Radoničić Palace

Radoničić Palace was built at the beginning of the 19th century on Plagenti promontory. Next to Radoničić Palace stands the Romanesque church of St. Elijah built on the edge of the promontory. It is a small, single nave structure covered with stone plates. It dates from the 13th century, although we cannot exclude the possibility that it was built in an earlier period, possibly pre-Romanesque, i.e. the 10th or 11th century.

St. Elijah’s church, together with Plagenti promontory, used to belong to the Municipality of Kotor. In 1808, during the French rule in the Bay of Boka Kotorska, the whole promontory was bought by the Radoničić family for 500 talers. In 1847 Montenegrin prince-bishop Petar II Petrović Njegoš stayed in the palace visiting his friend, Captain Krsto Radoničić, for whom the palace had been constructed.

The palace is a typical Baroque, four-storey building with a belvedere. The northern front of the palace is decorated with a balustraded balcony on the second floor.

In 1937, the palace was bought by “Jadranska Straža” (Adriatic Guard), a marine organisation formed in 1922 with the aim to protect the coast. During the reconstruction of the palace that followed, a large terrace supported by 16 pillars was built on the main north front. This intervention completely transformed the front and changed the original Baroque appearance of the palace.

After World War II the palace was used by the Nautical High School of Kotor as a students’ dormitory. Today it houses the Institute for Marine Biology.