Plužine

Pluzine is in north-western Montenegro on the shore of Piva lake, close to the Bosnian border. It is about two hours from Podgorica and one from Niksic, on the road that runs north through the Piva canyon towards Foca and Sarajevo.

Because the old one is under water. When the Mratinje dam closed in 1975 and Piva lake filled, the settlement was rebuilt on higher ground and the monastery was moved stone by stone. That is why Pluzine looks unlike any other Montenegrin town.

A 16th-century monastery famous for its frescoes, and for the fact that all of them were relocated. Between 1970 and 1982 the building was dismantled, moved several kilometres and reassembled above the new waterline, with the paintings transferred intact.

Deep, narrow and dramatic — the road runs through more than fifty tunnels cut into the rock above blue-green water. It is one of the most striking drives in the country, and slow: allow far more time than the distance suggests.

Yes. Boat trips run from Pluzine in summer and the water is clean, though cold: it is a mountain reservoir, not the sea. Kayaking and fishing are the other draws, and the lake stays quiet even in August.

Durmitor national park is east, and the Piva plateau above the town is high grazing country with old villages and long views. Rafting on the Tara can be reached from here, and the Nevidio canyon is within a morning's drive.