47 Fun Facts About Montenegro

What is the capital and largest city of Montenegro?

Podgorica, on the Morača river, is Montenegro's capital and by far its largest city, home to nearly a third of the country's population.

Montenegro's coastline lies on which sea?

Montenegro's coast faces the Adriatic Sea, the arm of the Mediterranean between Italy and the Balkans; its coastal towns include Kotor, Budva and Ulcinj.

What is the title of Montenegro's national anthem?

Montenegro's anthem is 'Oj, svijetla majska zoro' ('Oh, Bright Dawn of May'), a traditional song that parliament made the official anthem in July 2004.

Which of these countries does NOT border Montenegro?

North Macedonia never touches Montenegro; Kosovo and Albania lie between them. Montenegro's five neighbours include Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania.

Montenegro declared independence in June 2006 following what?

A referendum on 21 May 2006 approved independence, and parliament formally declared it on 3 June 2006, ending the state union that had existed since 2003.

What share of the vote did independence win in the May 2006 ballot?

Independence took 55.5% of valid votes in the 21 May 2006 ballot, with 230,661 'yes' votes, clearing the 55% threshold by about 2,000 votes.

Before 2006, Montenegro was in a state union with which country?

Serbia and Montenegro formed a loose state union in February 2003, replacing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Montenegro left it after the May 2006 independence vote.

Which military alliance did Montenegro join on 5 June 2017?

Montenegro formally joined NATO on 5 June 2017 as the alliance's 29th member, depositing its accession instrument at the State Department in Washington.

What currency does Montenegro use, despite not being in the eurozone?

It first adopted the German mark unilaterally in the late 1990s and switched to the euro afterwards.

Montenegro's independence was recognised by the Great Powers at which 1878 gathering?

The Congress of Berlin, held June–July 1878, recognised Montenegro as an independent state and enlarged its territory, revising the Treaty of San Stefano signed that March.

Montenegro became a kingdom in which year?

Montenegro was proclaimed a kingdom on 28 August 1910, marking fifty years of Nicholas I's rule; he remained its first and only king until his deposition in 1918.

Which dynasty ruled Montenegro from 1696, first as prince-bishops and later as secular princes?

The Petrović-Njegoš family ruled from 1696, first as prince-bishops who passed power from uncle to nephew, then as secular princes from 1852 and finally as kings until 1918.

What was the title of Montenegro's ruling prince-bishops?

Vladika, the Slavic word for a bishop, was the title of the metropolitans who ruled Montenegro from the early sixteenth century until the office was secularised in 1852.

Prince-Bishop Petar II, known simply as Njegoš, is celebrated for which epic poem?

The Mountain Wreath (Gorski vijenac), a verse drama Njegoš published in Vienna in 1847, is his masterpiece and the national epic of Montenegro.

Which Italian republic ruled the Bay of Kotor from 1420 until 1797?

Venice ruled Kotor from 1420 until the republic's fall in 1797, governing the bay as part of Venetian Albania; Budva was known as Budua under its rule.

The Crnojević family's Zeta fell to whom in 1496?

The Ottomans seized Zeta in 1496 after its last Crnojević lord, Đurađ, fled abroad; the territory was then attached to the Ottoman sanjak of Scutari.

Before the Slavs arrived, the region was inhabited mainly by which ancient people?

The Illyrians, a group of Indo-European tribes, dominated the western Balkans before Rome conquered them; their last kingdom, under Gentius, fell in 168 BC.

Which occupying power faced a mass uprising in Montenegro from 13 July 1941?

Italy had occupied Montenegro after Yugoslavia's collapse in April 1941; the uprising that began on 13 July 1941 briefly freed most of the country before Italian divisions crushed it in August.

From 1946 to 1992, Podgorica bore what name?

The city was renamed Titograd in 1946 in honour of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito and took back its historic name on 2 April 1992.

Which politician dominated Montenegro for three decades after Yugoslavia broke up?

Milo Đukanović served as prime minister or president almost continuously from 1991 until he lost the presidency in the April 2023 election.

Who defeated the long-serving incumbent in the 2023 presidential run-off?

Jakov Milatović, a co-founder of the Europe Now movement, won the 2 April 2023 run-off with about 59 percent of the vote and took office that May.

Which peak, at 2,534 metres, is Montenegro's highest point?

Zla Kolata, at 2,534 metres on the Albanian border in the Prokletije range, is Montenegro's highest peak; Bobotov Kuk, just over 2,520 metres, was long thought the highest.

Bobotov Kuk, long thought to be Montenegro's highest point, lies in which mountain range?

Durmitor National Park, founded in 1952, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Tara River gorge is notable as what?

The Tara canyon is the deepest canyon in continental Europe, about 1,300 metres deep and 82 kilometres long; the river's clear water earned it the nickname Tear of Europe.

