The Đurđevića Tara Bridge, five arches over the canyon

Some bridges you cross without a second glance and others are a reason to make the trip. The Đurđevića Tara Bridge belongs to the second group. Five pale concrete arches leap the Tara Canyon at a point where the river runs far below, and with the forest dropping away to the water it’s one of the most striking sights in northern Montenegro. I also like it because there’s a story behind it that takes a few lines to tell and stays with you.

A record-breaker in 1940

The national tourist board describes it as 365 metres long with five arches, completed in 1940 at the junction between Mojkovac, Žabljak and Pljevlja. It was built to link the road from Šavnik through Žabljak to Pljevlja and on to Serbia. The Žabljak tourist board adds that it was designed by engineer Mijat S. Trojanović, built between 1938 and 1940, that its main arch spans 116 metres and that it stands over a canyon more than 150 metres deep at that point. According to that board and Pljevlja’s, it was the largest reinforced-concrete road bridge in Europe when it opened.

The 1942 demolition

The bridge had been standing barely two years when the war reached it. In 1942, to stop enemy troops coming through, the partisans decided to blow it up. The job went to Lazar Jauković, an engineer who had worked on building it, and he did it with care. He brought down only the last small arch, 44 metres long, leaving the rest intact, so the bridge was out of action but repairable. The Italians caught him and shot him on the bridge itself. There’s a memorial nearby, where he’s buried.

After the war it was repaired and reopened to traffic in 1946. The Pljevlja tourist board presents it, because of that story, as a symbol of the fight against fascism.

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What to do at the bridge

First, look. From the deck you see the Tara Canyon upstream and down, and there are restaurants with views around it, according to the national tourist board, which also mentions the Tara MB motel next to the bridge. For an adrenaline fix, a zip line crosses the canyon nearly 150 metres up, at speeds the same board puts at up to 120 km/h.

Rafting on the Tara starts close by. Longer trips set off from Splavište, within sight of the bridge, and a kilometre downstream, in the hamlet of Luke, a 14th-century monastery dedicated to the Archangel Michael once supplied other churches with copied service books, according to the Žabljak tourist board.

Getting there, and what to know in 2026

The bridge sits on the road linking Žabljak with Mojkovac and Pljevlja, and OpenStreetMap places it in Žabljak municipality. Without a car it’s hard to reach independently, so the practical options are a road trip through the north or an organised excursion. If you’re driving from the coast, remember you’re on the right-hand side of narrow mountain roads.

The Pljevlja tourist board announced that the long-awaited refurbishment of the bridge would begin in May 2025 and asked for patience over possible hold-ups. I haven’t found an official completion date, so in high season I’d allow for some waiting.

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