Grgurina Palace

Grgurina Palace is situated on the square known as “Grgurina Square” or “Museum Square”. The palace belonged to the noble family Grgurina. The family settled in Kotor from the town of Kopar in Istria in the 17th century and soon acquired the status of Kotor nobility. The palace was built by Count Marko Grgurina, who was notable as a merchant and mediator. He acted as a mediator on the occasion of the arrival in Kotor of the famous Venetian architect Francesco Cabianca Penso. Between 1704 and1708, Cabianca completed the sculptural decoration of the reliquary of St. Tryphon’s cathedral. It is known that Grgurina Palace was built during Cabianca’s stay in Kotor, but the exact year of its construction has not been recorded. Another important member of the family was Bishop Marko Antonije Grgurina. In the autumn of 1813, during the short-lived unification of Boka Kotorska and Montenegro, he was a mediator in the negotiations between the Montenegrin prince-bishop Petar I Petrović Njegoš and the French Marshal Marmont and General Gotje. In his will, Marko Antonije Grgurina bequeathed the palace to the poor people of Kotor.

Throughout the 19th century and until the end of World War I, Grgurina Palace was the seat of the town administration or various military authorities. Between the two world wars it was the seat of the district government. In 1938 the museum of the Boka Navy was established on the first floor of the palace. It is the forerunner of the present-day Maritime Museum of Montenegro, which was opened in 1952.
Grgurina Palace was built in the late Baroque style following the principles of construction typical of the palaces of Boka Kotorska, including the “four rooms and a salon” concept. This concept was faithfully applied on the first and second floors of the part of the palace facing the square, where the rooms are arranged around a central salon. The rear part of the palace, consisting of three floors, is the remains of an earlier building. On that northern side of the palace there is a spacious terrace with a loggia, constructed over a vaulted storehouse, and a garden with a Baroque layout. On the terrace, there is a washstand and the coat-of-arms of the Grgurina family, with a goat – a symbol of the town of Kopar – as a reminder of the family’s origin.

Especially notable is the interior of the palace with wooden ceilings which were reconstructed after the earthquake of 1979, and the flooring in the central salons and an entrance hall made of red-and-white stone tiles arranged in a chequered pattern. One side room on the first floor has preserved its original, nicely patterned flooring made of different types of wood parquet. The same flooring was probably used in all rooms arranged around the central salons on the first and second floors.

All inner portals were made of stone from Korčula and elaborately carved in the Baroque manner. The same stone was used for the main façade dominated by balconies and centrally grouped Baroque portals and windows.

Source: Martinović Jovan, Sto kotorskih dragulja, Rijeka Crnojevića, 1995.