Podgorica's museums and galleries, one by one

Podgorica isn’t a city of big museums, so don’t block out a whole morning for them. What it does have is about ten small venues, nearly all in the centre and within a few minutes’ walk of each other, and a couple of them are genuinely unusual. I treat them as what they are, a good way to dodge the July heat or a wet November afternoon while you explore the city on foot.

The Titograd flat

My favourite is Titograd 80s. The Tourist Organisation of Podgorica presents it as a space devoted to everyday life in the city during the 1980s, when it was called Titograd, set up in a central flat as a home of the period. Original furniture, appliances, televisions, radios, telephones, crockery, magazines and records, and no glass cases. You can open the cupboards and drawers and use some of the objects, and there’s an audio guide in several languages. For a visitor it’s the most direct way into the recent city, the one that grew up after the Ottoman streets of Podgorica old town.

The Petrović Palace and contemporary art

In Kruševac park, beside the Morača, stands the Petrović Palace, built for the dynasty in 1891 and now a listed monument. Inside is the Centre for Contemporary Art of Montenegro, whose collection is the city’s great curiosity, more than 1,000 works from 60 non-aligned countries, which the tourist board says is unique in south-east Europe. The same institution runs Gallery Centar at Njegoševa 2, open 9am to 9pm on weekdays and 10am to 2pm on Saturday.

The Modern Gallery on Marko Miljanov Street rounds things off with Montenegrin art from the second half of the 20th century, including Petar Lubarda, Miodrag Milunović, Filip Filipović and Dado Đurić.

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Nature, sculpture and a dentist

The Natural History Museum of Montenegro opened its permanent exhibition, When Nature Speaks, in 2019, covering the country’s rocks, minerals, fossils and wildlife. It has 15 collections and would be my choice with children.

In the old town, the Risto Stijović Gallery, founded in 1970, has occupied the sculptor’s birthplace since 2018, with his figures, birds and animals and the characters of The Mountain Wreath. Close by, on the right bank of the Ribnica, Kuslev House tells the story of Hristo Kuslev, a dentist who came to Montenegro in 1908 and set up his practice there in the 1920s. It’s one of the few early 20th-century Balkan houses to survive the 1944 bombing.

For photography there’s Photogallery F64, opened on 20 July 2021 and billed as the only photography gallery in the country, and for current art the Art Gallery, which has a café. Finds from Doclea, the Roman town, are in the City Museum.

What I can’t tell you, and how to plan

The official tourism website doesn’t publish admission prices, nor opening hours except for Gallery Centar, so I’m not quoting any. The sensible move is to ask at the door or at the tourist office on Ulica slobode. Two museums a day is plenty.

If you want more history, the Marko Miljanov Museum is out of town in his birthplace at Medun, about 12 km away. And for the whole country, my guide to museums in Montenegro brings them all together.

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

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