19 best sights in Montenegro

Mon­tene­gro is an attrac­tive coun­try for vaca­tion­ers due to its warm cli­mate, beau­ti­ful beach­es and clean air. But besides this, there are many inter­est­ing places and attrac­tions that are worth see­ing.

Who and why should go to Montenegro

Lovers of antiq­ui­ty and beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture should def­i­nite­ly go to Mon­tene­gro. There are ancient monas­ter­ies and cathe­drals with an inter­est­ing his­to­ry. To feel the spir­it of antiq­ui­ty, you can walk along the ruins of the Ratač Abbey and see the fortress­es in Herceg Novi, as well as look into the Ostrog Monastery, which is a cen­ter of pil­grim­age.

If you want to learn more about Mon­tene­gro, vis­it the Archae­o­log­i­cal Muse­um in Bud­va. And the Muse­um of the Naval Her­itage exhibits exam­ples of naval weapons and sub­marines.

Beau­ti­ful nature is one of the vis­it­ing cards of Mon­tene­gro. It will be pleas­ant to spend time in the nation­al parks Dur­mi­tor and Lov­cen and take a walk in the shade of trees, and in the Botan­i­cal Gar­den to learn more about the var­i­ous plants of the north­ern part of the coun­try.

Fans of extreme recre­ation can go down to the Jalovic cave, and for those who pre­fer a more relaxed pas­time, a vis­it to Skadar Lake is an excel­lent option. From the Dzhur­dzhe­vich Bridge, which pass­es over the canyon of the Tara Riv­er, a stun­ning view opens up — you can take many beau­ti­ful pho­tos there.

Cultural attractions and museums

Monastery Ostrog

This is the most pop­u­lar monastery in Mon­tene­gro, which is also a cen­ter of pil­grim­age. It was built in the 17th cen­tu­ry and is still in oper­a­tion. 12 monks live here, and the doors are always open for those who come.

With­in the walls of the monastery is kept an ancient prayer book and the relics of St. Basil of Ostrog. Believ­ers attribute to them a mirac­u­lous pow­er that can heal the sick.

Fortresses of Herceg Novi

In the city of Herceg Novi, sev­er­al fortress­es were built in the peri­od from the 15th to the 19th cen­turies. The build­ings have sur­vived to this day in their orig­i­nal form, with­out being restored.

In the south­ern part of the city are the fortress­es of the Citadel and Forte Mare, and in the north is the defen­sive struc­ture of Kan­li Kula, or “bloody tow­er”, built by the Turks. The most famous build­ing is the city tow­er of St. Jerome, sym­bol­iz­ing the lib­er­a­tion of the city from the Turks in 1687.

Archaeological Museum of Budva

The Muse­um of Arche­ol­o­gy in the old­est city of Mon­tene­gro opened in 2003. It has four floors, each of which is reserved for a sep­a­rate expo­si­tion. On the ground floor there is a lap­i­dar­i­um where you can see stone slabs with ancient inscrip­tions.

House­hold items and per­son­al belong­ings of the Greeks, Romans and Byzan­tines are exhib­it­ed on the sec­ond and third. The expo­si­tion on the fourth floor tells about the life of Mon­tene­grins since the 18th cen­tu­ry: nation­al cos­tumes, fur­ni­ture, mil­i­tary equip­ment, etc. are pre­sent­ed here.

Naval Heritage Museum

The muse­um is locat­ed in Tivat and takes a vis­it to the arse­nal that has remained in the city since the reign of Aus­tria-Hun­gary. You can also vis­it the sub­ma­rine “Hero”, which was in ser­vice with Yugoslavia.

Its mech­a­nisms and devices are com­plete­ly pre­served, and through the periscope you can see the coast­line. Behind the sub­ma­rine is the muse­um itself, where the weapons of the Yugoslav and Aus­tri­an fleets are exhib­it­ed. On the sec­ond floor there are mock-ups and draw­ings of the Yad­ran train­ing sail­boat.

