Piva Canyon

The Piva cut a canyon over a kilometre deep through the limestone of northwestern Montenegro, and in 1975 a dam at Mratinje flooded the lower part of it, creating a reservoir some forty-five kilometres long between vertical walls. The road along it was cut into the cliff with more than fifty tunnels and galleries. The monastery of Piva, which would have been drowned, was dismantled and rebuilt stone by stone on higher ground.

History

The Piva Monastery was founded in 1573 (1575 by another account) with money from Metropolitan Savatije Sokolović, later Serbian patriarch, and finished in 1586; Greek painters decorated most of the church in 1604-1606, and the painter Kozma worked on it from 1626. When the Piva hydroelectric project and the Mratinje dam were to flood its site at the source of the river, the monastery was taken down and rebuilt stone by stone at Goransko between 1969 and 1982, with more than 1,000 fresco fragments, some 1,260 square metres, removed and put back (Wikipedia, Piva Monastery).

What's there

• The reservoir - a lake some forty-five kilometres long between canyon walls.
• The tunnel road - a route cut into the cliff with over fifty tunnels.
• The Piva monastery - a sixteenth-century monastery moved stone by stone above the water.
• The Mratinje dam - the arch dam that created the lake.

When to go

May to October; the road is open year round but winter conditions in the tunnels are poor. Summer is the season for boat trips on the lake. Mornings are best for the light in the canyon.

Good to know

The tunnels are unlit, narrow and wet, and driving them takes concentration. The reservoir has drowned the original canyon floor, which some find a loss. Facilities along the road are sparse.

Nearby

Pluzine is at the lake, and Trnovacko Lake is northwest.