Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The bus station is at the southern edge of Žabljak, on the Šavnik road. Buses head to
Nikšić (€9, six daily), Podgorica (€9.50, three daily) and Pljevlja (€4.50, three daily).
WORTH A TRIP
PIVA CANYON
The highway north from Nikšić meets the Piva River after passing through 40km of verdant farmland. It then
tangoes with the river until they both reach the border at Šćepan Polje. The river was blocked in 1975 by the
building of a 220m-high hydroelectric dam at Plužine, flooding part of the Piva Canyon to create Lake Piva,
which reaches depths of over 180m.
Great care was taken to move the
Piva Monastery
(Manastir Piva) to higher ground, a feat that took 12 years
to complete. This Serbian Orthodox monastery holds the distinction of being the only one to be built during the
Ottoman occupation. It was constructed between 1573 and 1586 with the permission of the Ottoman Grand Viz-
ier, who was a relative of its founder. The Muslim Vizier was given the unusual honour of featuring in one of the
church's many magnificent frescoes with his head still attached to his body. Inside the church, note the internal
door leading into the nave, which is beautifully inlaid with stars, trees and geometric patterns.
The road alongside the river is quite a feat of engineering in itself. It clings to the cliffs and passes through 56
small tunnels carved out of the stone in the years following WWII. The narrow but equally spectacular route
through the mountains from Žabljak joins this road near Plužine. Heading north from here the route gets even
more spectacular, with the steep walls of the canyon reflected in the deep green waters below.
Accommodation is available at the rafting camps (
Click here
) around Šćepan Polje and in various
eko sela
(eco villages), scattered around Plužine and the back road to Žabljak. One excellent option is
Eko Selo Mead-
ows
( 069-718 078;
www.meadows-eco.com
; Donja Brezna bb; s/d/tr/q €20/30/42/50, mains €6-10; ) ,
signposted from the highway, 17.5km south of Piva Monastery. Set on a flat plain edged by hills, the complex
consists of a large restaurant serving local specialities (such as nettle soup, lamb in milk,
cicvara
,
kačamak
and
grilled trout) and a collection of tidy wooden cabins. They're simply furnished, but each has its own bathroom.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Pljevlja Пљевља
POP 19,200
The road over the vertigo-inducing Tara Bridge, 23km east of Žabljak, heads north to
Montenegro's third-largest city. Although it has ancient roots (Roman and before that Il-
lyrian), Pljevlja is a scrappy kind of town, with crumbling footpaths and a liberal dusting
of graffiti. While much of the surrounding countryside is extremely pretty, there's also a
fair bit of heavy industry including a large coalmine and thermal powerplant.
Despite its prominent mosques Pljevlja is predominantly an Orthodox town (73%) and
nearly half of the population identifies their ethnicity as Serbian. But then the Serbian
border is less than 10km away.
