Culture and history

Montenegro’s history in brief

Before Montenegro there was Roman Doclea, then the principality of Duklja and later Zeta. In 1482 Ivan Crnojević founded Cetinje, which remained the capital for more than four centuries, until 1946. Over that time the country was ruled first by prince-bishops of the Petrović-Njegoš family, then by princes and a king; after that came Yugoslavia and, in the end, independence. The dates are set out in a short history of Montenegro.

The central figure is Petar II Petrović-Njegoš: prince-bishop, ruler and poet. His mausoleum on Lovćen was built in 1970–1974 to a design by Ivan Meštrović, with 461 steps up to it, a 28-tonne statue in grey Jablanica granite and caryatids in black stone. A ticket costs €8, and it is open from 15 April to 15 November, 9:00–18:00.

Monasteries and shrines

Ostrog is a 17th-century monastery set into a cliff at around 900 metres, founded by St Basil of Ostrog, and one of the most visited Orthodox shrines in the Balkans; entry and parking are free. Cetinje Monastery, whose present building dates from 1701–1704, keeps the right hand of St John the Baptist — by tradition, the hand that baptised Christ. In Podgorica stands the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, the largest Orthodox church in Montenegro, and on the edge of the city is Dajbabe, a cave monastery founded in 1897.

A private tour takes in all four in a day, from €90 for the group; the group trip to Ostrog and Podgorica is from €39 per person, but it runs only in season and not from October to May. Both are run only with a Russian-speaking guide, so unless you speak Russian, a hire car is the more practical way to get there. Dress for a monastery: shoulders and knees covered — a long skirt or trousers for women, no shorts for men.

Festivals, etiquette and language

The best-known summer event in the Bay of Kotor is the Fašinada: every year on 22 July, people from Perast take boats laden with stones out to Gospa od Škrpjela, in memory of the icon of the Virgin that, legend has it, sailors found on the reef on 22 July 1452. The rest of the year’s dates are in the holidays and festivals calendar.

Montenegrin and Serbian are spoken here, written in both Cyrillic and Latin script. There are no reliable figures on how widely English is spoken, so a few local words go a long way: see language and phrases. Tipping, coffee, polako — the local ‘take it easy’ — and the subjects best left alone are covered in Montenegro etiquette.