Lovćen

Mount Lovćen rises directly behind the Bay of Kotor, a dark limestone massif that gave Montenegro its name and much of its idea of itself. Its two main summits — Štirovnik at 1,749 metres and Jezerski vrh at 1,657 — stand at the centre of a national park established in 1952, where beech forest, karst pasture and bare grey rock meet the edge of the coastal escarpment. The mountain has long served as the country's natural fortress and its symbol. On top of Jezerski vrh sits the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the bishop, ruler and poet who shaped modern Montenegrin identity. Designed by Ivan Meštrović and completed in 1974, it is reached through a tunnel and 461 steps cut into the rock, opening onto a terrace where two granite caryatids guard the entrance and a seated granite figure of Njegoš waits inside beneath a gold mosaic ceiling. The view from the terrace takes in the bay, the open Adriatic, Skadar Lake and the mountains of the interior, and on the clearest days the Italian coast across the sea. Getting there is half the experience. The serpentine road from Kotor climbs the escarpment in a long series of hairpins, each one opening a wider view over the bay, and joins the old route through Njeguši — Njegoš's birth village, and home of Montenegro's best-known smoked ham and cheese — before dropping to Cetinje, the old royal capital at the mountain's foot. Ivanova Korita, a meadow basin inside the park, has walking trails, picnic ground and space for children to run. Lovćen suits drivers, hikers and anyone with an interest in Montenegrin history, and it works as a day out from Kotor, Budva or Podgorica. May to October is the season: the mausoleum and the high roads close or turn difficult under snow, and even in summer the summit is far cooler and windier than the coast below, so carry a layer.