Montenegro

There are only few countries in the world covering the space of 13212 km 2, out of which 293 km of seaside and approximately 70 mountain peaks with over 2000 meters above sea level. Welcome to the country of exceptional natural beauty, rich cultural heritage, a long history and nice and hospitable people. Montenegro is a good choice for those who appreciate and enjoy intact nature of immense diversity and contracts.

A visit to Montenegro is an encounter with genuine beauty, equally attractive through the 190 km of air distance over three regions, from its most southern point to its northern corner. South from Herzegovina, east from Dalmatia, north from Albania, West from Turkey and south from Serbia lies this small but beautiful country. The name is Italian demoting “Black Mountain”. Crna Gora is the name of this country in Montenegrin language and people are called Crnogorci or “the sons of the black mountains”. Montenegro is a country made of hills and mountains and belongs to middle Mediterranean. The widest part of Montenegro, about 40 %, lies on 1000-1500 meters above the sea level.

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HISTORY OF MONTENEGRO

Montenegro is a country of a long and rich history. The earliest inhabitants of Montenegro were the Illyrian people whose great Labeat tribe lived on the territory of Montenegro and northern Albania. The prominent tribe family during the Roman period was Docleat, while the 7th century was marked by the arrival of the Slavs who inhabited Byzantine province of Prevalitana and eventually destroyed Declea.

 

This region became known as Doclea from the 11th century, yet a lot of people began to refer it as Zeta. Duklja- Zeta and finally Montenegro from the 15th century onwards, became the synonyms for one country and people who experienced a turbulent history. Princ Vladimir represented the firs significant figure from History of Doclea. He was defeated and captured by the Macedonian tzar Samuil, and following the fall of Samuil’s empire in 1018, Zeta became subjugated to the Byzantine rule. Montenegro was liberated from the Byzantine rule by Stefan Vojislav.

 

The successors to his dynasty strengthened the position of Zeta which proclaimed a kingdom during Mihailo’s rule in 1077. His son Bodin succeeded in extending the territory by unifying Raska and Bosnia with Zeta which remained under their control for the next 180 years. With the arrival of the Balsic dynasty Zeta resumed power, expanded its territory, and from mid 15th century onwards, under the reign of the Crnovic Dynasty, it was referred to as Montenegro to all written documents. Ivan Crnojevic (1465-1490) was the founder of the new capital where he built a monastery and a royal palace. Ivan son Djurad (1490-1496) founded the priniting house as early as 1493 and the first book “Oktoih” was published when books where a rarity in the rest of the Old Continent.

 

Faced with constant strikes of the Turks, Djurad fled to troll of the new dynasty Patrovic - Njegos. Danilo, Sava and Vasilije unified the Montenegro tribes , Petar I laid the foundations of the state and Petar created the state administration, Senate Guard, the Court and Baduguard of the Prince. Heir Danilo separated the rule of state from the Episcopal office, strengthened the state institutions, introduced the Common Montenegrin Legal Code and officially demarcated the borders between Montenegro and Turkey. His successor Nikola Patrovic continued with the wars and victories over the Turks (Vucji do, Bar, Ulcinj, Niksic and Podgorica) doubled the territory and won the independence at the Congress of Berlin at 1878. In 1905, he introduced the formal constitution and in 1910 Montenegro proclaimed a kingdom.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

With its position in the heart of Europe and the Mediterranean, Montenegro is an really easy reaching destination. The territory of Montenegro starches from east border of Herzegovina across the high mountains of Durmitor , Piva, Bjelasica and Ljubisnja, extending to the edges of Volujak and Zelengora Mounts in the north, Prokletije in the south west, and ending with the picturesque coastal area of the Adriatic Sea SURFACE The continental part covers an area of 19,812 km2 and the length of the Montenegrin coastline is 293 km. The average altitude above sea level is 1.060 m with around 70 mounatins peaks reaching 2,000 meters.

POPULATION

The population is 672,656 of the following national composition: Montenegrins, Serbs, Albanians, Muslims, Bosnians, Croats, Roma and others. CLIMATE There are several climate zones: moderate continental in the inland part, Alpine in the highlands, and Adriatic-Mediterranean along the coastline, with many warm and sunny days, where an average temperature in January never drops under 7 c and is around 25 c in July. The sea temperature in winter months ranges from 10-12 c, and in the summer 25-28 c.

