The Biljarda, the house that took its name from a billiard table

Of all Cetinje’s buildings, the Biljarda tells best how a land of clans and monasteries became a state with institutions. It also comes with one of those stories that stick, because it’s named after a billiard table. I think it’s the most rewarding visit in town, because right beside the museum is the relief map of Montenegro, and that model explains the country at a glance.

Njegoš and his new house

The Cetinje tourist board says that until Petar II Petrović Njegoš came along there was nothing like a modern town here. The young metropolitan, well read and alert to what was happening in Europe, set about modernising his little capital, and in 1838 he built, next to Cetinje Monastery, a building that was huge by the country’s standards, designed by the Russian Jakov Ozereckovski.

The measurements say it all. About 72 metres long and 8 wide, with two 13-metre annexes, ground and first floors and 25 rooms, set among walled courtyards with gates and four corner towers. It was called the Biljarda after billiards, its owner’s favourite game. With it, much of political and cultural life moved out of the monastery. Montenegrin leaders and foreign visitors met here, and it housed the Senate and the perjanici, the armed guard. Until 1910 it held ministries, state institutions and schools.

The relief map of Montenegro

During the Austro-Hungarian occupation in the First World War, a pavilion holding a relief model of the whole country was built on the Biljarda’s south side. The Cetinje tourist board gives the scale, 1:10,000, and dates it to after the Lovćen front collapsed and Cetinje was occupied in 1916. The National Tourism Organisation describes a concrete model roughly 20 by 20 metres, made with a jeweller’s precision.

My tip is to look at it with a map open on your phone. Seeing Durmitor, Lake Skadar, the Bay of Kotor and the northern canyons all at once helps you plan the rest of the trip better than any guidebook.

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The Njegoš Museum and the lapidarium

Today the Biljarda is the museum devoted to Njegoš, bishop, poet and ruler, and part of the National Museum of Montenegro. In the courtyard, since European Heritage Days in 2012, there’s a lapidarium of carved stone brought from sites around the country; at present 11 stelae from the Nikšić and Pljevlja areas are on show. It’s run by the Archaeological Museum of Montenegro.

The museum doesn’t publish prices or hours online. I’d ask about a joint ticket, since several museums in Cetinje belong to the same institution.

After the Biljarda

To follow the Njegoš thread, the next stop is his tomb. The Njegoš Mausoleum, on Jezerski vrh in the Lovćen range, is about 20 km from Cetinje and 461 steps above the car park. And to see where he was born, his birthplace is in Njeguši, on the road to Kotor.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Biljarda and pick one that fits your day.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Cetinje on Booking.com and filter by area before price.