Podgorica: the capital nobody expects

Seventy-two bombing raids. That is what Podgorica received between 1941 and 1944, when Allied forces were trying to destroy the infrastructure supporting the Italian and German occupation across the Balkans. The city that existed before those bombs — a blend of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and early Yugoslav architecture — was effectively erased. What was rebuilt after 1945, under the name Titograd, was a new city on a cleared site, planned from the drawing board according to the principles of socialist urbanism.

This explains why Podgorica is the capital that travellers skip. It does not have the medieval layering of Kotor, the bay-side beauty of the coastline, or the mountain mysticism of Ostrog. It has the planned geometry of a city that started nearly from scratch eighty years ago, with the limitations and occasional virtues that starting point implies.

What survived from the past

Not everything disappeared in the bombing. The Stara Varoš neighbourhood — the old Ottoman town — survived partially in the angle formed by the Ribnica and Morača rivers, at the edge of the centre. It is a small fragment: some streets of low houses, the Husein-paše Boljanića Mosque (eighteenth century, with Montenegro’s tallest minaret), a ruined hammam, the Ottoman clock tower. It does not compare with the historic centres of Kotor or Cetinje, but it has an authentic texture that the rest of the city lacks.

The Ottoman bridge over the Ribnica — the Stari Most, whose stone arch dates from the fifteenth century — is perhaps the most beautiful historical object in the city. It has been closed to vehicle traffic for decades and has become a pedestrian walkway over a river that comes fast from the northern mountains. The combination of the medieval stone arch, the turquoise-green water and the trees lining the banks is one of those Podgorica moments that do not appear in the catalogues but justify a detour on foot.

The city that Tito built

Titograd was designed as a functional city for a socialist republic: wide avenue widths for parades and demonstrations, multi-storey residential blocks housing workers from new industries, administrative buildings with the sober solidity of Yugoslav public architecture. Tito’s name was removed in 1992, when Montenegro separated from the Yugoslav federation, but the city he built remains.

There are buildings in Podgorica that are interesting precisely for what they represent. The National Theatre, built in the 1950s, has the austere nobility of early Yugoslav socialism’s cultural projects. The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, inaugurated in 2013, is a blend of traditional Orthodox architecture and post-socialist monumental ambition that not everyone considers a success, but which in terms of scale is one of the largest churches in the Balkans. The contrast between the Ottoman mosque of Stara Varoš and the newly built cathedral summarises in two buildings the historical and demographic complexity of Montenegro.

The Millennium Bridge and the Morača River

The Millennium Bridge crossed the Morača when it was inaugurated in 2005 with a design that clearly wanted to say something about Montenegro’s future. The ninety-metre steel arch supports the bridge deck via cables, in a style recalling the great cable-supported bridges of late twentieth-century Europe. The result is visually powerful, especially from the riverbed: the bridge frames the Morača and the mountains behind.

The Morača is the real protagonist of Podgorica. It enters the city from the north, turquoise-green like the Tara for the same geological reasons — the karst limestone filters the water with extraordinary effectiveness — and creates a strip of parks and walkways that makes the summer heat (which in Podgorica can be fierce: July and August regularly reach 35-38°C) somewhat more bearable. The riverside café terraces are the city’s social centre outside the tourist season.

Why it deserves half a day, and no more

Podgorica is not a city to settle into if you come to Montenegro for the coast or the mountains. But it has enough to justify four or five hours: Stara Varoš and the mosque, the Stari Most, the Millennium Bridge and the walk along the Morača, the green market where farmers from the surrounding countryside sell fruit, vegetables and cheese, perhaps a stop at one of the riverside restaurants where local Vranac wine and lamb are a reasonable way to encounter Montenegrin food without the coastal prices.

The capital is also the country’s logistical hub: the bus station has connections to all Montenegrin cities and neighbouring countries. For anyone travelling without a car, Podgorica is where the rest of the itinerary gets organised.

The complete Far Guides Montenegro guide includes detailed routes, interactive maps and all the practical information you need to plan your independent trip.