Europa del Sudeste
Dramatic · Coastal · Wild
Montenegro's name literally means 'Black Mountain' in Venetian — the country's mountains are so dramatic that Lake Skadar, which it shares with Albania, is the largest lake in southern Europe.
Más allá de la capital, las principales ciudades son Nikšić, Bar — cada una un centro de cultura regional, economía e historia. Podgorica was largely bombed by the Allies in World War II and rebuilt as a Yugoslav socialist city — Titograd until 1992 — sitting in the Zeta Plain between the Albanian Alps to the north and the coastal mountains to the south, a modest capital whose youth left in large numbers during the Yugoslav wars while the old town retains Ottoman-era bridges and mosques from the five centuries of Ottoman rule.
El idioma oficial es Montenegrin, que refleja el patrimonio cultural del país y lo conecta con una amplia comunidad internacional. Internacionalmente, Montenegro se contacta mediante el código +382. Montenegrins built a fierce reputation for independence — the mountain kingdom of Montenegro was never fully conquered by the Ottomans despite five centuries of pressure, and the phrase 'being a Montenegrin' carried connotations of indomitable resistance that persisted through communist Yugoslavia into the 2006 independence vote that separated Montenegro from Serbia by 55.5% to 44.5%, one of the closest votes in modern independence history.
Montenegro comparte sus fronteras con Serbia, Albania, Croacia, Bosnia y Herzegovina, Kosovo. El tráfico rodado circula por la derecha, en consonancia con la convención de
La vida económica y cotidiana se rige por la zona horaria de UTC+01:00, alineando el país con sus vecinos regionales.
Njeguški pršut — dry-cured smoked ham from the Njeguši plateau above Kotor Bay — is Montenegro's most celebrated food product, made from pigs fed on Njeguši potatoes and cured in the cold mountain air that blows from the Adriatic across the Lovćen massif, producing a ham whose quality Montenegrins compare to Spanish jamón ibérico while maintaining it is produced in a completely different tradition.
Water polo and football compete for Montenegro's attention in a small country that punches far above its demographic weight in both — the national water polo team being one of Europe's strongest, while football fans in Podgorica maintain a fierce loyalty to the national team competing in UEFA qualification as an independent nation only since 2007.
Durmitor National Park contains Black Lake (Crno Jezero) — two glacial lakes connected by a narrow channel, surrounded by black pine forest and 2,500-metre peaks — in a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the Tara River Canyon drops 1,300 metres over 90 kilometres, making it Europe's deepest canyon and one of the world's finest white-water rafting rivers.