Monasteries and churches in Montenegro

Which one for what

• A pilgrimage: Ostrog, 37.6 km and about an hour from Podgorica to the Lower monastery, then 3 km on foot to the Upper; the guest house takes pilgrims overnight.
• Medieval frescoes: Morača, founded in 1252, with the 13th-century raven feeding the Prophet Elijah, 25 km from Kolašin; Piva, about 1,260 m² of frescoes nearly four centuries old, moved with the building.
• A boat trip: Our Lady of the Rocks and St George's island off Perast, 13.8 km from Kotor, with boats from the Perast waterfront.
• Relics and a treasury: Cetinje Monastery, with a treasury spanning the 13th to 20th centuries, and Biljarda next door.
• Half a day from Podgorica: Dajbabe, a cave church 7 km south of the centre; the island monasteries of Skadar Lake National Park, Moračnik, Beška, Starčevo and Kom, seen from the tour boats.
• Ottoman Montenegro: the Husein-pasha Mosque in Pljevlja, with a 42 m minaret, a 16th-century illuminated Qur'an and an Egyptian carpet of about 400 kg.

Coast

Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) is an artificial islet off Perast, in Kotor municipality: after a painting of the Mother of God was found on a crag in 1452, the people of Perast heaped stones around it and sank old ships loaded with rock until there was ground for a church. The first church stood by the mid-15th century; most of the present church was built after 1666, and the domed presbytery was added in 1720-1725 to plans by Ilija Katičić. Inside are 68 canvases by the Baroque painter Tripo Kokolja, silver votive plates from seafaring families and a museum of Perast seafaring. Every 22 July the fašinada rows out from the waterfront to throw more stones around the islet, a custom kept since 1452 and national intangible heritage since 2013. A few hundred metres away, St George's island is natural: the seat of a Benedictine abbey, with a 12th-century church, 72 graves of Perast families and the town's old graveyard; its vault and apse fell in the earthquake of 1667. In Kotor itself, St Luke's of 1195 kept a Catholic and an Orthodox altar side by side from the mid-17th century until 1810, and St Tryphon's Cathedral dates from 1166. The islands are the usual stop on the boat tours of the bay.

Cetinje and the centre

Cetinje Monastery stands at the foot of Orlov krš in Cetinje, on the site of the court Ivan Crnojević built in 1482. Metropolitan Danilo built it in 1701-1704; it burned in 1712, 1714 and 1785 and was mostly rebuilt in 1786. Local priests guide pilgrims to the relics of St Peter of Cetinje, the piece of the Holy Cross and the hand of St John the Baptist. Above it on Orlov krš is the Mausoleum of Bishop Danilo, built in 1896 for the bicentenary of the dynasty, and next door Biljarda, Njegoš's residence.

Ostrog has two parts. The Lower monastery, around the Church of the Holy Trinity of 1824, is where the road arrives, with the parking, the guest house and the start of the pilgrims' path. The Upper monastery is the white facade pressed into the cliff of Ostroška greda, with two cave churches behind it: the Vavedenje church holds the relics of St Basil, who died here on 12 May 1671, and the Church of the Holy Cross sits higher in the rock; both have 17th-century frescoes painted straight onto the stone. The forest path between the two climbs about 3 km and takes no more than half an hour; by road it is 2.1 km on a narrow stretch at 10 %, so most people leave the car below. A fire destroyed much of the complex on 1 June 1923, and the buildings date largely from the rebuilding of 1923-1926.

Dajbabe Monastery, 7 km south of central Podgorica, was founded in 1897; its cave church is cross-shaped and was painted until 1941. On Skadar Lake the monasteries of Moračnik, Beška, Starčevo and Kom stand on islands, and Vranjina on the shore; they are protected cultural property, and the tour boats of Skadar Lake National Park pass them.

North

Morača Monastery was built in 1252 by Stefan Vukanović Nemanjić on the Morača, 25 km from Kolašin on the road to Podgorica. It has two churches, the Dormition of the Virgin and the smaller St Nicholas, and the konak; the 13th-century fresco of the raven feeding the Prophet Elijah is its oldest and best known. The Ottomans burnt it in 1505 and it was rebuilt in 1574-1580. Piva Monastery stood at the spring of the Piva until the dam came: between 1970 and 1982 it was moved to Goransko near Plužine, with about 1,260 m² of frescoes nearly four centuries old, so that Piva Lake could fill. In Pljevlja the Husein-pasha Mosque of 1569 has a 42 m minaret, a 16th-century illuminated Qur'an and an Egyptian carpet of about 400 kg.

Getting there

Driving times are free-flow estimates on OpenStreetMap data, without traffic or queues.

Visiting

None of the monasteries charges an entrance fee or keeps set opening hours: they are working monasteries, so dress and behave as you would in any church. At Ostrog the monastery's own phone, +382 68 800 899, answers questions about services; baptisms are held daily at 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00, and on 27 September, Krstovdan, the liturgy at the Upper monastery is served by the Metropolitan. The guest house at the Lower monastery, +382 68 080 133, takes pilgrims overnight. At Our Lady of the Rocks the church, the museum and the boat from Perast are paid on the spot; there is no official tariff and no posted hours, and the boats run while there are passengers. The museums beside the monasteries, Biljarda in Cetinje among them, sell their own tickets. All the sites, with the fortresses and memorials, are on the monuments page.