Solitude and peace, silence, disturbed only by the noise of the waves, the smell of pine needles in the salty air, warm stones under your feet and the boundless starry sky above your head is Sveti Stefan. Price per night reaches two and a half thousand euros, Sveti Stefan is the most luxurious hotel on the Montenegrin coast on a small stone island a couple of nautical miles from the city of Budva.
In the distant fifteenth century, the inhabitants of seaside villages suffered from attacks by Turkish and pirate ships. because of this they built a fortress on the island - stone houses surrounded by a high wall, where in case of danger old men, women and children - those who could not stand up for themselves were hiding. The island was crowned with the church of Sveti Stefan - the patron and defender of adversity. For several centuries the fortress turned into a real city, the so-called "place of truth" - in the main city square courts were arranged and important trade deals were concluded.
But time passed. In the twentieth century pirates and the Turks did not pose a danger, but there was a threat to become an uneducated and unemployed islander. Residents left the city-fortress and moved to the mainland - closer to civilization. The idea of how to give the city a new life appeared in the fifties.
Outside, they did not change anything, leaving the classical medieval town in its original form - narrow streets, wooden shutters, red roof tiles, but inside the stone walls - the most up-to-date content. In 1957, on the island of Sveti Stefan, the most unusual, the most luxurious and, therefore, the most expensive hotel of the Yugoslavian coast opened its doors to the first visitors.
On the island reached an endless string of stars, those who wanted to see what interesting things have in this part of the Adriatic, but without attraction extra curious glances to themselves.
One day, Sophia Loren and her husband, Italian producer Carlo Ponti, came to the hotel. And that's bad luck, spaghetti Bolognese, submitted them for dinner was overcooked. This is a disaster for any Italian. Be Sophia Loren just a capricious star - the scandal would be inevitable, but the temperamental Italian herself went to the kitchen and showed the cook what real macaroni al dente.
In the luxurious apartments of the hotel, actors and directors, musicians and athletes, princesses and presidents were looking for salvation from the worldly bustle. Monica Vitti, Marina Vladi, Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin, Claudia Schiffer and Sylvester Stallone, Jeremy Irons, Michael Douglas and even Yuri Gagarin wrote their names on the list of Sveti Stefan's guests. In the nineties, Robert Fisher and Boris Spassky played a scandalous game on the island.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the hotel became part of the hotel chain Aman Resort. A couple of years the restoration work was carried out, and two years ago Sveti Stefan again became the most modern, luxurious and expensive hotel of the Montenegrin coast.
Previously, the island could be visited by buying a ticket at the entrance. But, probably, many tourists scared away the stars who tried to rest incognito, and nowadays Sveti Stefan can be admired either from the observation deck or from the sea, only guests can enter the walls of the fortress walls. It's a pity they say that the most beautiful starry sky above the coast can be seen from the roof-terraces of this hotel.
