Petrovac na Moru

Getting there

By bus. Petrovac is the last stop of Budva's city buses towards Bar. The Budva-Petrovac line runs all year, about every hour from early morning to late evening, via Boreti, Rafailovići, Kamenovo, Pržno, Sveti Stefan, Reževići and Perazića Do; in Budva it starts on Mediteranska street at the roundabout. Times are on the Budva transport page; fares are not published. Taxis wait by the bus station in Petrovac, and intercity departures to Bar, Kotor and Podgorica are listed on busticket4.me (see buses).

By train and plane. Petrovac has no railway: the nearest stations on the Bar-Belgrade line are Sutomore, 13.5 km away, and Bar. Tivat Airport is 39 km away and Podgorica Airport 47 km, each about an hour by road.

By car. The coast road from Budva to Bar passes above the town. No parking zones or prices are published for Petrovac. Times below are without traffic.

Kastio, the Lazaret and the harbour

In the 16th century the Venetians built a fort above today's harbour, and the whole place took its name from it: Kastel Lastva, which locals shortened to Kastio. A permanent garrison was stationed there, with storehouses for wine and other goods shipped from the harbour. Beside the fort they built the Lazaret, a quarantine house for the sick in times of epidemic. Only walls remain of both; they frame the Petrovac bay and separate it from Tuljanova pećina, a sea cave. A pier, a restaurant, a café and a club have brought the spot back to life, and in early September it becomes the stage of the jazz festival. No opening hours or fees are published; more forts are on the fortresses page.

Beaches

Petrovac beach is 600 m of reddish sand along the promenade, 9,525 m² in all, with houses, hotels, cafés and restaurants behind it; its bathing area Ponta has held the Blue Flag. The beach page covers the free half of every bathing area and the lifeguards. The bathing season runs from May to October.

• Lučice, 500 m south in a cove between two capes, under cypress and pine: about 220 m of fine golden sand and shallow water, one of the beaches in the Montenegro with kids guide.
• Buljarica, 2 km towards Bar: at 2,250 m the longest beach of the Budva riviera, sandy near Petrovac and mostly pebble beyond, with the marshy Buljaričko polje behind it, a campsite and a pet-friendly bathing area at the eastern end (travelling with a dog).
• Towards Sveti Stefan: Perazića Do (40 m, below Reževići monastery) and Drobni pijesak (250 m, about 1 km off the Sveti Stefan-Petrovac road).

The whole coast is on the beaches page.

Katič Nature Park and diving

The two islets a few hundred metres off the beach are Veliki Katič and Mali Katič, also called Sveta Neđelja. Since 2021 (Službeni list CG 113/21 of 25 October 2021) they and the sea around them have formed the Katič Nature Park: over 2,500 ha in three zones, with meadows of the protected seagrass Posidonia oceanica, the Platamuni habitat and rare and protected species on land and at sea. Before anchoring, fishing or swimming out to the islets, check the park rules on the spot; the fishing page has the general rules.

Dive clubs in Petrovac take divers to the Katič islets and along the shore from Cape Dubovac to Čanj; the best-known wreck off Petrovac is the cruiser Zenta. No diving permit is needed. More in diving in Budva and diving in Montenegro.

History in brief

Medieval records from 1149 to 1426 call the place Lastva (Latin Lasta); under Venice the fort gave it the name Kastel Lastva. At Mirišta, in the town, a late-antique floor mosaic was found in 1902 and a second one later, both from a Roman building probably of the 3rd or 4th century AD: one shows three fish sharing a single head, the other a rectangle of twelve fields. The excavation is unfinished and the site is not laid out for visitors, so there is nothing to see on the spot.

The Crvena komuna (Red Commune) memorial home recalls the communists' win at the elections of 1920 with a museum of the revolution. It also holds a gallery named after the painter Marko K. Gregović and a library founded at the end of the 19th century with more than 15,000 books, and it hosts summer programmes of drama, art and music; the institution behind it is the Budva museums and galleries. No opening hours are published.

Monasteries nearby

Reževići monastery stands by the road to Budva, about halfway to Sveti Stefan. King Stefan the First-Crowned built its church of the Dormition in 1226; the church of Archdeacon Stephen, raised by Tsar Dušan in 1351, was replaced by a larger one in the early 19th century, and the Holy Trinity church of 1770 got its bell tower in 1839. The frescoes are of the 16th century over 13th-century layers, and the Paštrovići statute was found here in 1860. Beside the road the Reževići memorial home, in a school building of 1856, holds a gallery, a library and an ethnographic room.

Gradište monastery stands on a rise by the Petrovac-Bar road at Buljarica. By tradition it was founded in 1116; documents first name it in 1305. Its three churches, St Nicholas, St Sava and the Dormition, stand inside a wall, and the monastery was rebuilt after the 1979 earthquake; St Nicholas keeps an icon of St Christopher with an animal's head. The monks Stefan of Paštrovići and Sava wrote a primer here that was printed in Venice in 1597. More on the churches and monasteries page.

Events

• Late August: Petrovačka noć (Petrovac Night), a day of sport, children's and music programmes, tastings and a headline concert on the promenade, with free entry (Montenegro in August).
• Early September: the Petrovac Jazz Festival on the Kastio stage, three days (Montenegro in September).
• October: Petrovačka lignjada, a squid-fishing contest and tasting on the seafront, held since 2023, with about 500 kg of squid fried (Montenegro in October).

Practical information

• Tourist information: INFO Petrovac, +382 33 461 173, infopetrovac@budva.travel.
• Health: public health post (Ambulanta Petrovac), Stupovi bb, +382 33 461 055; the nearest hospitals are on the hospitals page.
• Pharmacies: Montefarm Apoteka Petrovac, +382 67 148 517; BENU in the health-post building; PZU Dr Med Apoteka 3, Ulica 8/11 (pharmacies).
• Post office: Trg br. 1, 85300, 07:00-20:00.
• Cash and fuel: about a dozen ATMs on the promenade, by the post office and at hotels; the BS Petrovac filling station is at Buljarica, +382 33 401 961.
• Where to stay: rooms in private houses and hotels along the promenade, and Camping Maslina at Buljarica.

When to go

The bathing season runs from May to October, when the sea water is tested. August is the busiest month across Montenegro, and Petrovac's own events come at the end of the season: Petrovac Night in late August, the jazz festival in early September and the squid day in October. The bus to Budva runs all year, and Petrovac is one of the day trips from Budva.

Questions

How do I get from Budva to Petrovac by bus?

On the Budva-Petrovac city line, about every hour from early morning to late evening, all year; in Budva it starts on Mediteranska street. By car the trip is 18 km, about 28 minutes.

Is there a train to Petrovac?

No. The nearest stations are Sutomore, 13.5 km away, and Bar.

How far is Petrovac from the airports?

Tivat Airport is 39.3 km, about 53 minutes; Podgorica Airport 47.3 km, about an hour.

What is the Kastio?

The 16th-century Venetian fort above the harbour, which gave the town its old name Kastel Lastva; only its walls and those of the Lazaret beside it remain, and the jazz festival uses it as a stage.

Can I visit the Roman mosaics?

No. The mosaics found at Mirišta in 1902 and later are not laid out for visitors; the excavation is unfinished.

When is the Petrovac Jazz Festival?

In early September, on the Kastio stage over three days; the Budva tourist organisation announces the dates.

What is Katič?

The nature park around the two islets off the beach, Veliki and Mali Katič, protected since 2021 over more than 2,500 ha of sea.

How many people live in Petrovac?

Petrovac na Moru had 1,400 residents in 520 households at the 2011 census. The 2023 census split it into several new settlements and gives no total for the town.