Montenegro

Montenegro rises almost straight from the Adriatic, its name, the Black Mountain, taken from the dark forested slopes above the coast. The Bay of Kotor winds inland between limestone walls, its old towns ringed by Venetian fortifications, and Mount Lovćen carries the mausoleum of the poet-prince Njegoš. In the north the Tara River has cut a canyon more than a kilometre deep beside the Durmitor massif, and in the south pelicans breed in the reeds of Lake Skadar.

Duklja, a Slavic principality, won its ruler a royal title from the pope in 1077. Later the Crnojević lords held out against the Ottomans, and their press at Cetinje printed the Oktoih in 1494, one of the first books in Cyrillic type. Prince-bishops of the Petrović-Njegoš family ruled from 1696; Petar II wrote The Mountain Wreath in 1847. The Congress of Berlin confirmed independence in 1878. In 1918 the country entered the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia, and it regained independence in 2006.

Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic communities share the country, and minarets rise over the old town of Ulcinj. Epic poems were sung to the gusle, a one-stringed fiddle, and in the oro, a circle dance, young men climb onto each other’s shoulders. Smoked ham from Njeguši and red wine from the Vranac grape fill the table. Coastal tourism carries the economy, alongside the port of Bar and bauxite from Nikšić. The water polo team won the European title in 2008.