Ostrog Monastery-Lake Skadar by boat
Resting in a cliff face 900m above the Zeta valley, the gleaming white Ostrog Monastery (Manastir Ostrog) is the most important site in Montenegro for Orthodox Christians, attracting up to a million visitors annually.
The Lower Monastery (Donji manastir) is 2km below the main shrine. Stop here to admire the vivid frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church (Crkva Sv Trojice; 1824). Behind it is a natural spring where you can fill your bottles with deliciously fresh water and potentially benefit from an internal blessing as you sup it.
The Upper Monastery (Gornji manastir; the really impressive one) is dubbed ‘Sv Vasilije’s miracle’, because no one seems to understand how it was built. Constructed in 1665 within two large caves, it gives the impression that it has grown out of the very rock. Sv Vasilije (St Basil), a bishop from Hercegovina, brought his monks here after the Ottomans destroyed Tvrdoš Monastery near Trebinje.
The Balkans’ largest lake, dolphin-shaped Skadar has its tail and two-thirds of its body in Montenegro and its nose in Albania. Covering between 370 and 550 sq km (depending on the time of year), it’s one of the most important reserves for wetland birds in Europe.