Zeta

Getting there and around

By air. Podgorica Airport (TGD) stands on Aerodromski put in Golubovci, 6.6 km from the municipal building. BTC Zeta, MS Tours and Zejdin buses run from the terminal to the bus station in Podgorica, Zejdin also to Ulcinj; Zeta Taxi and Vuk BG Taxi serve the airport, and the airport guide has the parking and fares.

By train. Golubovci station and the Aerodrom, Zeta, Morača and Vranjina stops lie on the Bar line, served by local trains between Podgorica and Bar; the Zeta and Vranjina stops are in or beside the national park. Check the ŽPCG timetable for which trains stop where, and the train guide for fares. No scheduled Podgorica-Golubovci bus is published by an official source; the buses guide explains the intercity network.

By car. The Adriatic highway and the Podgorica-Bar road cross the municipality. Distances run from the municipal building in Anovi, by road without traffic.

Skadar Lake at Vranjina and Plavnica

Vranjina, an island village of 129 people joined to the mainland by a bridge, is the base of Skadar Lake National Park: its administration building holds the main visitor centre with a souvenir shop and an outdoor exhibition, and sells park tickets. Electric bikes, kayaks and boats can be rented there, and licensed boats leave the piers of Vranjina and Plavnica on lake cruises, as they do at Virpazar and Rijeka Crnojevića; the Vranjina shore by the village, under the road and railway embankment, serves only small boats. Fees are on the park page and the operators on the boat tours page. Vranjina is one of the park's five viewpoints, listed with the others on the Skadar Lake viewpoints page, and an educational trail, Šuma na vodi (forest on the water), is being laid out nearby.

The Vranjina monastery has been protected cultural property since 1949 and the old village since 1979; the visitor centre is 11.1 km, about 12 minutes from the municipal building. Plavnica, 6.6 km away in the Berislavci area, has a walled pier 56 m long with a silted 1 km approach channel, and private rooms and restaurants have grown up around it.

Across the water, in Cetinje municipality, lie the islet fortress of Lesendro by Vranjina (protected 1949), the fortress of Žabljak Crnojevića (1948) and Kom monastery (1949); boat tours call at Žabljak Crnojevića.

Fortresses and old churches

Balšin grad on Ponarska gora above Ponari has been protected since 4 August 1950. Tradition links it to the Balšić dynasty; the hill was used from prehistory through Illyrian-Hellenistic and Roman times, the small trapezoid fort with round towers is medieval and Ottoman, and the site has not been excavated. It looks over Skadar Lake, Žabljak Crnojevića and Vranjina to Lovćen, Rumija and Prokletije. Also protected since 1950 are Oblun fortress and the Holy Trinity church in Vukovci, St George's church in Srpska and four archaeological sites at Mataguži (Trepezulje, Kremenjača, Mliništa and Viganj); the Mljace site at Mataguži followed in 1960 and the Velje ledine necropolis in Gostilj in 1956. No visiting hours, signage or access rules are published for any of them.

Practical information

• Municipality: Glavna gradska ulica 89, Anovi, 81304 Golubovci, +382 20 873 290. The tourist organisation (zeta.travel) publishes no office or phone.
• Post: 81304 Golubovci, Anovi 89/2, 07:00-20:00; a counter in the Voli market in Mahala, 08:00-21:00.
• Health: the Golubovci unit of the Dom zdravlja Glavnog grada (call centre 19816), an ambulance unit for Zeta (124) and three pharmacies; the hospitals are in Podgorica (hospitals).
• Money and power: a CKB branch and ATMs in Mahala and at the airport; no EV charger is recorded; for power cuts, the CEDIS dispatcher on 020 622 773 (see power, water and air).
• Where to stay: the campsites Auto Camp Vranjina, River Camp Morača and Autocamp Campus (Goričani), and private rooms by the lake at Vranjina and Plavnica.

History in brief

The lake basin and Lower Zeta became part of Roman provinces from 9 AD, within the territory of Doclea, founded early in the 1st century. Plavnica is recorded about 1222 and Gostilj in 1233; in 1445 Mataguži headed the list of katuns of Upper Zeta whose representatives formed the Zeta assembly, and in the early 17th century the Venetian official Mariano Bolizza counted 70 houses and 200 soldiers in Gostilj. The area joined Montenegro after the Congress of Berlin, with the border settled in 1883; from 1903 to 1910 Golubovci was the seat of the Zeta captaincy, and after the First Balkan War the village municipalities of Golubovci, Mahala, Bijelo Polje and Berislavci were formed. The railway to Bar (1959), the Adriatic highway (1963), the airport, the Radio Montenegro transmitter and the 13. jul farm followed, and 1950-1980 was the period of greatest growth. Under the 2011 law Golubovci was an urban municipality within the Capital City; in 2022 the area became the Municipality of Zeta, with 22 settlements on 152 km², an area still provisional until the boundary with Podgorica is settled.

When to visit

The plain has a Mediterranean-influenced climate: the mean daily temperature stays above 0 °C on more than 320 days a year and above 15 °C on about 180, and in July and August temperatures can pass 40 °C; the year brings about 115 rainy days. On the lake, boats and kayaks run in spring and summer; most bird species are present from April to June and the largest flocks in winter. An autumn day of Zeta cakes, priganice and patišpanj, with stalls of home produce, crafts, flowers and honey, has been held on Trg Anovi in Golubovci by the municipality and its culture centre. Vranjina and Plavnica are on the day trips from Podgorica.

Questions

Is Podgorica Airport in Golubovci?

Yes: its address is Aerodromski put, Golubovci, in the municipality of Zeta, 6.6 km from the municipal building.

What is the postcode of Golubovci?

81304.

Is Golubovci the same as Zeta?

Golubovci, with 2,521 residents in 2023, is the largest settlement and the postal town of the Municipality of Zeta; the seat of the municipality is Anovi, and Mahala (2,410), Mojanovići and Mataguži are the other large villages.

How far is Golubovci from Podgorica?

About 15 km: 14.7 km by road from Podgorica to the municipal building in Anovi, about 21 minutes.

Is there a train to Golubovci?

Yes: Golubovci has a station on the Bar line, and local trains also stop at the Aerodrom halt by the airport and at Zeta, Morača and Vranjina.

How do I get to Skadar Lake from Golubovci?

The Vranjina visitor centre is 11.1 km from the municipal building, about 12 minutes by car, and Plavnica 6.6 km; local trains also stop at Vranjina.

When did Zeta become a municipality?

In August 2022, under an amendment to the Law on Territorial Organisation; before that the area was the urban municipality of Golubovci within the Capital City.