Bedem (Onogošt fortress)

Visiting

The fortress stands in Stara Varoš, about 400 m from the centre of Nikšić, a five-minute walk. The ground inside the walls is uneven, with steps and loose stone, so wear proper shoes. The best time is late August, when Bedem Fest fills the walls with concerts; the festival, organised by Pro Futuro Nikšić, held its fifteenth edition on 22-24 August 2024. Plays and exhibitions are also staged inside. Drive times without traffic: Podgorica 51.4 km, about 1 hour 5 minutes; Danilovgrad 31.6 km, about 36 minutes; Plužine 58.2 km, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

The walls and towers

The fortress has two parts. The upper fortress follows the ridge: 214 m long and about 30 m wide at its widest, with a west wall 1.6 m thick and an east wall 1.1 m thick. At its south end stood a three-storey pentagonal tower, at the north a lower octagonal one, and in the middle the Kastel, the oldest building, with two gun platforms, quarters for the dizdar (commander) and the guard, and a vaulted powder magazine. The lower town below the hill was a quadrilateral with walls 4 m high and 1.45 to 1.5 m thick, towers at the corners and midpoints, and the Great Gate in its 104 m east wall; the south wall was 66 m long and the north 86 m. The lower town had five towers, the upper six.

History

The site has carried several names: Anderba, Sanderva, Anagastum and Onogošt. The name Onogošt first appears in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja in the second half of the 12th century and derives from the Gothic commander Anagastos. A Roman origin is possible: Arthur Evans, who visited in 1877, argued from the quadrilateral plan with towers that the walls were Roman work of the 3rd or 4th century, but this remains a hypothesis.

The Ottomans took the town in 1465. They began building the fortress in its present form at the end of the 17th century, and Onogošt became their main stronghold in Herzegovina. The Montenegrin army captured it in 1877, in the war that brought Nikšić into Montenegro. In 2018 the state Centre for Conservation and Archaeology surveyed the site, found the walls and the Nebojša tower in poor condition and prepared a repair and restoration project for the tower.

Nearby

• Memorial on Trebjesa and the 1987 monument on Trebjesa, on the hill above the town.
• Ostrog Monastery, on the road towards Danilovgrad.
• Grahovo memorial park, west of Nikšić.
• The Zeta river, which rises near Nikšić.
• Other fortresses in Montenegro.