Cetinje, the old royal capitalA walk from the palace to the legations

You are standing on Court Square. The red building with a balcony above the entrance is King Nikola's Palace. It was built between eighteen sixty-three and eighteen sixty-seven, at first for Princess Darinka, the widow of Prince Danilo. When Darinka left Montenegro, Prince Nikola and his family moved in from the Biljarda. People called the new building simply the Palac. Nikola ruled for fifty-eight years, first as prince and, from nineteen ten, as king. The palace was renovated for the proclamation of the kingdom. The daughters of Nikola and Queen Milena married into the courts of Europe. Jelena became Queen of Italy, Milica and Anastasija married Russian grand dukes, and Zorka married Petar Karađorđević, later King of Serbia. That is why Nikola was called the father-in-law of Europe. The palace has been a museum since nineteen twenty-six. On the ground floor are the royal and diplomatic salons, portraits of European relatives, weapons, flags and decorations. The family rooms are upstairs.

This green plateau is called Ćipur, and this is where the history of Cetinje begins. Ivan Crnojević, the lord of Zeta, retreated before the Ottomans from Obod, near today's Rijeka Crnojevića, into this sheltered valley below Lovćen. In fourteen eighty-two he built a court here, and two years later a monastery dedicated to the Virgin. That monastery was destroyed in sixteen ninety-two. The Venetians who held it blew it up as they withdrew. You can see the remains of its foundations around the church. King Nikola built the church in front of you in eighteen ninety, on the site of the old monastery. It holds the graves of Ivan Crnojević, King Nikola, Queen Milena and two of their daughters, Ksenija and Vjera. The king and queen died in exile and were buried in San Remo, in Italy. On the first of October, nineteen eighty-nine, their remains were brought back here. The church is often closed. If it is open, the marble tombs of the king and queen are right by the entrance.

In front of you is Cetinje Monastery, the seat of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. After the old monastery on Ćipur was destroyed, Bishop Danilo Petrović built a new one here, on the site of Ivan Crnojević's former court, between seventeen-oh-one and seventeen-oh-four. This one was not spared either. It was damaged in Ottoman attacks in seventeen fourteen and in seventeen eighty-five, and each time it was rebuilt. It has looked the way it does now since nineteen twenty-seven. The monastery keeps the right hand of Saint John the Baptist, a fragment of the Holy Cross and the relics of Saint Peter of Cetinje, a bishop and statesman of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The church also holds the grave of Prince Danilo. Entry is free. Shoulders and knees must be covered, and if you have nothing to cover them with, a wrap is usually handed out at the entrance. No photography inside, and please keep your voice down. Above the monastery rises the rocky hill of Orlov Krš, with the mausoleum of Bishop Danilo. The path to the top takes about twenty minutes.

This pavilion holds a relief map of Montenegro, made in nineteen seventeen, during the Austro-Hungarian occupation in the First World War. The occupiers wanted a better overview of the mountain country they held. The map is made of concrete cast on a stone base, following precise Austrian topographic maps. The scale is one to ten thousand, and it covers about two hundred and fifty-six square metres. It also shows parts of the neighbouring countries. It was made by Austro-Hungarian officers and specialists, captured Italian officers, painters and cartographers, and the Montenegrin sculptor Marko Brežanin. If you go in, first find the Bay of Kotor, then the mountain above it. That is Lovćen. The old road from Kotor climbs its slopes through the hairpin bends and over Njeguši to this valley. From above you can see clearly how well Cetinje was hidden, both from the sea and from the plain. There is a fee for the pavilion, and the Biljarda ticket also covers the relief map.

This long stone building with towers at its corners is the Biljarda. It was built in eighteen thirty-eight, to a design by the Russian Yakov Ozeretskovsky, for Petar the Second Petrović Njegoš, prince-bishop, ruler and poet. The old monastery had become too small for him, so he moved himself and the institutions of the state here. The building is about seventy-two metres long and has twenty-five rooms. The Senate met here, and so did the perjanici, Njegoš's guard. It is named after billiards, Njegoš's favourite game, and the billiard table can still be seen in the museum. Njegoš died in eighteen fifty-one, not yet thirty-eight years old. His best-known work, the epic poem The Mountain Wreath, was published in eighteen forty-seven. The museum keeps his library, manuscripts and personal belongings. Later, ministries and schools worked in the Biljarda. Today it is the Njegoš Museum, part of the National Museum of Montenegro. Njegoš himself is buried at the top of Lovćen, in the mausoleum on Jezerski Vrh.

