Cetinje is the former royal capital of Montenegro and now it is a small quite green town with a lot of interesting places to visit. Most of them are located in the compact city centre and it is very easy to reach them all.
Cetinje was founded in the 15th century and almost immediately became a capital when Ivan Crnojević, the Lord of Zeta, moved his capital to this geographically protected place near the Mount Lovćen. Currently with its population about 14,000 people it still preserves the official status of cultural capital of Montenegro.
The Blue Palace (initially built in 1894-1895 for the heir of Montenegrin throne) is now the official residence of the President of Montenegro.
Cetinje is the cultural capital of Montenegro so the largest museum in the country is here – the National Museum of Montenegro. The museum is divided into five large parts: Historical Museum, Artistic Museum, King’s Nikola Palace, Ethnographic Museum and Biljarda.
King Nikola’s Palace which is the former residence of the last Montenegrin king and the Ethnographic Museum of Montenegro (it presents a collection of traditional clothes, carpets, bags, etc.) are located opposite to each other.
Biljarda, the former royal residence, was built for Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrović-Njegoš and received its name by the billiard table in the central room.
The Cetinje Monastery with its history that dates back to 15th century together with the town is a heart of Cetinje and maybe of entire Montenegro. It is a historical and cultural centre keeping several important relics: remains of St. Peter of Cetinje, right hand of John the Baptist, particles of the True Cross and others. The Monastery also has a nice green territory where you can walk around.
If you go up along the road from the Cetinje Monastery, you can reach the mausoleum of Danilo I, the Metropolitan of Cetinje. The pathway is very nice with picturesque views on Cetinje centre and nearby mountains.
And finally on this path you reach Eagle’s Rock, this mountain is the location of mausoleum of Danilo I who was the Metropolitan of Cetinje between 1697 and 1735, and the founder of the House of Petrović-Njegoš – this dynasty ruled Montenegro until 1918. From Eagle’s Rock you can enjoy great mountain views including Lovćen views.
There are a lot of architecturally interesting buildings in Cetinje which are former embassies. For example, this is a former French embassy.
The oldest Montenegrin theater is also in Cetinje – it is called Zetski Dom and has been working since 1884.
If you are a little bit tired of different historical monuments and museums of Cetinje, you may go to Lipa Cave near the former royal capital – and then you will enjoy fantastic worlds of a large system of caves. It was discovered occasionally in 19th century and later it turned out that there is a very large system of caves under Montenegrin mountains. Scientists still explore those caves and Lipa Cave is the only one opened for tourists.
Lipa Cave consists of different halls each of them suggesting its own strange and mysterious forms formed by water drops and a lot of time.
You will be offered a one-hour tour around Lipa Cave. In future this cave may become even bigger because scientists continue exploring several nearby caves.