Montenegro's royal capital — Orthodox relics, the palace where Prince-Bishops ruled as monks, and the mountain road with 25 hairpin bends to Kotor
Cetinje is the historical and cultural capital of Montenegro (population 13,000), set in a high karst plateau (672m elevation) in the Lovćen mountains behind the Budva riviera. Despite its small size, Cetinje contains a disproportionate density of Montenegrin national significance: the Cetinjski Manastir (repository of the right hand of St John the Baptist — the most sacred Orthodox relic in Montenegro), the Biljarda palace (the official residence of Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, who wrote the Gorski Vijenac — the foundational poem of Serbian/Montenegrin literature), the National Mu…
Cetinje was founded in 1482 by Ivan Crnojevic as his new capital, after the Ottoman conquest of the previous Montenegrin capital. The Cetinje Monastery (original 1484, rebuilt several times) became the spiritual centre of Montenegrin resistance to Ottoman expansion — Montenegro was the only Balkan territory never fully incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The Prince-Bishops (Vladike) of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty ruled Montenegro as a theocratic state from 1696 until 1851. Montenegro became an independent principality in 1878 (Treaty of Berlin) and a kingdom in 1910, with Cetinje as capital…