Montenegro's mountain soul — Biogradska Gora's 1,000-year-old primary rainforest, a glacial lake, and ski runs that turn into hiking trails for the summer half of the year
Kolašin is Montenegro's mountain resort town at 950m elevation in the central Montenegrin highlands — functioning as the winter ski base and summer hiking gateway for the surrounding terrain. The ski infrastructure (Kolašin 1450 and Kolašin 1600 resorts) is the most developed in the Western Balkans after Jahorina. The primary draw is Biogradska Gora National Park 15km east: one of the last three primary temperate rainforests remaining in Europe — a forest of 1,000-year-old beech and fir trees surrounding the glacial Biogradsko Lake (1,094m), undisturbed by logging since the medieval period.
Kolašin was a significant Ottoman fortification town controlling the mountain routes between the Ottoman-held interior and Montenegrin highland territory that the Ottomans never successfully pacified. The Ottoman fortress was destroyed and the town liberated by Montenegrin forces in 1878 (the same year Montenegro gained full independence at the Congress of Berlin). Biogradska Gora's primary forest survived because it was within the territory of the Bijelic tribe, which had a traditional prohibition against felling the old trees around the lake — a customary protection predating formal conserv…