The large yellow building with the clock is Government House. It was completed in nineteen ten, the year Montenegro was proclaimed a kingdom. It was designed by the Italian architect Corradini. Measuring sixty-six by fifty-two metres, with an inner courtyard, it was then the largest building in Montenegro. The government and parliament worked here, and so did the post and telegraph office, a printing house and even a temporary theatre. Today it is the headquarters of the National Museum of Montenegro, with the History Museum and the Art Museum. In the Art Museum, in a room called the Blue Chapel, is the icon of Our Lady of Philermos. It belonged to the Knights of Saint John, who carried it from Rhodes to Malta. Later it was in Russia, and it came to Belgrade by way of Denmark. During the Second World War it was hidden at Ostrog Monastery, and it has been in the National Museum since nineteen seventy-eight. You can buy the combined ticket for all the museums at the ticket desk of any of them.

In front of you is the former French Legation, and this is where the story of Cetinje as a town of diplomats begins. At the Congress of Berlin, in eighteen seventy-eight, the great powers recognised Montenegro's independence. After that, legations came to the small capital. Austria-Hungary got its building in eighteen ninety-nine, Russia in nineteen-oh-three, Italy and France in nineteen ten, and Britain in nineteen twelve. Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Germany, Belgium and the United States had missions in rented houses. So the small capital hosted more than ten diplomatic missions. The French building stands out from all of them. Look at the front: wavy lines, ceramic tiles in several colours, decoration around the balconies and chimneys. This is Art Nouveau, and it is its first appearance in the architecture of Montenegro. You will see the Russian and British legations later on this walk. The Austro-Hungarian one is further to the north-west, and the Italian one is on the Boulevard of Montenegrin Heroes.

This is the Vlach Church, the oldest church in Cetinje. The inscription above the door says that the people of Donji Kraj first built it in fourteen fifty, more than thirty years before Ivan Crnojević came to Cetinje. It has been rebuilt three times, and it has had its present form since eighteen sixty-four. Now look at the fence. Every bar in it is the barrel of a rifle. There are more than fifteen hundred of them, taken by Montenegrins from Ottoman soldiers at a battle in eighteen fifty-eight and in the wars of eighteen seventy-six to seventy-eight. The fence was put up in eighteen ninety-seven. The barrels are topped with metal spikes shaped like spearheads. In this church, in eighteen sixty, Prince Nikola married Milena Vukotić. The churchyard also holds two stećci, medieval tombstones, the remains of an old graveyard.

You are walking along Njegoševa Street, the main street of Cetinje, now pedestrian. It runs from the French Legation to the Blue Palace, through the whole old centre. When Cetinje became the capital of a recognised state, the town began to grow fast. The first urban plan of the capital was drawn up by the architect Josip Slade from Trogir, who also designed the Austro-Hungarian Legation. The town got a theatre at that time too. In eighteen eighty-three a theatre society was founded within the Cetinje Reading Room, although the town had no theatre building. A year later the society started building what is now called the Zetski Dom. The Royal Theatre Zetski Dom is the oldest theatre institution in Montenegro, and you will pass it on the way to the next stop. Cetinje is not the capital city today. That is Podgorica. But Cetinje has the official status of Old Royal Capital, and the President of Montenegro has a residence in the Blue Palace, at the end of this street.

This grand building is the former Russian Legation. The foundation stone was laid in nineteen hundred, and the building was finished and moved into in nineteen-oh-three. It was designed by the Italian architect Corradini, who later built Government House. The style is late Baroque with Renaissance elements, and the plot, between the town park and this street, covers about three and a half thousand square metres. At that time Russia was a close ally of Montenegro. Think back to the fence of rifle barrels at the Vlach Church. It went up a year after Russia, in eighteen ninety-six, gave Montenegro thirty thousand rifles. The old captured barrels could then become a fence. After the First World War the building housed a teacher training college, and later part of a hospital, flats and an art academy.

The red house with white windows is the former British Legation. There is a plaque on the wall: British Legation, eighteen seventy-nine to nineteen sixteen. So British diplomats were in Cetinje for almost forty years, but in this building for only four. It was built in nineteen twelve, to a design by the English architect Harty, as an English country house, of the kind then being built in England's garden cities. The year nineteen sixteen marks the end of the royal capital. Early that year the Austro-Hungarian army occupied Montenegro, King Nikola went into exile and the legations left Cetinje. The king never came back. After the war Montenegro became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Between the two world wars this house was the residence of the governor of the Zeta Banovina. Today it is the Music Academy of the University of Montenegro.

In front of you is the Blue Palace. It was built at the end of the nineteenth century for Crown Prince Danilo, King Nikola's son. Verses by Prince Nikola were carved into its foundation stone. Danilo lived here until nineteen sixteen. Look at the front: blue and white walls, and pilasters of red stone with gilded capitals. Between the two world wars the palace housed the grammar school, and later a gallery and a museum. Today it is a residence of the President of Montenegro. It is not open as a museum, but you can see it well through the fence. This is the last stop of our walk. Court Square, where you started, is about three hundred metres away. Go back along Njegoševa Street and turn left onto the square at the end.