Cathedral of Saint Tryphon

In old Kotor, there is the Cathe­dral of St. Tryphon, ded­i­cat­ed to the Chris­t­ian mar­tyr who suf­fered for the faith dur­ing the reign of Emper­or Decius Tra­jan. The relics of the saint are kept in the tem­ple.

The con­struc­tion of the cathe­dral began in the 12th cen­tu­ry; it was designed in the Romanesque style. After earth­quakes in the 17th and 20th cen­turies, the build­ing was rebuilt. Its inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion is no less inter­est­ing. Par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy is the carved canopy above the keep­er of gifts in the Goth­ic style.

Ratach Abbey

The abbey is locat­ed in a pro­tect­ed area on the coast of Cape Rat­ach — it offers stun­ning views of the sea, moun­tains and pine forests. It was built in the 13th cen­tu­ry and was a for­ti­fied com­plex of Bene­dic­tine monks.

The abbey includ­ed sev­er­al tem­ples and res­i­den­tial build­ings sur­round­ed by for­ti­fied walls. Today, only ruins remain from the monastery com­plex, where you can walk and look around.

Natural attractions and parks

Lovcen National Park

The park is locat­ed on the slope of Mount Lov­cen and in the sur­round­ing val­ley. The air here is very clean and healthy due to the com­bi­na­tion of moun­tain and sea cli­mate. On the ter­ri­to­ry of the park there is a bal­ne­o­log­i­cal clin­ic for patients with pul­monary dis­eases.

Also here is the vil­lage of Njegosi, where you can taste Mon­tene­grin del­i­ca­cies — pro­sciut­to and goat cheese. In the Ivano­va Kori­ta val­ley, cold springs spring from the ground, the water of which is col­lect­ed in nat­ur­al pools and forms sparkling cas­cades.

Tivat city park

Pre­vi­ous­ly, it was an ordi­nary city park, until the cap­tains of the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an fleet began to bring plants here from all over the world. Over time, the park turned into a botan­i­cal gar­den, which is under state pro­tec­tion.

After a busy day, it is very pleas­ant to walk along the paths of the park in the shade of euca­lyp­tus, pine, larch and fir trees. A rare Arau­caria tree, brought from Aus­tralia, also grows here.

Skadar Lake

This is the largest nat­ur­al lake in the Balka­ns — its area is approx­i­mate­ly 390 km². Two-thirds of Lake Skadar is locat­ed on the ter­ri­to­ry of Mon­tene­gro, and the rest belongs to Alba­nia. Pel­i­cans live here, as well as numer­ous oth­er birds nest­ing. There are ancient set­tle­ments on the banks of the reser­voir, and ancient ruins and church­es can be found on the islands.

Jalovic Cave

The cave, dis­cov­ered by Bel­grade spele­ol­o­gists in 1987, is con­sid­ered one of the largest and most beau­ti­ful in Europe. Its arch­es reach 30 meters in height, and the total length pre­sum­ably exceeds 200 km.

The entrance to the Jalovic cave is locat­ed on the ter­ri­to­ry of Mon­tene­gro, and its depths are in the pos­ses­sion of Ser­bia. Excur­sions along it belong to extreme tourism, so you can get here only with the appro­pri­ate train­ing.

Durmitor National Park

This unique park fea­tures sev­en dif­fer­ent ecosys­tems at once, includ­ing the most beau­ti­ful Black Lake, a relict for­est full of firs and spruces, and a grove of black pines. In Dur­mi­tor there is an ice cave at an alti­tude of 2040 m above sea lev­el. Inside it are amaz­ing com­po­si­tions of sta­lac­tites and sta­lag­mites, strik­ing in their diver­si­ty.

There are also cul­tur­al mon­u­ments on the ter­ri­to­ry of the park, for exam­ple, two 15th-cen­tu­ry monas­ter­ies ded­i­cat­ed to St. Michael the Archangel and Dovol.

Tara Canyon

The Tara Riv­er Canyon is a real nat­ur­al won­der. Its length is 82 km, and the depth in some places reach­es 1300 m. This is the deep­est canyon in Europe, which is sec­ond only to the Grand Canyon, locat­ed in Amer­i­ca.

