Pljevlja

Pljevlja in the far north grew as an Ottoman trading town on the route between Dubrovnik and Constantinople, and two buildings survive from that period: the Husein Pasha mosque of 1569, whose minaret at around forty-two metres is the tallest in the country and whose library holds an illuminated Quran, and the Holy Trinity monastery, founded in the same century, with a rich collection of icons and manuscripts. A Roman necropolis at Komini has produced glass now in the town museum.

Background

Pljevlja lies along the Ćehotina river at 770 metres, and in the Middle Ages it stood at a crossroads of trade routes linking the coast with the Balkan interior. The first traces of people in the region date from between 50,000 and 40,000 BC, and the Ćehotina valley was settled no later than 30,000 BC. Two large sites, Mališina Stijena and Medena Stijena, have yielded around 10,000 stone tools and weapons from 12,000-8,000 BC. Finds from the Komini necropolis kept in the Heritage Museum Pljevlja include a cage cup, or diatreta, and a glass vase decorated with threads of blue glass. The municipality covers 1,346 square kilometres and had 24,134 residents in 2023.

Source: Wikipedia, "Pljevlja"

Highlights

• The Husein Pasha mosque - a 1569 mosque with the country's tallest minaret and a manuscript library.
• The Holy Trinity monastery - a sixteenth-century monastery with icons and manuscripts.
• The Komini glass - Roman glass from the necropolis, held in the town museum.
• The town museum - the regional collection covering the area's history.

When to go

May to October is the most comfortable; winters here are cold and snowy. The mosque and monastery keep daily hours outside services. Mornings are best.

Things to know

The town is dominated by a coal mine and a power station and the air quality in winter is poor. There is little else for visitors. It is remote from the rest of the country.

Nearby

Djalovica Cave is southeast, and Tara Canyon is south.

Key facts