Lovćen, the mountain that looks down on the sea and the whole country

Few mountains carry as much weight in a nation’s sense of itself as Lovćen does for Montenegro. The National Tourism Organisation compares it to what the Statue of Liberty means to Americans, and locals have a saying that anyone who hasn’t climbed Lovćen hasn’t really been to Montenegro. Hyperbole aside, this is the mountain wall between the Bay of Kotor and Cetinje, and from the top the whole country starts to make sense.

A small park with a long history

Lovćen has been a national park since 1952 and covers about 6,220 hectares, from 939 to 1,749 metres. Its two main summits are Štirovnik, the highest at 1,749 metres, and Jezerski vrh at 1,657, where Petar II Petrović Njegoš asked to be buried. It sits where continental and Mediterranean climates meet, and the Cetinje tourist board counts about 1,300 plant species here, a third of Montenegro’s flora, along with wolves, bears, wild boar and some 200 bird species.

According to National Parks of Montenegro, Njeguši, on the edge of the park, supplied seven of the Petrović dynasty’s rulers. The stone houses, old Austro-Hungarian roads and the caravan route down to Kotor are as much part of the park as its beech woods.

The Cetinje tourist board lists five protected zones within the park, each with its own rules. There is a reserve of Bosnian pine at the foot of Štirovnik and Jezerski vrh, a beech forest reserve between Jezerski vrh, Štirovnik and Treštenički vrh, another beech reserve at Konjsko, a pine reserve between Rupa and Blatište at about 1,100 metres, and a herpetological reserve around the small lake below Jezerski vrh, for reptiles and amphibians. You won’t notice the boundaries on the ground, but it explains why you should stick to the marked paths.

The Njegoš Mausoleum

The unmissable stop is on Jezerski vrh. The Njegoš Mausoleum, designed by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović and opened in 1974, is reached by climbing 461 steps from the car park. Inside are two figures of Montenegrin women in black granite, a vault covered with 200,000 gilded tiles and a seated statue of Njegoš. In good visibility, National Parks says, the summit takes in the country’s great ranges and slices of its neighbours.

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

Ivanova korita, trails and viewpoints

The park’s gateway from Cetinje is Ivanova korita, about ten kilometres from town. Here you’ll find the visitor centre, a roughly 140-metre barefoot trail, the Wolf educational trail, an adventure park with ziplines for ages 5 to 70 and sports pitches. National Parks describes five trails through beech forest and old Austro-Hungarian stone roads, a circular route to Kuk from Ivanova korita and three mountain-bike routes, one of them, the great loop round Lovćen, for bikes only.

The viewpoints all have names, Štirovnik, Jezerski vrh, Treštenički vrh, Kuk, Krstac, Babljak and Kraljevo počivalo, the King’s Rest. More i visine, the 283 km panoramic route signposted by the National Tourism Organisation, also crosses Lovćen and Cetinje between the bay and Lake Skadar, and I cover it with the others under scenic drives in Montenegro.

Getting up there

There are three ways. From Cetinje, via Ivanova korita, is the shortest. From Kotor, the road climbs the Kotor serpentine, the old caravan route, to Njeguši and into the park. The third is the Kotor cable car, which according to the National Tourism Organisation covers 3,900 metres of cable and a 1,316-metre climb between Dub and Kuk in 11 minutes, with 48 cabins of ten. The official page lists neither fares nor times.

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

Sleeping, eating and what to pack

National Parks rents bungalows at €30 a night and allows camping for €3 a day, or €20 on an equipped pitch, and Ivanova korita has small hotels such as Ivanov konak and Monte Rosa, according to the Cetinje tourist board. For lunch, Njeguši is the obvious stop, for its pršut and cheese. In winter you can hire snowshoes for €4 a day, and walking poles cost €3 a day.

What I’d always pack is a warm layer. However hot it is down by the bay, at 1,600 metres the weather turns quickly, and gov.uk reminds walkers in Montenegro’s mountains to stick to marked trails and carry a charged phone. The emergency number is 112.