Podgorica

To be honest, it took me quite some time to put together my thoughts  about Podgorica and make the whole concept of a love letter that would be dedicated to the capital city of Montenegro. Even people who shared this city with me admitted their curiosity from what are going to be my comments regarding Montenegrin metropole. Let’s start from the beginning though and share some stories of this city with you…

​The name Podgorica, when translated thoroughly, means the city beneath a mountain. Therefore, during our journey to Podgorica we were discussing if it’s going to mean that the entire city will be in shade of this huge mountain that’s meant to stand at the side of it. We hoped for at least a little shade, because the day we were visiting this city, the weather was incredibly hot (I think the temperatures were reaching the peak that day, with the highest temperature of 36 degrees Celsius). I could use such a shade of a mountain – I remember thinking when I sat in the car and listened to the conversation. Unfortunately, Podgorica has no mountain. And thus, no shade.

​The road to the city though leads around a national park of Lovčen, which consists of roads really high above the sea level. But still, these mountains are quite far from the city which in its title carries the probability of presence of a nearby mountain. Till this day, I did not succeed in finding the piece of information which would shed a light into this Podgorica conundrum, but let’s not fall into despair because of that. I found a completely different legend, telling a bit more about the origins of the city.

​According to that legend, the city was established on Prince Markus’s order. One day, Prince Markus said to Haji Pasha: „Let the rooster fly and build a city at the place where it lands.“

Haji Pasha obeyed this command and let a rooster loose. This rooster flew away and landed exactly at the place where rivers Ribnica and Moraća meet. At this place, the city of Podgorica was later created. And on the contrary to the mountain which is rooted in the title of Podgorica, river Ribnica is actually a real river which flows through the Montenegrin capital city.

The riverside of Ribnica is nowadays a nice place for swimming or sunbathing. Though, be careful with the little rocks which can be really sharp and thus, hurt your feet. Just to make sure, I would use some swimming shoes when entering the river… or walking on the riverside. I remember the moment of getting into the water in Podgorica was one of the best moments of that day. As the heat was really something we were struggling with, we could not be happier to finally take the chance of cooling down in the waters of Ribnica. And also, we could not care less about the clarity of the water on such day. I remember guys were feeling so warm on our way from the riverside, that they didn’t even bother putting their shorts back on – they were just walking the streets in their swimsuits. And me walking along side with them, and trying to pretend that I’m just some random passer-by who had never met them before. Ah, it was a fun day.

​Podgorica has a very extraordinary character as a city. Its old centre is quite small and unfortunately, most of the architectural landmarks of the city are not much older than the era of socialism. But I must not leave Petrovic Castle unnoticed, as it is believed that this building is truly the most beautiful in the city.

​

​

But otherwise Podgorica is very modernistic, which was no surprise to me. It has many nice new buildings which are usually very high and made of glass they seem really luxurious. These buildings of course might come of your interest in case you are more into the modern architecture. Unfortunately, my heart loves old buildings and old houses with decorations on their facades, doors and windows. Therefore, my heart has not found its something special in Podgorica, even though that the city has a few interesting buildings.

​The overall athmosphere is very calm, peaceful and quiet, especially on hot summer days. I remember we encountered only few people outside that afternoon and most of them were like us trying to cool down in the waters of Ribnica river. In the streets, there was only a couple of individuals who were walking their dogs or sitting on benches in parks. I remember we met some elderly man in a park who was sitting by the table with chess. When he saw us, he raised his voice to greet us and we replied: „Dobar dan!“

​That got him so cheerful that he immediately asked one of my friends to play chess with him, but as we were rushing to see another cultural landmark of Podgorica and we really didn’t fancy waiting for our friend at the heat, we asked him to not go. We did not even need to convince him, he didn’t want to do it anyway. He was all psyched about our next stop, which was the brutalist church.

In the depths of the church, there are also hallways and classrooms. Actual classrooms for pupils. Speaking of schools, another legend known about Podgorica pops into my head. It is a legend of Montenegrin girl who found herself of the throne of Saudi Arabia. According to the story, the girl was a daughter of Sadik Begović, who decided to move from Podgorica to Turkey and took his family with him. His daughter first met the Saudi King at school she was attending. The legend says that she was as beautiful as the moonlight and so shortly after she had met the Saudi King, he decided to propose to her. A great story of love with its roots in the small capital city of lovely Montenegro.

​But let’s go back to our visit of the brutalist church in the neighbourhood of Podgorica city centre. Turns out that until the front half of the building has been used for the purposes of Montenegrin church, the back parts of the building are an actual school. Horrible, I thought to myself. ‚Amazing!‘ said my friend at the very next moment.

​To be honest, he was far more pleased by the final sight of this concrete artwork. But I have known for a long time now, that my and my friend’s definitions of a beautiful architectural landmark are not the same. Whereas I always search for something richly decorated and elegant, he first of all searches for unusual things. Seeing the church/school of Podgorica, I was not that delighted in terms of overall perception of the place. But I was thankful that my friend found it in Atlas Obscura and led us to a place which was very extraordinary. And for a curious traveller, extraordinary is always worth seeing.

And this was the whole perception of Podgorica for me. It was not my absolute favourite of the Balkan cities, and I cannot even say that I got lost in the old city centre (because I haven’t found any city centre at all – just one square with a 3-storey stone tower), but I can and want to say that just for the experience of different side of Montenegro, it was worth seeing. Truly, Podgorica is very different from the character of Montenegrin seashore. A complete opposite to historical villages and towns of Kotor Bay, with its architectural background it’s a bit closer to newer cities like Bar. Less historical and more urbanistic. An experience which didn’t raise my feet off the ground, but made me thankful for seeing something rather unusual.

Love,

                                                                                                                                     Antonia

---

​

Have you enjoyed reading the Love Letters?

Follow us for new content delivered right to your inbox.

​

​