Hydraud – Abandoned Austro Hungarian Fortress in Montenegro

The largest and one of the most interesting fortresses of the country is close to the city. Perhaps this is one of the most famous abandons of Montenegro, so on the Internet you can find a huge number of photo reports from this place. Despite its popularity, the fortress "Horad" is not a museum, you will not see the protection at the entrance, too, and the entrance to it is completely free. If you want to see the fortress not only outside, but also from the inside, do not forget to take a flashlight with you, because there is no inside the sources of light and you can step into something unpleasant or stumble into the darkness of some piece of iron and seriously injected. Our journey in Montenegro began with the city of Herceg Novi. In order not to go around the perimeter of the entire Boca-Kator bay, we decided to use the ferry, which for some ten minutes delivered us to another shore. This allows you to completely save time, as the detour will take about 40-45 minutes. Ferry in Herceg Novi works from 5 am to midnight, and from May to October even at night. Price for crossing a passenger car Total € 4.5. Very convenient for those who want from Croatia to travel to Montenegro, or vice versa, from Budva to go on an excursion to Dubrovnik.

But back to the Austro-Hungarian fortress, Morad, who is located in the picturesque location of Montenegro (in this country there are simply no others – all the places are very beautiful) with a stunning view of the city Kotor and the runway of the airport of Tivat.

Almost to the entrance to the Fort, the Horad is behaved well asphalt road, its only minus is very narrow and winding, you have to move very slowly.

Before the fortress, there is an improvised observation deck, it is parking. It is certainly very small, but 2-3 cars will fit on it without problems, while they will not completely interfere with the passage of cars.

During our visit, we were the only visitors to the fortress.

The fortress is much masked well and, despite the fact that it is located on the top of the hill – almost imperceptible to the look of man. The fortress has 4 levels, two of them are underground, and one more is protected by an earthen shaft. In fact, only the top level of the fortress is rising above the surface, on which its main tool is located.

The Horad was built by Austrians to observe and protect the cowor bay and for a long time successfully coped with the functions entrusted to it. At the time of construction, the Horad was a good equipped strengthening of that time. The rare fortress could compete with her in power and equipment, it was all the most modern and advanced.

The construction of the fortress lasted only two years and ended in 1886. In many sources, 1866 construction is specified, but judging by the inscription on the entrance to Most, the second eight simply did not reach us in its original form. The inscription on the entrance "ThurmFort Gorazda" is translated as the "Moraden Fortress Tower".

Around the perimeter of the whole fortress, a wide anti-personnel ditch, which ensured the protection of Most. Get inside could only be over. Nowadays, to get inside the fortress, you just need to go through the concrete slabs that appeared here in the XX century.

If you carefully look at the photo, then you can see that the entrance is not visible from the bridge – this is done specifically. The concrete "corridor" in front of the entrance to Gorazhda was made so that the entrance to the fortress could not be shot outside.

I must say that the fortress is much not only well disguised, but also well classified. We managed to find very few information about it – as a rule, this is that numerous travelers who visited here rewrite each other with minor changes. That is why there is no reliable information about when the fortress was empty.

There is a suggestion that it could happen after the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991, but we could not find a confirmation of these facts. There is no light inside the fortress, except that it penetrates through the windows, so it is worth considering where you are going – garbage and other "surprises" here.

Despite the fact that the main construction was completed in 1886, the Horad was completed several times, modernized and improved. "New buildings" perfectly seen in the quality of stone and joints between them.

Inside the fortress in armored cases, 120 mm implements were placed, the main task of which is distant goals. Guns were turned towards Kotor and Budva. The guns themselves in Mostorday have long been no, but the rails that horizontal direction adjustment can be seen on the floor and now.

An elevator was used to raise the ammunition: a projectile was loaded into the trolley and the special mine went up or lowered to the lower level.

According to some data, in the photo below, you can see a complex engineering structure called "Toilet": the average pipe is the drain, and four "points" are around the perimeter. But there are more complex versions that this is part of the combat equipment of the tower.

When you go inside the fortress is much, it seems that it has a very complicated geometric shape. But if you look at the satellite image of the fortress, it can be seen that her form is close to the square, but the shape of the anti-empty RVA is original.

Such an unusual form appeared due to the fact that four concrete branches were made at the lower level of the fortress with braces for the defense of anti-empty RVA, if enemies succeeded to descend into it.

The fortress is very big, and when you start to descend on the lower levels, it seems that it is huge. The fortress is much reminded to us by Taiwanese forts, for which we happened to walk on Pescador Islands. That’s just in Taiwan, even in an abandoned fort, you will not find garbage.

If there is nothing interesting at the lower levels, it is necessary to go up on the top floor. This can be done according to the partially preserved screw staircases, but only worth the accuracy, because the stones fall from them periodically, and we do not want you to cripple.

From the roof of the fortress, wonderful views of the surroundings and the strengthening itself.

But we rose to the roof not in order to admire the species. The fact is that the roof is a unique building – an armored dome, which was developed by the German inventor of Hermann Gruson (Hermann Gruson). The first shelter tower on his project was built in 1873, t.E. At the time of construction, Mostly, it was a very modern and innovative building.

Thanks to this armored dome, the garrison can have a circular shelling of the territory and at the same time be absolutely protected. Dome diameter is about 3 meters, and two 120mm cannons were used as weapons.

To manage this innovative miracle of German engineering thought, one person was required, two more fighters were needed to actuate the turning mechanism. It must be said that in the entire history of such installations five pieces were built, but only one and it was preserved to this day and it is just on the roof of the fortress "Horad".

On our photos it is not visible, but on the dome there is an inscription that it is made by the Metallurgical plant of Emil Skoda. Yes Yes! Skoda is not only cars, as many people mistakenly believe. The holding "Skoda" included several enterprises producing various equipment, including weapons, equipment for energy, equipment for the food industry, nuclear power and much more. A large number of mountain cannons produced Škoda Holding was at one time delivered to the territory of Yugoslavia.

Montenegro – amazing country. There is no local currency here, and in all stores they take euros, although the country is not included in the eurozone. Russian speech is heard more often than Chernogorsk. Ads for the sale of housing are written in Russian and indicated Moscow Mobile Phones. Sometimes, the feeling that you are in some of the regions of Russia, but not in the Balkans. We spent very little time in Montenegro and be sure to come back here in order to get acquainted with her beauty and sights in more detail. Do not switch – Ahead is very interesting reports from the mysterious for Russian tourist Albania.

This article was stolen from http: // poznamka.Ru.

Fortress Horad on the map

The winding road that leads to the fortress is the famous staircase of Catataro – ancient serpentine walking along the slope of Loven right to Cetini – the ancient capital of Montenegro.

Wow! Thank you very much for the information, we, unfortunately, in Montenegro, I have a little time and have not seen almost nothing, now I want to return to a deeper study of the country!

Do not write nonsense about local currency. She is not here and not already since 1916, since 2002 – Euro

"Here almost do not use local currency and in all stores take euros." Please specify in what nonsense?

In store stores are both euro and local currency. De facto Montenegro is not included in the euro zone, respectively, the country has no right to emiate euros, the country has introduced unilaterally.