Danilovgrad, on the Zeta plain below Ostrog

For most travellers Danilovgrad is simply the last town before the climb to Ostrog. It’s a quiet place on the Zeta plain, half an hour by train from Podgorica, and it makes no attempt to rival the coast. What interests me are two things few people look at, the 19th-century bridge the town was built around, and the river, which in summer is central Montenegro’s beach.

A town planned in the 1800s

The municipality’s history explains that after Omer Pasha’s second campaign against Montenegro, Prince Nikola wanted better links between Old Montenegro and the Brda highlands and decided to set up a market on the right bank of the Zeta, by order of the Senate in 1863. The engineer Dragiša Milutinović completed the town plan in 1869, designed for 15,000 people and meant to become the country’s main economic centre.

The key piece was the bridge. Work started in 1868 and it opened on 16 September 1870; the prince named it after his father, Vojvoda Mirko, and the town after his uncle and predecessor, Prince Danilo. It was finished in stone in 1893, with seven arches, 150 metres long, 5 wide and about 12 high. The first water supply arrived on 12 July 1897, paid for by a Moscow medical professor. Later on, the municipality says, the momentum moved to towns Montenegro had won from the Turks, and Danilovgrad stayed small.

What to see in town

The local museum and library share the former princely residence of 1873-1874, which from 1919 to 1929 housed the country’s first teacher-training college. The museum holds 11,657 items across thirteen collections, the most important being the archaeological one with 683, plus a reconstruction of the altar of the basilica from the Gradina at Martinići.

The other stop is the art colony, founded in 1972, with more than a hundred sculptures and a courtyard full of work. Every September it hosts an international sculpture symposium, in early July a show of contemporary Montenegrin sculpture, and on 8 December the exhibition Umjetnici zavičaju.

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Spuž, Martinići and the valley’s bridges

At Spuž, the largest settlement in the municipality, stands the fortress the Turks built in the early 18th century under Hodaverdi Pasha, with towers and walls covering 1,400 m², which the municipality says was never taken. The Gradina at Martinići is identified with Lontodokla, a Duklja town mentioned by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century, and there are ancient remains along the old road from Shkodër to Doclea.

Five kilometres out is the bridge of Jelena Anžujska, which comes with a legend about a girl from the village of Kujava who became a queen, and on the Sušica there’s the Turkish-era Adžija bridge.

The river, the mountains and Ostrog

The Zeta flows 51 km across the Bjelopavlići plain before joining the Morača opposite ancient Duklja. The municipality recommends the beach under the bridge at Spuž, where the Spuško ljeto summer festival is held, the Tunjevo reserve 12 km away, and the springs of Oboštica and Perućica that Njegoš often visited. Higher up, Vukotica, Studeno and Ponikvica are mountain pine woods and meadows, and there are at least 27 caves in the municipality.

Then, of course, there’s Ostrog Monastery, which the municipality describes as one of the most important shrines in the Balkans since 1671. If you’re heading north, Nikšić is 35 minutes away by train.

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

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