NATIONAL PARK DURMITOR - National Park Durmitor is located in at the northeast part of Montenegro, the canyons of Tara Susica and draga rivers and the highest part of the canyon plateau Komarnica, covering the area fo 39,000 ha. It was established in 1952 as a national park and was inscribed twice in the World Heritage List: 1977 river Tara area was inscribed as an UNESCO reserve, and in 1980, Durmitor and river Tara were inscribed as world natural heritage. A part of National park Durmitor is also the river Tara canyon , 80 km long and 1,300 m deep, second largest in the world after the Grand Canyon in Colorado.

BIOGRADSKA GORA - is one of the two jungles existing in Europe. It covers are of 2500 hectares. There are 25 plant families and 84 kinds of trees. Its trees can reach the high of cc 60 meters and Biogradsko Lake represents its most beautiful part.

SKADAR LAKE – Skadar lake is the biggest lake in the Balkans and has 40 islands. Depending on the season, the area covered by Skadar Lake varies from 391km2 to 540 m2. It has about so called sublacustrine springs. The deepest is radus, 65 meters Skadar Lake is one of the biggest habitat of bird species in Europe. During the season, about 270 bird kinds reside here. Skadar Lake is crypto depression, where certain parts of the bottom are settled bellow the sea, 30 m undes the Adriatic Sea level. Almost 2/3 of Skadar Lake belongs to Montenegro, and the rest belongs to Albania.

LOVCEN – National park Lovcen is located in the southwest of Montenegro. It includes the central and largest part of Mountains Lovcen, one of the symbols of Montenegro. The combination of Mediterranean and continental climate helped create unique flora and fauna with more than 1300 different plant species and 200 bird reptile species. This area has a special status among the national parks of Montenegro. Here not only the nature is important, but also a cultural heritage, since in this mountain is located the famous old Royal capital of Montenegro, the city of Cetinje, and the Mausoleum of Montenegro ruler and poet Petar II Petar Njegos.

The beautiful coast of Montenegro is 293 km length, and spreads from the river Bojana and border with Albania in the south until the Prevlaka peninsula and the border with Croatia. The biggest cities are: Ulcinj, Bar, Budva, Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi. The other beautiful localities in the area of coastline are: Utjeha, Sutomore, Čanj, Petrovac, Bigova, Prčanj, Perast, Risan, Bijela and Igalo. Ulcinj represents one of the oldest cities in the Adriatic seacoast, with more than 2500 years old history. The first citizens of Ulcinj where the Illyrians, the people with indo – European origin. The hospitality of Ulcinj citizen is widely known. About that tells a numerous friendship of domicile people with the guest that last with generations.

The golden ages of Ulcinj tourism where from 1975 -1989 when Ulcinj was the metropol of Montenegrin tourism and hospitality. Nature was very generous to Ulcinj and gave to Ulcinj around 20 km of sandy beaches, the most known from then are: Velika plaža, Ada and Mala plaža. The biggest from them is Velika plaža which is 12 km long and in average 60 m wide. It represents a real pearl of Ulcinj a a city and Montenegro as a state and destination. Ada another nature pearl of city of Ulcinj is one of the most popular nudist beaches in Adriatic seacoast divided from Velika plaža by the river Bojana ( Buna ) . The birth of today Ada island stared on 1852 when the boot of a ship owner from Trogir called Antan Allegresi, Sauk. When Ada was formed in nearly today form and shape around 20 years from that accident no one in that time could imagine that Ada will become one of the Mediterranean nautical centre and one of the most famous nudist settlements in Europe, with a possibilities of swimming in fresh and salt water.

SHORT BRIEF FOR TOURISTS BEFORE TRAVELLING TO MONTENEGRO

Montenegro is a multi-party parliamentary republic. The capital of Montenegro is Podgorica (200.000) – the country’s economic, transport, cultural and political centre, while Cetinje is the historic capital of the republic. Montenegrin currency is EURO. Foreign currencies can be exchanged in local banks.