Durmitor & the north: the back story

Montenegro’s north is a high country of glacial lakes, deep canyons and ancient forest. These are the stories behind its lakes, roads and mountain tables.

A massif of mountain eyes

Durmitor holds 18 glacial lakes, known locally as mountain eyes. The Black Lake lies in pine forest below Međed, its two basins circled by a path in about an hour. Higher up, Jablan sits at 1,791 metres, and the two Škrka lakes hide in a valley ringed by the range’s highest summits.

Canyons and roads

The Durmitor Ring leaves Žabljak on a 76 km loop around the massif, past wide plateaus and the deepest canyon in Europe, with a viewpoint over the Tara at Ćurevac. To the west, when Piva Lake flooded its canyon, the 16th-century Piva Monastery was rebuilt stone by stone, with all 1,250 m² of its frescoes.

Forest and fireside

Biogradska Gora, protected since 1878, guards a primeval forest of trees up to 500 years old around Lake Biograd, the country’s largest mountain lake. Nearby Kolašin keeps Bianca, a mountain-house resort among the pines, while back in Žabljak, Podgora serves lamb, kajmak and cicvara to walkers coming down from the trails.

The Piva Monastery was moved stone by stone, with all 1,250 m² of its frescoes, when Piva Lake was created.

Our advice: pick up a trail map in Žabljak and set off early for the lakes.