Brskovo, the medieval silver of the Tara valley

Brskovo is one of those places that matters more for what it was than for what you see today. In the 13th century it was, in National Parks’ words, a major mining and trading centre, with a silver mine, a mint and merchants from the coast. Today its remains are scattered over the slopes of Bjelasica next to Mojkovac, with no prepared site. I include it because it explains the Tara valley and the town’s very name.

A 13th-century silver mine

The Mojkovac tourist board dates the first mention of the mine to the mid-13th century, 1253. Saxon miners arrived with their know-how, and the region’s medieval rulers struck silver coins here similar to Venetian grossi. For a while, the same source says, there was even a royal court, and in 1311 and 1312 Brskovo was the seat of the Republic of Dubrovnik’s consul general.

Trade did the rest. Merchants from Kotor, Dubrovnik and Venice sold salt, wine, cloth and other goods, and Brskovo supplied the towns of the interior. The tourist board also describes it as a caravan stop between Kotor and Novo Brdo.

Before and after the silver

Brskovo didn’t appear from nowhere. The Mojkovac tourist board notes that the Illyrian Autariatae lived in the Tara valley before it, that a Roman tombstone inscribed in Latin turned up at Polja, and that in the 7th century the Slavs set up the Brskovo župa, whose territory matches today’s municipality.

Nor did mining end with the Middle Ages. The same board points to lead and zinc deposits in the Rudnica valley, and UNESCO’s Durmitor listing mentions the Mojkovac mining and processing complex, upstream on the Tara, as a contamination risk that had to be managed.

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The decline

By the mid-14th century Brskovo was losing ground. Plague and new mines at Janjevo and Novo Brdo drew the activity away, and by the end of the century the town had faded out. In 1398, according to the same source, the area came under Ottoman rule.

What remains and where

National Parks places the remains of the medieval town on the slopes of Bjelasica, within the protection zone of Biogradska Gora National Park. It mentions surface workings and house remains at Šiška that betray the Saxon miners, and admits that the area’s sites are barely researched. The national tourist board includes medieval Brskovo in its list of archaeological sites, without visiting details, and the Mojkovac tourist board puts the archaeological sites of medieval Brskovo first when it lists the municipality’s cultural heritage.

Brskovo is also the name of a present-day village in Mojkovac municipality, with 348 residents at the 2023 census according to MONSTAT. If you go, wear walking boots, don’t expect signboards or opening hours, and pair it with Bjelasica or the Tara valley.

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

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