Which lake on the Montenegro-Albania border is the largest in Southern Europe?

Lake Skadar, on the Montenegro-Albania border, spans roughly 370 to 530 square kilometres depending on the season, the largest lake in Southern Europe; its Montenegro shore became a national park in 1983.

Which mountains plunge into the Bay of Kotor at the northern end of the coastal plain?

Lovćen, rising above Kotor, and Orjen, above Herceg Novi, flank the Bay of Kotor; Orjen's summit at 1,894 metres is the highest point of the coastal ranges.

Sveti Stefan, the island resort near Budva, was converted by the Yugoslav government from what?

Sveti Stefan was a fortified fishing village dating from the fifteenth century; the Yugoslav state nationalised it in the 1950s and reopened it as a hotel in 1960.

Which hotel group operated Sveti Stefan as a luxury resort through the 2010s?

Aman Resorts ran the island as Aman Sveti Stefan through the 2010s under a long-term lease; the nearby Villa Miločer was built in the 1930s as Queen Marija of Yugoslavia's summer residence.

What is the official language of Montenegro?

The 2007 constitution made Montenegrin the official language; it is written in both Latin and Cyrillic and adds two letters, ś and ź, to the standard alphabet.

Most Orthodox believers in Montenegro belong to which church?

The Serbian Orthodox Church, through its Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, has by far the largest following; its 2020 protest walks against a church-property law helped unseat the ruling party that year.

Montenegro's men's team won the 2008 European Championship in which sport?

Montenegro's water polo team won the 2008 European Championship in Málaga, just two years after independence, and finished fourth at the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics.

Montenegro's first Olympic medal, a silver in 2012, came from which team?

Montenegro's women's handball team took silver at London 2012, losing a tight final to Norway; it was the country's first Olympic medal as an independent nation.

As of the 2023 census, how many municipalities did Montenegro have?

Montenegro had 25 municipalities at the 2023 census, up from 21 a decade earlier after four new municipalities, the last in 2022, were carved out of existing ones.

What is the main colour of the flag of Montenegro?

The flag is red with a gold border and carries the golden double-headed eagle of the coat of arms at its centre; it was adopted on 13 July 2004.

The Old Royal Capital of Montenegro, home to the president's official residence, is which town?

Cetinje, founded in 1482 by Ivan Crnojević, served as Montenegro's capital until 1946 and retains the honorary title Old Royal Capital (Prijestonica).

What is Montenegro's main seaport?

Bar, on the southern coast, is Montenegro's largest port and the country's main cargo gateway, with a regular ferry to Bari in Italy.

Who was president of Montenegro when it became independent in 2006?

Filip Vujanović, president of the republic since 2003, stayed in office after the 2006 independence vote and served until 2018, winning re-election in 2008 and 2013.

What name is given to the law code Montenegro adopted in 1855?

The Danilo Code of 1855, issued by Prince Danilo I, replaced the 1798 law code of Peter I and proclaimed equality before the law; Montenegro's first full constitution followed in 1905.

The breakaway national Orthodox church split from the Serbian church in which year?

The breakaway church was proclaimed on 31 October 1993 under Metropolitan Antonije; no canonical Orthodox church, including the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has recognised it.

The capital sits at the confluence of the Morača and which other river?

The city's medieval name was Ribnica.

Which medieval principality in southern Montenegro won independence from Byzantium in 1042?

Duklja, the medieval Slavic principality of today's southern Montenegro, threw off Byzantine rule after Stefan Vojislav's 1042 victory; his son Mihailo was recognised as king around 1077.

What is Montenegro's internet country-code domain?

Montenegro received the .me domain in 2007 after independence; because it reads as the English pronoun, it has been marketed worldwide for personal sites such as about.me.

How long is Montenegro's Adriatic coastline?

Montenegro's coastline measures about 295 kilometres, of which roughly 72 kilometres are beaches such as Jaz, Bečići and Velika Plaža near Ulcinj.

In which year did the railway linking Belgrade with Montenegro's coast fully open?

The 476-kilometre railway from Belgrade to Montenegro's coast opened in full on 28 May 1976 after some 24 years of construction, threading 254 tunnels and 435 bridges.

Biogradska Gora National Park lies in which mountain range?

Biogradska Gora, established in 1952 in the Bjelasica massif near Kolašin, covers about 54 square kilometres and protects a primeval forest around glacial Lake Biograd.

In which year was Kotor's Cathedral of Saint Tryphon built?

Saint Tryphon's Cathedral was consecrated on 19 June 1166 as a Romanesque basilica; its twin baroque bell towers were added after the 1667 earthquake wrecked the originals.

Which animal has become a symbol of Kotor, with its own museum and square in the old town?

Cats are Kotor's unofficial mascots: the old town has a Cats Museum and a small square, Trg od mačaka (Square of the Cats), and locals feed the large stray population.