montenegro initially remained within the union with Serbia, in 1996 Montenegrin prime minister Milo Đukanović broke with Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic and began issuing demands for Montenegrin independence. Milosevic’s fall from power in 2000 facilitated the establishment of an independent Montenegrin state in 2006.

The end of the Yugoslav Wars and the rebirth of Montenegro as an independent state has encouraged the revival of Montenegro’s tourism industry. In 2017, Kotor received its second UNESCO World Heritage designation after being included among six locations under the inscription Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra – Western Stato da Mar.

Alongside the town walls and the Fortress of St John, Kotor’s major attractions include St Tryphon’s Cathedral and the Orthodox Church of St Nicholas. The Maritime Museum of Kotor has three floors of exhibits across three floors of exhibits including ship’s models, navigation instruments, maritime paintings, portraits, and uniforms. The exhibits are built around the collection of the Boka Navy, one of the oldest seafaring fraternities in the world.

Beyond its historical charm and natural beauty, Kotor is also known for its obsession with cats. Its large feline population roam the streets, fed and cared for by shop and restaurant owners. In addition to several shops selling feline memorabilia in all its various forms, the Kotor Cat Museum consists of two small rooms with its walls adorned with hundreds of pictures and postcards of cats.

Kotor’s rich medieval history and its natural landscape have seen it become an award-winning travel destination. The city won the Lonely Planet “Best in Travel” award in 2016, and in 2024 Conde Nast Traveler named Kotor as “Best City Break.” Although Kotor is less crowded than nearby Dubrovnik in Croatia, the city’s popularity with tourists has contributed to heavy traffic around the Bay of Kotor, while large cruise ships which tower over the Old Town bring an influx of tourists on a daily basis.

While Kotor is the main attraction in the Bay of Kotor, visitors are also encouraged to explore other destinations in the bay. The small town of Perast boasts an impressive array of Baroque palaces, the old Illyrian capital of Risan includes a well preserved mosaic from a Roman townhouse, while Tivat combines centuries of history with modern luxury.

The Baltic region was a major center of trade and commerce in Medieval Europe. During the 14th and 15th centuries, Baltic trade was controlled by the Hanseatic League, a network of port cities across northern Europe that had its own armed fleet and foreign policy. Lübeck, Gdańsk, Riga, Tallinn, Visby, and Rostock were among the most important Hanseatic port cities.

1. Lübeck

The commercial center of the Hanseatic League was the city of Lübeck in northern Germany. The city was founded on an island near rivers flowing inland and the Baltic Sea. Following the development of its port, Lübeck became the main intermediary for trade between Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the cities of Novgorod and Pskov in northwestern Rus’. The Lübeck law, one of Europe’s earliest supranational trade regimes, standardized trade practices and regulations across the Hanseatic ports.

Salt discovered in the nearby city of Lüneburg was transported to Lübeck for sale, powering much of the city’s economy. Demand was always high due to the use of salt for the preservation of herring and meats, a necessity for sailors. The revenue gained through the salt trade enabled the city to expand into a sprawling metropolis. It was also the center of the Hanseatic Diet, where representatives of all League member cities gathered to coordinate trade and commercial policy.

2. Gdańsk

The main Hanseatic port in present-day Poland was the city of Gdańsk (known in German as Danzig). Its location at the mouth of the Vistula River was optimal for trade to both inland Poland and other locations around Europe. Gdańsk’s immense wealth came from its grain and timber trade, as well as the export of other valuable raw materials like amber, potash, and tar. Even today Gdańsk is still one of the main Baltic ports and one of Poland’s primary export hubs for maritime trade.

Despite being a prosperous member of the League, Gdańsk’s city administration faced challenges. Its location meant that it had to choose between the Polish Kingdom and the Teutonic Knights. Its decision to side with the victorious Poles was rewarded with a grant of autonomy by King Casimir IV Jagiellon. This reward enabled Gdańsk to conduct its own trade policies and accumulate substantial wealth, which was displayed by the expansion of the city in a similar fashion to Lübeck. Gdańsk’s wealth and trading connections ensured its continued prosperity even after the formal dissolution of the League in 1669.

3. Riga

Further to the east, the city of Riga (today the capital of Latvia) was located at the mouth of the Daugava River. It was founded in 1201 by German colonists who hoped for the city to become a major trade hub. In 1282, the city joined the Hanseatic League and adopted the Lübeck law. Its merchants traded valuable goods such as furs, wax, and timber from medieval Rus’ in exchange for Western European textiles, salt, and wine.

Riga’s Old Town is the main part of the city that existed during the Medieval period. As the chair of the Livonian Hanseatic Diet, Riga held significant regional political power and oversaw the League’s trading posts in Russian cities like Smolensk and Polotsk.

4. Tallinn

In 1285, the city of Tallinn, known as Reval in German, joined the Hansa. Its location on the Gulf of Finland made it a trade hub for goods headed from Western and Central Europe to Russia. Tallinn was granted the crucial “staple right” in 1346, which forced all goods passing through to be sold locally, ensuring local merchants profited from all transit trade. This helped the city’s economy grow and profit more than its merchants had anticipated when the city first joined the League.

The city’s Old Town, including its iconic towers and city walls, was constructed using customs revenue collected by city officials. As the northernmost outpost of the League, Tallinn was formidable and heavily fortified, holding complex political alliances with Danish and Teutonic rulers in order to preserve its economic advantages. It also attracted German settlers, most of whom dominated the city’s economy until the Second World War.

5. Visby

The Swedish town of Visby, located on the strategically important island of Gotland, was contentious. In 1361, King Valdemar IV of Denmark conquered Gotland and looted the town’s coffers. It would suffer additional attacks from a variety of foes, including pirate gangs and the Teutonic Knights. In 1470, the town’s membership in the League was suspended and its independence was finally ended half a century later with an attack by a militia from Lübeck during a power struggle between rival Danish kings Frederick I and Christian II.

Visby’s merchants worked the lucrative east-west trade routes, transporting Russian furs, wax, and timber from Novgorod to German and Scandinavian markets. The wealth enabled the town to grow and build defenses, necessary in the face of repeated attacks, but it simply wasn’t enough to combat the hostility and trade rivalries. The legacy of the Hanseatic League remains in Visby today, but its chance at becoming the dominant port in the League was suppressed by the repeated attacks and lootings.

6. Rostock

In 1251, the German city of Rostock, located on the Warnow River, joined the Hansa. By the 14th century, Rostock was the largest city in Mecklenburg and a formidable naval power. Its location and absorption of several nearby ports helped the city to grow, making it rival Lübeck as one of the main Hanseatic ports in Germany. Its strategic interests were strengthened by the incorporation of the nearby fishing village of Warnemünde in 1323, ensuring direct and unimpeded access to the Baltic Sea.

Despite the attempts by German nobles to control Rostock, the city’s impressive wealth allowed it to maintain autonomy. The city’s location and economic power gave it a formidable amount of leverage that helped fend off any threats to the city’s income and status in the League. Rostock’s legacy was further strengthened by the founding of the University of Rostock in 1419, one of the oldest educational establishments in the Baltic region. Today, even after the fall of the League, Rostock remains a prominent German port.