Monuments and landmarks of Montenegro

By period

• Antiquity. Illyrian wall remains and 6th-century gates in Ulcinj Old Town; Roman Doclea, founded in the first decade of the 1st century AD, 4 km from central Podgorica, an open site with no gate.
• Middle Ages. St Luke's in Kotor (1195), Morača Monastery (1252), the 12th-century church on St George's island off Perast, the stećci tombstones of the 12th to 16th centuries near Žabljak and Plužine, and Stari Bar with over 260 ruined buildings.
• Venice and the Ottomans. The Budva Citadel (first mentioned 1425) and town walls of 1459; Kanli kula (1539) and Španjola (1538) in Herceg Novi; the Husein-pasha Mosque in Pljevlja (1569) with its 42 m minaret; Bedem in Nikšić. All the walled sites are on the fortresses page.
• The Petrović era. Cetinje Monastery, rebuilt 1701-1704; Ostrog, the cave monastery of St Basil, who died there in 1671; the Austrian Mogren fortress of 1860; the Njegoš Mausoleum, built in 1974 to Ivan Meštrović's design on the site of a chapel razed in 1916.
• The 20th century. The partisan tomb on Gorica in Podgorica (1957), the Stražica memorial in Pljevlja (1961) and the Grahovo memorial park (1978); the full set is under memorials.

By town

Kotor has the densest cluster: the Old Town inside its walls, St John's Fortress above it, St Luke's, St Tryphon's Cathedral (1166) and, 13.8 km along the bay at Perast, the islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and St George. Herceg Novi stacks three fortresses, Kanli kula, Forte Mare and Španjola, around the 16 m clock tower of 1667, once the main town gate; it still holds a bell given by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1753 and the town archive, with documents from 1685. Budva has the Old Town, the Citadel, the walls and the Mogren fortress. Bar has Stari Bar with its aqueduct and Haj-Nehaj above Sutomore; Ulcinj the Old Town, the Balšić Tower and its own clock tower. The five walled towns are compared on the old towns page.

Inland, Cetinje has the monastery, the Mausoleum of Bishop Danilo and, on Jezerski vrh above the town, the Njegoš Mausoleum. Podgorica has Doclea, the Ottoman clock tower and Gorica; Nikšić Bedem; Pljevlja the Husein-pasha Mosque and Stražica; Danilovgrad Ostrog. Morača Monastery stands 25 km from Kolašin towards Podgorica, and Piva Monastery near Plužine was moved stone by stone between 1970 and 1982 before the Piva reservoir filled. Monasteries and churches have their own page: churches and monasteries.

Which site for what

• Half a day from Kotor: the walls to St John's Fortress in the morning, then Our Lady of the Rocks; Kotor to Perast is 13.8 km, about 22 minutes by car, plus the boat across.
• A pilgrimage: Ostrog, 37.6 km and about an hour from Podgorica, 18.5 km and about 30 minutes from Nikšić, 19.7 km and about 30 minutes from Danilovgrad; the walk from the lower to the upper monastery is about 3 km through forest, to a church built into the cliff at about 900 m above sea level, high above the Zeta valley.
• Roman remains: Doclea, 4.5 km and about 7 minutes from the centre of Podgorica.
• Medieval frescoes: Morača Monastery, 45.8 km and about 1 h 03 from Podgorica on the road to Kolašin.
• A ruined town to wander: Stari Bar, over 260 buildings in ruin, open all year.
• The view: St John's Fortress over the Bay of Kotor, or the Njegoš Mausoleum on Jezerski vrh, Lovćen.
• Ottoman Montenegro: the Husein-pasha Mosque in Pljevlja and the clock towers of Podgorica, Herceg Novi and Ulcinj.
• Free and always open: Doclea, Španjola, the stećci graveyards and the memorial parks; none has a gate or a ticket.

Opening hours and tickets

A dash means the site sets no fixed hours.

In winter

The Njegoš Mausoleum closes from 16 November to 10 April, and so does Njegoš's birth house in Njeguši; the Budva walls walk stops from December to March. Stari Bar stays open on its shorter hours, 08:00-17:00. In the Bay of Kotor the Perast museum runs 10:00-16:00, Tuesday to Sunday, from 15 October and closes for all of January; the Risan mosaics keep the same Tuesday-to-Sunday 10:00-16:00 all year except January. The National Museum units in Cetinje open on weekdays. Open-air sites, Doclea, Španjola, the stećci and the memorials, have no gates at all.