Cetinje

What to see and do

• The Cetinje Monastery at the foot of Orlov krš, on the site of Ivan Crnojević's court: built by Metropolitan Danilo in 1701-1704, burned in 1712, 1714 and 1785, and mostly rebuilt in 1786. It keeps the relics of St Peter of Cetinje, a piece of the Holy Cross and the hand of St John the Baptist, with a treasury spanning the 13th to 20th centuries.
• The King Nikola Museum in the palace of 1867 on Dvorski trg, a museum since 1926: court interiors and history from the Middle Ages to 1918, and the royal library with books of the Crnojević press, among them the Oktoih of 1494, the first Cyrillic book printed among the South Slavs. €8, pupils and students €4.
• Biljarda, Njegoš's residence of 1838 next to the monastery, a museum since 1951; in the courtyard the relief map of Montenegro made in 1917 at 1:10,000. €5 (€2.50 reduced); the relief alone €3.
• The other units of the National Museum of Montenegro: the Art Museum in the Government House (over 4,000 works, memorial rooms of Lubarda, Milunović, Filo and Dado, and the icon of Our Lady of Philermos), the Ethnographic Museum in the former Serbian legation (exhibition since 2018) and the Dado gallery on Balšića Pazar (opened 2012, closed January to early April). The Historical Museum is closed to visitors. A collective ticket for all units and the Njegoš Mausoleum is €20 (€10 pupils and students); children under 12 and Cetinje residents enter free.
• The Money Museum of the Central Bank at Njegoševa 122: free, open daily 09:00-17:00 from 1 April to 1 November, 08:00-16:00 and closed on Sundays in winter.
• The Mausoleum of Bishop Danilo on Orlov krš, built in 1896 for the bicentenary of the dynasty, reached by a road from the south-west, with the town below it.
• Monuments in the centre: the Ivan Crnojević monument by Anto Gržetić, erected in 1983 for the town's 500th anniversary; the Lovćenska vila, to the volunteers drowned off Medova; the Princess Ksenija monument.
• Lipa Cave, about 5 km away, with a 400 m visitor route on seasonal tours.

Lovćen and the mausoleum

Lovćen National Park begins about 10 km above the town at the Ivanova korita visitor centre, and the Mausoleum of Njegoš on Jezerski vrh (1,657 m) is 19 km from Cetinje by road, about 33 minutes to the car park and then a tunnel of 461 steps. The park ticket and the mausoleum ticket are separate; prices, seasons and the trails are on the park page. The summit viewpoint looks over about two-thirds of Montenegro, and Štirovnik, 1,749 m, is the highest point of the massif. Marked trails include the 4.8 km, two-hour walk from the visitor centre to the mausoleum, and three mountain-bike loops belong to cycling in the park. From Kotor, the Kotor-Lovćen cable car rises to Kuk inside the park; by road Kuk is 28 km from Cetinje, about 37 minutes.

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Lake Skadar side

The municipality reaches down to Lake Skadar, and Cetinje is one of the municipalities of Skadar Lake National Park. Rijeka Crnojevića, a 12.3 km river rising below a cave in Obod hill, flows into the lake past the village of the same name, 16 km from Cetinje (about 24 minutes), where boats leave for the lake and the monument to the fighters of 1919-1945 stands. The old caravan road from Komarno to Rijeka Crnojevića is a 10.1 km marked trail of about 6 hours, and the Pavlova strana viewpoint above the river bend is the classic lake view. Virpazar, with the park's visitor centre and boat piers, is 38 km away, about 56 minutes.

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History in brief

Retreating from the Ottomans, Ivan Crnojević moved his court from Obod to the Cetinje field around 1481-82; he built his court in 1482 and then the monastery, after a vow made at Loreto. The Crnojević printing house was founded in 1493, and its first book, the Oktoih prvoglasnik, was completed on 4 January 1494. Metropolitan Danilo, the first of the Petrović-Njegoš line, built the new monastery in 1701-1704. In 1916 the Austrian army destroyed Njegoš's original chapel on Lovćen; the present mausoleum was built in 1974 to Ivan Meštrović's design. The historic core of Cetinje has been on Montenegro's UNESCO tentative list since 2010. The municipality covers 910 km²; the town itself about 6 km².

Getting there and around

Driving times are road times without traffic, from the town centre. Cetinje has no railway; the M2 road links Budva, Cetinje and Podgorica, and the bus station is in the centre.

From Kotor, the old Austro-Hungarian road over Krstac and Njeguši, the Kotor serpentine, is the scenic way in; it is not suited to large campers.

When to visit

The palace museums and the Money Museum run all year. The Njegoš Mausoleum is closed from 16 November to 10 April, the Dado gallery from January to early April, and Njegoš's birth house at Njeguši all winter, so a winter visit is a museum day in town rather than a Lovćen day. Cetinje is known for heavy rainfall.

Nearby

• Podgorica, 37 km, the capital.
• Budva, 31 km down the M2 to the coast.
• Kotor, 54 km by road, or by the serpentine road and the cable car to Kuk.
• Njeguši, in the park's buffer zone: Njegoš's birth house (1779, a memorial museum since 1973, open 09:00-16:00 in summer only) and the birth house of King Nikola.

Questions

How many steps to the mausoleum, and is it open in winter?

461 steps through a tunnel from the car park. It is open from 11 April to 15 November, 09:00-16:00, and closed the rest of the year.

Is Cetinje the capital of Montenegro?

It is the Old Royal Capital, the seat of the dynasty for 222 years. Podgorica, 37 km away, is the capital.

How far is Lovćen from Cetinje?

About 10 km to the Ivanova korita visitor centre and 19 km, about 33 minutes, to the mausoleum car park.

Which ticket covers the museums?

A collective ticket for all units of the National Museum and the mausoleum costs €20, €10 for pupils and students; each museum also sells its own ticket.