Stara Varoš, Podgorica's Ottoman old town

Anyone who comes to Podgorica straight from Kotor tends to ask where the old town is. The answer is Stara Varoš, and it’s worth adjusting your expectations first. There are no walls and no marble lanes, just a small Ottoman quarter, battered by bombing in the Second World War, with a clock tower, two mosques and a handful of houses that tell four centuries of history. Looked at properly, though, an hour here explains the city better than anywhere else.

The Ottoman heart of Podgorica

The Tourist Organisation of Podgorica describes Stara Varoš as the city’s core during the Ottoman period, from 1474 to 1879, the source of its street pattern, customs and oriental character. Today you wander cobbled lanes with the odd traditional restaurant, cafés and souvenir shops.

The landmark is the Sahat kula, the clock tower on Bećir-beg Osmanagić Square, built in the 18th century by Hadži Mehmed-paša Osmanagić. The National Tourism Organisation notes it’s one of the few Ottoman buildings that survived the war, which is why so little else from that era is left standing in the city.

Two mosques and a house from 1630

Osmanagić also built the mosque that bears his name, at the end of the 18th century. His türbe, the tomb where he lies, is in the courtyard. Wartime bombing left it badly damaged, and it stayed in ruins until a thorough restoration in 1997. Older still is the Skender Čauš Mosque, also known as the Starodoganjska, which Turkish sources date to the end of the 15th century, built together with a nearby tekke. Apart from the mosque inside the fortress, it was the town’s only one until 1582, and it came through the 1943 raids with only minor damage.

Near the clock tower is the Čubranović house of 1630, which the tourist board reckons is the oldest surviving medieval house in the city. After Podgorica was liberated from the Ottomans in January 1879 it briefly became the first seat of local government, run by Duke Ilija Plamenčić and later by Marko Miljanov. If he sparks your curiosity, his birthplace is now the museum at Medun.

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The hammam, the gallery and the river

Of the old hammam, a two-storey building with three domes, only the middle dome remains. In 1926 it became a modern public bathhouse, and today the Karver bookshop occupies the site and runs literary events. A few steps away, the Risto Stijović Gallery has been housed since 2018 in the birthplace of the sculptor the tourist board calls Montenegro’s greatest and the founder of modern art in the country. It’s one of the stops in my round-up of museums in Podgorica.

Head down towards the water and you reach Sastavci, where the Ribnica runs into the Morača. Here is the single-arch stone bridge that the tourist board considers Podgorica’s oldest and believes to be Roman. Locals also call it Skaline, and on summer evenings it’s where everyone meets.

How I’d do it

I’d come at the end of the day, once the heat eases off. Start at the clock tower, take in the two mosques and the Čubranović house, drop down to Sastavci for the sunset and have dinner on the square. Pod Volat, at number 1 on the clock tower square, is one of the traditional restaurants the tourist board recommends, and there are more in my guide to Podgorica restaurants. Across the Morača is the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, and the rest of the city is in my guide to Podgorica.

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

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