Šavnik, the town of three rivers and two sunrises

Šavnik is Montenegro’s smallest municipality by population, 1,569 people at the 2023 census, and its main town has 364. That sounds like not much, but the town sits somewhere lovely, a hollow where three rivers meet below Durmitor, and around it you’ll find one of the country’s best-known canyons, medieval monasteries, glacial lakes and more than a hundred stećci. For me it’s one of the most rewarding stops on the road between Nikšić and Žabljak.

A town founded in 1861

The Šavnik tourist board tells its origin story in detail. In early 1861 the priest Luka Đurović came to Drobnjak, repaired a mill and opened an inn and a shop in it, and that same year built a house where the Šavnik flows into the Bukovica. The town’s first three buildings were an inn with a shop, a gunsmith’s and a forge. The name comes from šavice, the willow rods used for thatching.

The town quickly became the trading and political centre of the Drobnjak clan, and the tourist board adds a detail I love. Brides who married in from Risan, on the Bay of Kotor, told their husbands how to build and brought their brothers over as masons, which is why Šavnik ended up looking like a coastal village. Between the two world wars, according to the Žabljak tourist board, the whole of Durmitor came under the Šavnik district.

Three rivers and two dawns

In town the Šavnik, Bijela and Bukovica rivers meet, then run on together towards Lake Piva. The tourist board says they all carry top-grade A1 water and hold brown trout and grayling, and that the Bukovica is the longest in the municipality.

The curiosity that made the town famous is its two dawns. In the morning the sun rises behind Kravica hill, at about two in the afternoon it drops behind Gradac and, a little later, reappears through the Bukovica canyon before setting for good behind Mount Vojnik. The national tourist board says it happens in the days around the equinox.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Žabljak on Expedia and filter by area before price.

Monasteries, stećci and Pekić’s house

Podmalinsko Monastery, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, was built around 1252 on the right bank of the Bukovica. In 1870 Drobnjak’s first school opened in its guesthouse, it was restored in 1908 and again in 2002, its 750th anniversary, and in its churchyard lies Mirko Aleksić, the local hero who killed Smail-aga Čengić. About 8 km away, in a wooded valley hemmed in by rock, St George’s Monastery at Bijela was burned in 1702 and in 1840 and fully rebuilt in 1887.

The municipality holds 112 medieval stećci tombstones, with those at Gornja Bijela and Pošćenje the easiest to reach. In the town itself, the family home of the writer Borislav Pekić, author of the novel «Vreme čuda», has been restored and now works as an artists’ residence and cultural centre.

Nature all around

In the north-west of the municipality lies the Dragišnica and Komarnica Nature Park, 2,994 hectares bordering Durmitor National Park. That’s where you’ll find the Nevidio canyon, the walls of Boljske grede and the Skakavica waterfall, about 70 metres high, which only runs with snowmelt and heavy rain and in winter freezes and draws ice climbers. The village of Pošćenje, with its two glacial lakes, is another detour worth making.

For a bed, the Šavnik tourist board lists seven places, from Hotel Đoković to cabins and eco villages such as Nevidio, by the canyon entrance. In 2024 the municipality logged 4,975 arrivals according to MONSTAT, so it stays quiet even in summer.

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

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