The Njegoš Mausoleum, 461 steps to the roof of Lovćen

Some burial places are chosen with a very clear message in mind. Petar II Petrović Njegoš, who was Montenegro’s bishop, poet and ruler at once, asked to be laid to rest on the summit of Jezerski vrh in the Lovćen range, looking out over both the Bay of Kotor and the interior. Today his tomb is a mausoleum of granite and gold reached by 461 steps, and the National Tourism Organisation bills it as the highest recorded mausoleum of a ruler anywhere in the world.

A chapel that didn’t survive

The Cetinje tourist board tells the story in detail. In Njegoš’s lifetime, and at his request, a chapel was built on top of Jezerski vrh. After his death, Prince Danilo and the leading men of Montenegro carried his remains to the summit, into the realm of lightning, as the source puts it. Lightning wasn’t the only thing to disturb his rest, though. The peak became a target first for the Turks and then for the Austrians, who flattened the chapel in 1916.

A new chapel went up in 1925, and over time the idea grew of something more monumental, designed by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The mausoleum opened in 1974.

What it’s like inside

The entrance to the chapel, the heart of the building, is guarded by two monumental figures of Montenegrin women carved from black granite, acting as caryatids. Inside are marble niches and a vault covered with a mosaic of 200,000 gilded tiles. Beneath it sits Meštrović’s statue of Njegoš with an open book, and the plain marble sarcophagus bears a carved cross and the state arms, symbols of the spiritual and secular power he held together.

What moves me most, though, isn’t the interior but what lies outside. National Parks of Montenegro says that when the air is clear the Orjen, Rumija, Durmitor and Komovi ranges are all visible from here, along with parts of Albania, Herzegovina and Croatia. The National Tourism Organisation adds that the view of the Bay of Kotor from this height is unmatched.

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Getting there

The mausoleum lies inside Lovćen National Park, where entry costs €3 per person per day. The Cetinje tourist board puts it about 20 km from Cetinje, and from the coast you drive up the Kotor serpentine via Njeguši. The road ends at a car park, and from there it’s the 461 steps. National Parks runs a visitor centre by the mausoleum.

The price of admission to the mausoleum itself, which the National Museum of Montenegro manages, isn’t published, and nor are opening hours. Better a gap than a made-up number.

My advice for the visit

Climb slowly and bring a warm layer. At 1,657 metres the wind and temperature change quickly, even when Kotor is sweltering. I’d pick the last hours of the afternoon, when the bay falls into shadow and the inland mountains glow, and pair the visit with the Biljarda, the house Njegoš built in Cetinje, to round off his story in a single day.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Njegoš Mausoleum and pick one that fits your day.

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