Dolphin-shaped Lake Skadar (Скадарско Језеро), the Balkans’ largest, has its tail and two-thirds of its body in Montenegro and its nose in Albania. On the Montenegrin side, an area of 400 sq km has been protected by a national park since 1983; today, Skadar is renowned as one of Europe’s top bird habitats. It’s a blissfully pretty area encompassing steep mountains, island monasteries, clear waters, and floating meadows of water lilies. The main – albeit tiny – towns here are Virpazar and Vranjina, though if you’ve got wheels, you can easily explore the timeless villages sprinkled along the shore.
Njeguši is a village in the Cetinje Municipality of southern Montenegro, located on the slopes of Mount Lovćen, within the Lovćen national park.
The village is best known as the birthplace of the Petrović dynasty, which ruled Montenegro from 1696 to 1918, as well as the Montenegrin office of the ”serdar” and ”guvernadur”, held by the Radonjić family. The village is also significant for its well-preserved traditional folk architecture. Njeguški sir and Njeguški pršut (local forms of cheese and prosciutto respectively), made solely in area around Njeguši, are genuine contributions to Montenegrin cuisine. The village is situated in the Njeguši field and historically used to be a center of the tribe of the same name that formed a part of Katunska Nahija, one of the provinces of Old Montenegro. The village consists of the settlements: Dugi Do, Žanjev Do, Erakovići, Kopito, Vrba, Raićevići, Velji and Mali Zalazi, Majstori and Mirac. The name Njeguši is according to Ilija Ruvarac derived from Negusius Podcupica, mentioned in an 11th-century document.
Tara is a mountain located in western Serbia. It is part of Dinaric Alps and stands at 1,000 to 1,590 m above sea level. The mountain’s slopes are clad in dense forests with numerous high-altitude clearings and meadows, steep cliffs, deep ravines carved by the nearby Drina River and many karst, or limestone caves. Forests account for three quarters of the national park’s area, 160 km2 (62 sq mi), some of them being the best preserved and well-kept in Europe. With 83.5% of the territory under forest, Tara is the most forested area of Serbia and thus nicknamed the “lungs of Serbia”. The forest growth is among the highest in Europe: the total wood mass increases each year and the quality of the forest is enhanced. Cutting of the wood is strictly controlled.
