Days of Mushrooms and Medicinal Herbs

Each late July, Rožaje turns its densely forested surroundings into an open-air classroom for the Days of Mushrooms and Medicinal Herbs. The town sits amid some of the most extensive woodland in Montenegro's east, beneath the Hajla massif — terrain that yields a remarkable variety of fungi and wild herbs, and this event teaches visitors to read it.

The woods here are genuinely deep: conifer and beech forest climbs from the Ibar valley toward the Hajla ridgeline, threaded with streams and clearings, and the people of the region have gathered from it — mushrooms, teas, remedies — for as long as anyone can trace. The event formalizes a knowledge that every village once held.

The core of the programme is in the field: expert-guided foraging walks head into the forests and meadows to gather mushrooms and medicinal plants, with the guides explaining what each species is, how it is used — and, crucially, what to leave strictly alone. It is exactly the kind of knowledge foragers cannot safely learn from an app.

Back in town, the gathered finds go on display in a species exhibition, while workshops dig deeper into identification and the traditional uses of the region's medicinal plants. Between walks and workshops, the event doubles as a gentle introduction to the countryside around Rožaje.

Come dressed for the forest — sturdy shoes and a layer for the shade — and bring curiosity rather than a harvest quota; the guides emphasize respect for the woodland as much as the gathering itself. By the second day, most visitors find they walk the forest differently, reading it rather than merely passing through.

The event is held over the late-July days when the summer forest is at its most productive, and everything — walks, exhibition and workshops — is free.