Karinger enjoyed the view of the strategic bay, once the domain of the Republic of Venice, as a soldier. He served in the Carniolan 17th Infantry Regiment in Montenegro between 1854 and 1857 and made numerous sketches and watercolours which he later turned into oils. The magnificent view of the bay, surrounded by the massifs of the Dinaric Alps, staffage figures dressed in traditional costumes, five of them lower left, and the fortification (in the town and on the hill) demonstrate primordiality which, however, is already contaminated by the modern, Austrian era – there is a steamship on its way from the harbour where sailing boats are moored.

The artist conceived the Montenegrin landscape in a romantic way – he further enhanced the dramatic topography by pointing the peaks and rocks, he shaded the very steep parts because of the morning light from the east, and his staffage figures hint at the rustical character of the local inhabitants.