Dajbabe Monastery

Visiting

Dajbabe is a working monastery, not a museum. Enter the cave church quietly, dress as you would in any Orthodox church and ask before taking photographs inside. Combine it with the short climb up Dajbabska gora behind the monastery: a 0.5 km trail leads to the 172 m top and the view from it.

The cave church

The church follows the natural cave. Simeon Popović built it in the shape of a cross inside the rock at a spot where, by tradition, a shepherd boy named Petko Ivezić, later the hieromonk Platon, had a vision; Simeon himself recorded an older place of worship there. The cave was later enlarged with side chapels. A porch with two bell towers is the only built front; behind it the church runs into the hill.

Simeon painted the interior himself, fitting the saints and scenes to the curves and hollows of the rock rather than to flat walls, and kept at it until his death in 1941: one man's work over more than four decades on the stone of a cave.

Simeon of Dajbabe

Simeon Popović (1854-1941) founded the monastery in 1897, shortly after Podgorica passed from Ottoman rule to Montenegro, and worked on the church for the remaining 44 years of his life. In 2010 the Serbian Orthodox Church added him to its calendar of saints as St Simeon of Dajbabe.

The setting

The monastery lies at the foot of Dajbabska gora, on the south side of the city. It is one of the stops of the Podgorica monastery route, with Duga, Ćelija Piperska, Ostrog and Ždrebaonik.

Getting there

By car the monastery is 7.3 km (about 14 minutes) from the centre of Podgorica, 33.2 km (about 44 minutes) from Cetinje, 52.3 km (about 1 hour) from Bar and 54.8 km (about 1 hour 10 minutes) from Nikšić. The last stretch is a cypress-lined road.

Nearby

• Dajbabska gora, the hill above the monastery, 0.5 km trail to the top.
• Podgorica centre, 7 km, with the clock tower and old Ribnica bridge in Stara Varoš.
• Ostrog Monastery, on the same monastery route, north of Podgorica.
• Other monasteries on the churches and monasteries hub.

When was Dajbabe Monastery founded?

In 1897, by the monk Simeon Popović, soon after Podgorica was freed from Ottoman rule.

Is the church really inside a cave?

Yes. The church is built in the shape of a cross inside a natural cave, later enlarged with side chapels; only the porch and two bell towers stand outside.

Who painted the frescoes?

The founder, Simeon Popović, who fitted the scenes to the rock and worked on them until his death in 1941.

How far is it from Podgorica?

7.3 km by road from the centre, about 14 minutes by car.