Cetinje, the Old Royal Capital

The unusual thing about Cetinje is architectural. For a few decades around the turn of the twentieth century a number of foreign states maintained diplomatic buildings here, and those buildings survive along and around the main street — solid, formal, European, and noticeably grander than the town around them. Most now hold institutes, faculties or museums. Walking that street is the single best thing to do in the town, and it takes about twenty minutes: the interest is the accumulation rather than any one facade.

The national collections are concentrated in a handful of adjacent buildings — the former court, a historical museum, an art collection and an ethnographic display — which means you can see a great deal without moving the car. The former royal residence is the most rewarding for most visitors, being furnished and legible rather than object-heavy. A combined approach works well here: pick two rather than attempting all of them, because they sit close enough that the temptation to do everything produces museum fatigue by early afternoon.

The monastery is the oldest institution in the town and remains a working religious house rather than an exhibit. It is open to visitors, holds a treasury and a library, and expects the usual courtesies — covered shoulders and knees, quiet inside, and an awareness that services are not performances. It takes fifteen minutes to see and is worth those fifteen minutes for the setting as much as the contents.

Cetinje's real value is positional. It sits between the mountain road up from the bay and the descent toward the lake and the coast, which makes it the natural midpoint of the interior loop — the drive covered in the road out of the bay. Two hours here, a couple of hours on the mountain above it and an afternoon at the lake below makes a full and unhurried day. Staying overnight is possible and rarely necessary; the town is quiet after dark and the beds are elsewhere.