The history of Montenegro, told through the places you'll visit

Montenegro has a long history for such a young state, which is why it’s worth getting it straight before you go. This isn’t a lecture on Balkan history, just the dates that have an official source and the places where you can see them. Anything without a source, such as the referendum result or the dates of 1910 and 1918, I leave out.

Illyrians, Rome and Doclea

The National Tourism Organisation places Illyrian tribes here between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC, followed by the Roman province of Prevalis, then Byzantium and the arrival of the Slavs in the 6th century. The most visible trace of that period is on the edge of Podgorica. Doclea, founded in the 1st century where the Zeta and Morača meet, 3 km from the capital, is said by legend to be Diocletian’s birthplace, and one of its treasures, the 4th-century Podgorica Cup, is now in the Hermitage. See Doclea.

Duklja, Zeta and Lake Skadar

The first state organisation appears in the 9th century. From the late 10th century, under Prince Vladimir, we hear of Duklja, renamed Zeta in the 11th century and raised to a kingdom under the Vojislavljević dynasty. The National Parks pick up the thread at Lake Skadar, the heart of Duklja and Zeta, with the Balšić rulers around 1360 and the Crnojević in the early 15th century, and note that in the early 16th century Crna Gora passed to the Ottoman Sanjak of Shkodër. The fortresses left from those centuries, such as Besac and Žabljak Crnojevića, are gathered in Montenegro’s fortresses.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Cetinje before prices climb.

Venice on the coast, the Ottomans inland

Meanwhile the coast looked to Venice. UNESCO explains that Kotor and its neighbours were Venice’s main bridgeheads on the southern Adriatic, with their own schools of goldsmithing and architecture. Herceg Novi has a curious episode of its own, the Španjola fortress, which the National Tourism Organisation links to a brief Spanish conquest in 1538. Ulcinj, according to the same source, was a pirate base from 1571, and the ruins of Stari Bar still have Turkish baths and mosques standing.

The Petrović-Njegoš and Cetinje

From the 17th to the early 20th century the country was ruled by a dynasty from Njeguši, a village on Lovćen. The National Parks say it produced seven Petrović rulers, five of them metropolitans, heads of both state and church at once. The best known is Petar II Petrović Njegoš, prince-bishop and poet, whose mausoleum crowns Jezerski vrh. Their capital was Cetinje, which the constitution today calls the old royal capital, covered in Cetinje. In 1878 Montenegro gained half of Lake Skadar, according to the National Parks.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Cetinje and choose by the reviews.

The 20th century, with the dates that have sources

For the 20th century I have few official dates. The National Parks recall the partisan republic of Durmitor, from October 1941 to June 1942, and the National Tourism Organisation says the Đurđevića Tara Bridge, finished in 1940, was partly blown up during the war and later rebuilt. At the UN in 2006, Serbia’s representative spoke of a century spent as a common State with Montenegro.

Independence in 2006

The referendum took place on 21 May 2006, now a state holiday. The Republic Referendum Commission certified the result on 31 May and Parliament declared independence on 3 June, under the Constitutional Charter of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, according to the EU Presidency’s statement to the OSCE. On 28 June the UN General Assembly admitted Montenegro by acclamation as its 192nd member. How the date is marked today is in Montenegro’s Independence Day.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Cetinje before prices climb.