Budva (Cyrillic: Будва, pronounced [bûːdv̞a] or [bûdv̞a]) is a town in the Coastal region of Montenegro. It had 17,479 inhabitants as of 2023, and is the centre of Budva Municipality. The coastal area around Budva, known as the Budva Riviera, is the center of Montenegrin tourism, renowned for its well-preserved medieval walled city, sandy beaches, and diverse nightlife. Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.

In Serbo-Croatian, the town is known as Будва or Budva; in Italian and Latin as Budua; and in (classical/ancient) Greek as Bouthoe (Βουθόη) and Butua (Βουτούα).

A legend recounts that Bouthoe (Βουθόη - Bouthoē) was founded by Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, Greece. When exiled from Thebes, he found a shelter in this place for himself and his wife, the goddess Harmonia.

The first record of Budva dates back to the 5th century BC. Originally, the site belonged to the state of Illyria. In the 6th century BC, during the Greek colonization of the Adriatic, a Greek emporium was established. In the 2nd century BC, the area of Budva became part of the Roman Republic and from 27 BC, of the Roman Empire. Upon the fall of the Empire and its division into east and west, the defensive barrier that separated the two powers happened to run across this area, subsequently making a lasting impact on the history and culture of this town.

In the 6th century, Budva was part of the Byzantine Empire, and in the following two centuries, Slavs and, to a lesser extent, Avars began to arrive in the area, mixing with the native Roman population. Budva bay was reportedly known as Avarorum sinus (Avar bay') during the Avar incursions. In 841, Budva was sacked by Muslim Saracens, who devastated the area.

In the early Middle Ages, Budva was ruled by a succession of Doclean kings, as well as Serbian and Zetan aristocrats.

c. 1200, it became the see of a Roman Catholic Diocese of Budua, which lasted until 1828 and was nominally revived as a Latin titular bishopric. It was controlled by the Balšić family for some decades and was shortly controlled by the Albanian Zaharia family in the 14th century. The Venetians ruled the town for nearly 400 years, from 1420 to 1797. Budva, called Budua in those centuries, was part of the Albania Veneta and was fortified by powerful Venetian walls against Ottoman conquests. According to the historian Luigi Paulucci in his book "Le Bocche di Cattaro nel 1810" (The Bay of Kotor in 1810), most of the population spoke the Venetian language until the beginning of the 19th century. One of the most renowned theater librettists and composers, Cristoforo Ivanovich, was born in Venetian Budua. Nevertheless, Budva was briefly under Ottoman rule between 1572 and 1573 due to the conquest by Occhiali. It was returned to the Venetians under the conditions of the Treaty of Constantinople (1573). In 1675, a French Archaeologist, Jacob Spon, visited Budva and stated that Budva is like a border between Albanians and Venetians.

With the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797, Budva came under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy. During the Napoleonic Wars, Montenegrin forces allied with Russia took control over the city in 1806, only to relinquish the city to France in 1807. French rule lasted until 1813, when Budva (along with Boka Kotorska) was ceded to the Austrian Empire, which remained in control of the city for the next 100 years.