Today it is mostly inhabited by Albanians, it was built by the Illyrians on a small peninsula at the right side of the Pristan Gulf, which is part of the Adriatic Sea.

The castle has been restored many times since it was first built although major changes were made by the Byzantines, Serbs, Venetians, and Ottomans.

Old town has picturesque narrow and curved streets typical of the Middle Ages, densely packed two- and three-story stone houses decorated with elements of the Renaissance and Baroque, and finally a series of valuable edifices from the Ottoman time.

It is connected to the last representatives of the Balšić dynasty, a wealthy family from the Shkodër area (today Albania, in that time Zeta), who had made Ulcinj their residence by the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries.

Not far away from the Palace of Venice, on the southern level of the Old Town, is a beautiful edifice called Kulla e Balshajve.

The inscription contains the name of the benefactor who built the fountain, usually with a wish and message that those who would get the nafaka ("compassionate allowance" in Turkish)[4] – a chance to take just a sip of water from it, say a prayer for him, and wish him a place in wonderful Jannah.

Kroni i zanave – "fairy's water", located on the north-western side in the Valdanos grove is the fountain most frequently sung about in Ulcinj.

In the Ulcinj olive groves there are ten more nicely made water springs: Begov, Mustafës, Doçinës, Salkikinës, the Sailor's etc..

In the pine wood is the famous Ladies Beach with its sulfur springs, which are supposedly an elixir for barren women.

Physicians from the former Yugoslavia used to recommend that children with asthma should walk in the Ulcinj Pine Wood in the morning and rinse their throats with sea water.