Sveti Stefan, one of the most exclusive summer resorts in the Mediterranean, was created by adapting stone houses on the island, built more than five centuries ago to protect the population from the surrounding villages in case of attacks by pirates and Turks. According to legend, in 1442, the Paštrovići fortified the island from the spoils of the Turkish galleys and built twelve houses, one for each Paštrović tribe. It was the commercial and traffic center of Paštrović and for almost 300 years the headquarters of the Bankada – Paštrović’s tribal court. The settlement was named after the church on the top of the island, dedicated to Saint Archdeacon Stefan. On the island there are still churches of St. Transfiguration and St. Alexander Nevsky.
Sveti Stefan was a fishing village for several centuries, until it was converted into a luxury hotel resort in the mid-fifties of the last century. The city-hotel was opened on July 13, 1960, and for decades it was a gathering place for famous people from all over the world – among others, Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, Alberto Moravia, Andre Marlowe, Richard Widmark, Kirk Douglas, Klaus Kinski, Monica Vitti stayed there. , Sylvester Stallone, Yuri Gagarin, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer… crowned heads, writers, actors, scientists, politicians and rich sheikhs.
