Monasteries in Montenegro and where to find them

In Montenegro, monasteries aren’t filler between beach days. Some are cut into mountainsides, others sit on islets, and one was moved in its entirety, frescoes and all. Here’s which I’d visit and where each one is, based on what the National Tourism Organisation and the local tourism boards publish. I don’t give opening times or visiting rules, because none of the official sites I’ve read publish them.

Ostrog, top of the list

Montenegro has no other site quite like it. Ostrog clings to a cliff roughly 900 m up, with the Zeta far below, and its churches hollowed out of the rock keep wall paintings from the 1600s. The National Tourism Organisation ranks it among Orthodoxy’s great pilgrimage sites and notes that pilgrims climb 3 km through the woods. I’d get there early, ahead of the coach parties, and combine it with Podgorica or Nikšić. Getting there and what’s inside are covered in Ostrog Monastery.

Cetinje, the monastery of power

For centuries the country and its Church were run from Cetinje Monastery, because, as the National Parks explain, five of the seven Petrović rulers were also metropolitans. According to the monastery’s own tradition, it holds relics of St Peter of Cetinje, the right hand of St John the Baptist and a fragment of the Holy Cross. It’s in the middle of the old royal capital, so it fits into the same morning as King Nikola’s palace. See Cetinje Monastery.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Cetinje for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

Piva and Morača, up north

Piva has the strangest story. It dates from the 16th century and, according to the National Tourism Organisation, was relocated stone by stone with 1,250 m² of frescoes. It stands in Plužine, by Lake Piva, and is on the way if you’re driving from Durmitor towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. More in Piva Monastery. Morača sits in the municipality of Kolašin, and its details are in Morača Monastery.

In Šavnik, the same source mentions two smaller ones, Podmalinsko from the 13th century and Bijela from the 17th.

On the coast and the lake

Off Perast, the islet of St George has its monastery, visible from the waterfront next to Our Lady of the Rocks. The Budva Tourism Organisation names nine monasteries in its municipality, among them Praskvica, Podlastva, Reževići, Rustovo and Podmaine, a good reason to leave the beach for an afternoon. Bar’s tourism board adds eight more around the municipality and the shores of Lake Skadar, such as Starčevo, Beška, Moračnik and Ribnjak.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Cetinje on GetYourGuide.

Around Podgorica

The Podgorica Tourism Organisation lists three monasteries in the municipality, Duga, Ćelija Piperska and Dajbabe, the last with its own page in Dajbabe Monastery. The capital also has the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, more than 5,000 m², with a crypt.

Visiting with respect

None of the official sites I’ve read publishes a dress code or opening hours. My own rule is the one I’d use at any working church, shoulders and knees covered, quiet voices and asking before photographing inside. And at Ostrog, go early, because it’s a place of pilgrimage before it’s an attraction.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Cetinje for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.