Montenegro

The Black Mountain on the Adriatic

Montenegro lies on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. Wikipedia gives its area as 13,883 square kilometres and names Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania and Croatia as its neighbours, with a coastline on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west. The English name is a translation, by way of Venetian, of Crna Gora, “Black Mountain”, which Wikipedia links to the dense evergreen forests that once covered Mount Lovćen. The tourist board’s own line is that the country is so small it could be driven across in an afternoon.

The 2023 census counted 623,633 residents, according to Monstat, the statistical office, and Podgorica is home to 179,505 of them, 28.78 per cent. Under the constitution Podgorica is the capital and Cetinje the Old Royal Capital, Montenegrin is the official language, with the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets equal, and Serbian, Bosniac, Albanian and Croatian are also in official use.

From principality to independence

Wikipedia traces the country’s modern history through the House of Petrović-Njegoš, under which Montenegro gained semi-autonomy in 1696. The Great Powers recognised its independence at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, it became a kingdom in 1910, and after the First World War it became part of Yugoslavia. In 2006, following a referendum, it declared independence; the European Commission records that parliament declared independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro that year.

Montenegro applied for EU membership in 2008, began accession negotiations on 29 June 2012, and is listed by the Commission as a candidate country. The Central Bank of Montenegro says the euro has been the official means of payment since March 2002.

A bay, a canyon and medieval tombstones

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre lists four properties in Montenegro: the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor (1979), Durmitor National Park (1980, 2005), the Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards (2016) and the Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th centuries (2017). UNESCO describes Kotor as a natural harbour on the Adriatic that was an important artistic and commercial centre in the Middle Ages, damaged by the 1979 earthquake and restored largely with its help, and Durmitor as a glacier-formed park crossed by rivers and underground streams, where the Tara canyon has the deepest gorges in Europe.

Decanter calls Kotor Bay, a meandering inlet 28 kilometres long and rimmed by mountains, Montenegro’s top cultural destination. The tourist board points visitors to the Stećci at Bare Žugića in Durmitor and at Plužine, medieval tombstones of the 12th to 16th centuries found in four Balkan countries, and notes that the Kotor fortress is one of six structures in Venice’s Stato da Mar defence system, the other five being in Croatia and Italy.

Smoked ham, lamb under the sač and mountain cheese

The National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro recommends Njeguški pršut, made from quality pork ham and smoked with beech wood, among the country’s iconic meats, and credits their flavour to a climate that pairs sea air with mountain air at production sites 500 to 1,500 metres above sea level. Wikipedia’s article on the ham, a speciality of Njeguši, gives the curing as about three weeks of salting with sea salt, about three weeks of pressing, then light smoking, three months of drying in the mountain breeze and a period of maturing, about a year in all.

The tourist board also recommends lamb simmered in milk or roasted under the sač, an iron lid, raštan, a dark-green vegetable of the cabbage family, and cheeses including Njeguški, Pljevlja and the layered lisnati of Kolašin. Wikipedia lists kačamak, polenta with buttered potato and kaymak, among the main courses, and says the Adriatic coast, unlike the heartland, is traditionally Mediterranean, with seafood common and a distinctly Italian influence.

Vranac, rakija and mead

Decanter writes that Montenegrin wines are little known abroad because most are drunk at home. Vranac, which became more prominent after the phylloxera epidemic of the early 20th century, now accounts for about 70 per cent of the vines, Krstač is the main native white grape, and Plantaže, the biggest winery, makes some 90 per cent of the country’s wine.

The tourist board says Montenegrins are proud of medovina, a honey wine, and counts red wine and homemade brandy among the must-try treats. Wikipedia adds that rakija and pelinkovac are traditional distilled drinks of the Balkans and that beer is brewed at the Trebjesa brewery, which Wikipedia’s article on the brewery names as the maker of Nikšićko pivo, a beer with its own page in Emblem World.

An anthem from a folk song, and Eurovision

The national anthem, “Oj, svijetla majska zoro”, which means “O Bright Dawn of May”, is named in the constitution. Wikipedia says it was a popular folk song with many variations before it was adopted in 2004, the oldest version dating from the second half of the 19th century.

Montenegro made its Eurovision Song Contest debut as an independent country in 2007, according to the contest’s own site. Rambo Amadeus sang Euro Neuro in Baku in 2012 and finished 15th in his semi-final; Sergej Ćetković took Moj svijet to 19th place in the 2014 final, Montenegro’s first; and Knez finished 13th with Adio in 2015, the country’s best result.

In Emblem World, the Montenegro Pavilion gathers local food, drink and music, from Njeguški pršut and Vranac to these songs, for people to discover and rate.