Cetinje in Half a Day: The Old Capital

Cetinje was the capital for more than four centuries and stopped being one in 1946. Founded in 1482, when the ruler Ivan Crnojević moved his court into the mountains away from the Ottomans. The country was governed from here, European powers kept embassies here, and the president still has a residence in town. How it became the capital, and why it stopped being one, is covered in a short history of Montenegro.

Today it is a quiet town of 12,000 people at 670 metres. Half a day covers it.

Cetinje monastery

The main site, and the reason pilgrims come from across the Orthodox world. It holds three first-rank relics:

• the right hand of John the Baptist — the hand with which, by tradition, Christ was baptised;
• a fragment of the True Cross;
• the relics of St Peter of Cetinje.

The first monastery, completed in 1484, survives only as ruins on Ćipur, next to the Court Church; the building you visit today dates from 1701–1704. It is the seat of the Montenegrin Metropolitanate.

Entry is free, but shoulders and knees must be covered. Inside you can light candles and buy brojanice, the woven prayer bracelets customarily blessed on the relics.

The embassy palaces

Njegoševa street is lined with mansions that served as embassies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Russian, French, British, Italian, Austro-Hungarian. A tiny country received the world, and each building was designed in its own national manner.

They now hold museums, libraries and galleries. The most striking is the former French embassy of 1910: art nouveau, with a façade clad in ceramic tiles. Do not confuse it with the Blue Palace of 1895, which is now the president’s residence.

The museums

The State Museum in the former royal palace: crowns, weapons, portraits of the Petrović family. Biljarda, Njegoš’s residence of 1838, named after a billiard table that, the story goes, was carried up the mountain by hand. In a pavilion of its own in the Biljarda courtyard stands the relief map of Montenegro from 1916–1917, a huge scale model of the country.

A combined ticket to all the museums costs €20; individual ones €3–8.

How long you need

• Monastery and centre: an hour
• With the museums: three to four hours
• With lunch and a walk: half a day

Cetinje is rarely the end point. Most people pass through on the way to Lovćen or down to Lake Skadar.

Getting there

From Kotor, 42 kilometres via the hairpin road and Njeguši, an hour and a quarter without stops. From Budva, 28 kilometres, 40 minutes. From Podgorica, 35 kilometres, 40 minutes.

Buses run from Podgorica and Budva several times a day. But the interesting part here is the drive, not the arrival: see the Kotor–Lovćen road.

Nearby

Lovćen and Njegoš’s mausoleum — 20 kilometres, 35 minutes; €3 to enter the national park, €8 for the mausoleum. The mausoleum is open from 15 April to 15 November and closed in winter. Everything about the park — the drive, Ivanova Korita, trails — is in Lovćen National Park. Njeguši and its ham on the way: Njeguši. The Crnojević river and Lake Skadar — 20 minutes downhill, to the viewpoint above the famous river bend: Lake Skadar and the Crnojević river.

How people usually do it

Cetinje is almost always part of a loop. Driving yourself that means Kotor — Lovćen — Cetinje — Njeguši — Kotor, half a day at the wheel; a compact car is easier: car rental.

With a guide, the same circuit is covered by Heart of Montenegro: from €73 per person from Budva, from €83 from Kotor and Tivat, and from €88 from Bar. Maxi Montenegro, which adds the summit of Lovćen, is not running in 2026. The company behind these tours works only with Russian-speaking guides, on group and private tours alike, so if Russian is no use to you, the car is the better way round. The pilgrimage version with Ostrog and Dajbabe is four monasteries. All routes are under things to do.

Prices checked in September 2026. Monastery hours depend on services.