It is part of the Dur­mi­tor Park and is list­ed by UNESCO. Dzhur­dzhe­vich Bridge pass­es through the canyon — the high­est bridge in the coun­try, which offers a breath­tak­ing view.

Botanical Garden

The Kolasin Botan­i­cal Gar­den has a col­lec­tion of moun­tain plants that grow in the north of Mon­tene­gro. The park was found­ed in 1981, and it appeared thanks to the ama­teur botanist D. Vinchek. It was he who orga­nized the botan­i­cal gar­den and chose the opti­mal con­di­tions for the preser­va­tion of rare and valu­able plants.

On the ter­ri­to­ry of the park, a nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment has been cre­at­ed for the growth of shrubs, trees and grass­es char­ac­ter­is­tic of this area. The most unique spec­i­men is the Rumelian pine, which is found only in the Balka­ns.

Notable buildings

Bucha Palace

The palace, locat­ed in the cen­ter of Tivat, is the sum­mer res­i­dence of the Bucha and Lukovic fam­i­lies. It was built dur­ing the reign of Emper­or Dušan and was a defen­sive cas­tle com­bined with a hol­i­day vil­la.

Today, the palace has been com­plete­ly restored, and a sum­mer stage, a gar­den and an art gallery have been added to it. Exhi­bi­tions of artists, lit­er­ary evenings and the­atri­cal per­for­mances are held here.

Citadel in Budva

The medieval fortress is locat­ed in the cen­ter of the Old Town of Bud­va. It was built in 840 to pro­tect against Turk­ish invaders and was ded­i­cat­ed to St. Mary. Only two walls of the struc­ture have sur­vived to our time — the north­ern one with a tow­er and the east­ern one.

On the ter­ri­to­ry of the fortress there is a mar­itime muse­um, a library and a cozy restau­rant. The fes­ti­val of arts “Grand The­ater” is held here annu­al­ly, where actors from all over the world come.

Millennium Bridge

An unusu­al bridge was built in Pod­gor­i­ca in 2005, which was timed to coin­cide with the cel­e­bra­tion of State­hood Day in Mon­tene­gro. It per­forms not only a dec­o­ra­tive func­tion, but also works for its intend­ed pur­pose, unit­ing the two banks of the Mora­ca Riv­er.

The bridge sym­bol­izes the entry of Mon­tene­gro into the new mil­len­ni­um, in which tech­ni­cal progress comes first. The struc­ture is in har­mo­ny with the appear­ance of the city and is a pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tion.

House Verona

An old house of the 18th cen­tu­ry, which belonged to the noble and noble fam­i­ly of Verona, is locat­ed on the shore of the bay in Tivat in a small bay of nat­ur­al ori­gin. It is a clas­sic exam­ple of sea­side medieval archi­tec­ture.

The build­ing has not been used as a res­i­den­tial build­ing for a long time, but the exte­ri­or with fea­tures of the Goth­ic and Renais­sance style has been per­fect­ly pre­served. The House of Verona can tell a lot about the way of life of the noble fam­i­lies of that time.

bloody tower

In the city of Herceg Novi, there is the Kan­li Kula fortress, which means “Bloody Tow­er” in Turk­ish. This name is explained by the fact that the build­ing per­formed not only defen­sive func­tions — dur­ing the Ottoman Empire, a prison was locat­ed here, where pris­on­ers serv­ing sen­tences for resist­ing the Turk­ish occu­pa­tion and fight­ing for the free­dom of Mon­tene­gro were bru­tal­ly tor­tured and killed. The cas­tle is shroud­ed in secrets and leg­ends, which attracts the atten­tion of tourists.

Bisanti residence

In Tivat, there is the dwelling of anoth­er noble fam­i­ly — the res­i­dence of Bizan­ti. It was built in the 16th cen­tu­ry, and the palace com­plex includ­ed a fam­i­ly chapel, as well as a watch­tow­er, which has par­tial­ly sur­vived to this day.

A lux­u­ri­ous park was laid out around the cas­tle, and there was a pri­vate pier on the shore of the Tivat Bay. Today, any­one can come to the palace grounds to walk around the emp­ty halls and imag­ine how it used to be here.