Welcome to Podgorica, the capital and largest city of Montenegro. It lies in the centre of the country where the Ribnica and Morača rivers meet, at the point where the southern foothills of the Dinaric Alps reach the Zeta Plain. After the Second World War the city was renamed Titograd and grew rapidly from a small town into home for nearly a third of the country's people. Its original name returned in 1992, and in 2006 it became capital of independent Montenegro. From here our tour will also reach the coast, the mountains and a great lake.
Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ
Before you stands the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, the cathedral church of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. Construction began in 1993 to a design by Predrag Ristić, and it was consecrated in 2013, marking the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan on freedom of religion. That ceremony brought together the heads of several Orthodox churches, including the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, who led the metropolitanate for thirty years, was buried in the crypt at his own request in 2020.
Millennium Bridge
Spanning the Morača river is the Millennium Bridge, which quickly became one of the city's most prominent landmarks. It opened on 13 July 2005, Montenegro's National Day. The cable-stayed bridge is 173 metres long, and its pylon soars 57 metres above the road. Count the cables: twelve support the deck, while twenty-four more are anchored to counterweights, creating its striking silhouette. The bridge links the city centre with the newer districts across the river.
Kotor
Photo: User:Ggia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsNow we head to the coast and Kotor, historically known as Cattaro, tucked into a secluded corner of the Bay of Kotor. The bay is one of the most indented parts of the Adriatic, a ria, meaning a submerged river canyon, and the nearly overhanging limestone cliffs of Orjen and Lovćen give it a unique landscape. The old port is surrounded by fortifications built in the Venetian period. Kotor is part of a World Heritage Site, and in 2017 its fortified city was also listed among the Venetian defence works of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Ostrog Monastery
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsHigh up on an almost vertical cliff near Danilovgrad clings the Ostrog Monastery, the most visited pilgrimage site of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was founded in the early 17th century by Saint Basil of Ostrog, Metropolitan of Herzegovina, who died here in 1671. His body rests in a reliquary in a cave church. A fire once destroyed most of the complex, and its present look dates from 1923 to 1926. Yet the two little cave churches were spared, and they remain the heart of the monastery, with frescoes from the end of the 17th century.
Lake Skadar
Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsGaze across Lake Skadar, the largest lake in Southern Europe, lying on the border between Montenegro and Albania. It is a karst lake named after the Albanian city of Shkodër on its south-eastern shore. Roughly two thirds of its surface belongs to Montenegro, where the lake and surrounding land are a national park, while the Albanian part is a nature reserve. Here is a remarkable detail: the lake breathes with the seasons, its surface area changing between about 370 and 530 square kilometres.
Sveti Stefan
Photo: Marcin Konsek · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsOn the Adriatic coast, about 6 kilometres south-east of Budva, lies Sveti Stefan, Saint Stephen. Its most famous part is a small island, just 12,400 square metres in area, joined to the mainland by a narrow tombolo, a strip of sand. Pink sandy beaches line the shore around it. The earliest record of Sveti Stefan names it as the capital of the Paštrovići community, which placed itself under the protection of the Republic of Venice in 1423 out of fear of attack from the Turks. Today the island is known for its luxury resort.
Lomakuume
