Luxury hotel in Montenegro was once a WWII concentration camp with gasoline barrels as toilets. Now turned into a 32-room resort with swimming pools, spa, and gym

One luxury hotel in Montenegro that promises a magnificent experience by the sea, with fine dining at one of the three restaurants and unforgettable bathing sessions at pools and spas for a minimum of 500 euros ($543), has a dark and bloody past. According to Business Insider and CNN reports, the hotel, located on Mamula Island, was a former Italian concentration camp. During World War II, the 19th-century fortress was used as a concentration camp by Italian troops operating under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. About 2,300 people were imprisoned there, with 130 people dying.

Locals opposed the plans to renovate the stronghold when they were first unveiled in 2016, according to Business Insider. However, the government said there were few options for the fort's future and granted a 49-year lease to the Swiss-Egyptian developer Orascom. As per The Guardian, the developer was to invest 15 million euros to build the luxury hotel.

According to Balkan Insights, since Montenegro gained independence in 2007, the government has concentrated on growing the country's economy, primarily through tourism. It supported the construction of Porto Montenegro, a superyacht marina, and Lustica Bay, a tourist town. The hotel was made open to guests once the renovations were completed in 2023. Mamula Island's diameter is roughly 600 feet.

When the island was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mamula Stronghold was constructed between 1850 and 1853 on the orders of General Lazar Mamula, after whom it was named. It was constructed as part of a network of forts, along with the nearby forts of Arza and O’ro. There isn't much vegetation other than the fort itself.

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From Black Hole of Suffering To Playground Of Luxury

One article published on Balkan Insights reflected how, in 2026, a fashion show was held on Mamula, calling the act of turning what was once a place of suffering into a playground for luxury "grotesque". Once, prisoners spent nights on limestone floors with many other people, on straw mattresses on wooden boards. A gasoline barrel was used as a toilet.

Jovanka Uljarevic, whose grandmother was a prisoner at the camp, told Balkan Insight how people starved in the cold, and if children cried, soldiers came and beat up people.

According to the Business Insider report, the hotel includes three swimming pools, a spa, a yoga centre, and 32 rooms divided into four types – garden, sea, sky, and panoramic.

Additional information on the hotel was shared by a Yahoo Finance report: There are six suites, sixteen junior suites, and ten rooms. On the resort property, visitors can enjoy a beach, three pools, three restaurants, and four bars. Additionally, it has an indoor gym, ritual rooms, steam rooms, halotherapy rooms, float chambers, Finnish and herbal saunas, and experience showers.

Montenegro is a country located in Southeast Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. Its 25 municipalities cover a total of 13,883 km² (5,360 sq mi). Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest are its borders. As of 2026, its popularity was estimated by Worldometer to be 625,900, less than a million.

This is the difference between times of war and an era of peace. Now the government hopes that the hotel will play its part in boosting tourism, attracting visitors, and improving the economy.