Our Montenegro is beautiful, and probably one of the rare destinations in the world where at the same time you can swim in the warm Adriatic Sea and ski on the slopes in just over an hour's walk Plow and enjoy its regions. On this jewel of the Boko Kotor hinterland, the snow remains until the end of May thanks to the highest amount of precipitation in winter in Europe, which causes a thick snow cover in the higher parts of the massif.

In addition to the natural contrasts, there are also fascinating civilizational ones, starting from the seashore and ending with the mountain peaks, so that the Orjen Massif is also an ideal destination for active vacations - mountain walks, alpinism and for scientific observations.

Orjen got its first routed mountain path at the end of the 19th century, during the reign of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Prince Rudolph, personally went to the main peak during your tour of this part of the Empire. Austria-Hungary is also associated with the construction of a series of fortifications and excellent cart roads, a masterpiece of the construction industry of the time. The fact that they are still in use, without any maintenance or changes, speaks volumes about the quality of the roads. When visiting Orjen, you should definitely visit Crkvice, the place where there was a large Austro-Hungarian barracks with accompanying fortifications on prominent hills in the area. The native traditional architecture is, of course, far more modest and rustic, and its preserved originality and simplicity is a valid reason for visiting the villages of Kruševica, Mokrina, Kamenog, Žlijeb, Bunovića Ubal in the sub-region. The main building material is stone and it is often used even for roofing.

Orjen is like a rare place in the world filled with speleological objects, pits and caves and is a true paradise for speleologists, who estimate that they still have decades and decades of research work in the Massif. Orjen is also a favorite hiking destination, largely because of the Zubac cable, which is also the highest point on the eastern Adriatic coast.

Another destination that mountaineers like to visit is Subra, a mountain with several epithets attached to it: its peak is the best viewpoint in the Massif, Subra's amphitheater is famous for its most interesting detail coastal Dinarides, and the Subra plateaus are one of the most impressive examples of karst micro-relief in the world.

The Subra amphitheater is the most colorful alpinist terrain on Orjen, a real treat for fans of this extreme sport. The southern ends of the massif, in the immediate hinterland of Bokele, are increasingly used for paragliding. Excursionists and mountaineers are happy to visit Vrbanj, which in the past decades has received the contents of a local excursion center. Kamenska plain with mountain lodge Za Vratlo is an essential destination of the southern part of the massif. Apart from Subra, there are several mountain peaks with an excellent view of the Gulf and the open sea. The most common starting point for Subra is from the mountain lodge Za Vratlom (1160 m). The home is a harmonious stone building with a capacity of 50 beds. Since the building is not on the road, it has preserved peace and a real mountain atmosphere. Already at home, attention is drawn to the dominant bare domed peak of Subra, which can be seen in the west. The first part of the trail leads through the undulating Kamenska plain and Duboki do, the katuniste village of Kameno, so that from their edge, at the foot of the Subra, a steep ascent begins. The whole of Subra represents an exceptional mosaic of speleological objects and it is difficult to find another place on the globe where the pits would be so frequent that there is more empty space below you than the rocks you are walking on! Some of the pits on the plateaus have their own history, much longer than the time of their scientific research. From Dragova jama (minus 46 m), Kamenjani extracted ice and sold it, thus completing the offer in Herzegovinian taverns and the first hotels long before the invention of the refrigerator. When meeting such a beautiful and at the same time terrifying environment, a person can feel all the power of nature and its primordial creative forces. Subra, far from any human activity, has preserved its originality, which is rare for any mountain today, and the hike to its top, like the entire Orjen Massif, offers scenes from which it is not easy to take your eyes off: grooves, fireplaces, passes and overhangs, all of which are interspersed with munica trees (an endemic tree species), which, who knows how, managed to penetrate this bare, gray stone with their roots. After half an hour of strenuous climbing, the path emerges at the 1679-meter-high peak of Subra. It is not the highest point of the Orjen massif, but it is certainly the most famous. It owes its fame to a good view that stretches from central Albania, the whole of Montenegro, with the dominant peaks of Lovcen, Prokletije and Durmitor, over the Herzegovina mountains and Popovo polje, all the way to southern Dalmatia and its islands, and when the storm is at the very line where the sea and the sky meet, as the furthest point, you can even see Lastovo. Going to the top in winter, covered in a thick blanket of snow, is a special experience, but also the privilege of the few really well-trained and prepared alpinists. ORJENA MASSIVE Natural features: surface area: over 400 square km location: extreme southwest of Montenegro and part of eastern Herzegovina highest point: Zubački kabao (1894 m) climate: modified mountain, with a large amount of precipitation in the cold part of the year soil: more or less pronounced karst with all its accompanying phenomena vegetation: mainly beech, hornbeam and mulberry We thank the cooperation of the mountaineering society Subra and Željko Starčević Nebojša Mandić