A tiny gateway town on the shore of Lake Skadar — Balkan wine and pelicans
Virpazar is a small lakeside village on the southern shore of Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the Balkans, which straddles the Montenegro-Albania border and serves as one of Europe's most important bird sanctuaries. The lake is ringed by karst mountains, medieval fortresses, and monasteries, and the surrounding hills produce some of Montenegro's best wine — Vranac and Krstač grapes thrive in the limestone soils. Virpazar is the main access point for Lake Skadar National Park, with boat tours threading through water lilies past pelicans, cormorants, and the ruins of Ottoman-era fortresses ris…
Lake Skadar has been inhabited since ancient times — the Illyrian tribe of the Labeates lived around its shores, and the Roman settlement of Scodra (present-day Shkodër in Albania) was a major regional capital. The lake basin was contested between Venice, the Ottomans, and later Serbian and Montenegrin rulers. The Ottoman fortress of Grmožur, now rising from the water like a miniature island castle, was used as a prison in the early 20th century. Montenegro gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and Lake Skadar became a national park in 1983.