Spuž

Spuz sits on the Zeta river about 15 km north-west of Podgorica, on the old road towards Danilovgrad and Niksic. It occupies a low hill above the plain, which is why it was fortified in the first place.

An Ottoman fort built on the hill above the river, one of a line of strongholds guarding the approaches to the Zeta valley. Montenegro took it in 1878 after decades of fighting along this frontier; parts of the walls survive above the village.

For the prison. The country's main correctional institution is here, and Spuz is used as shorthand for it in speech and in the press, much as other countries use the name of a single town for the same reason.

Flat, irrigated and productive — this is the Bjelopavlici plain, the market garden of Montenegro. Peaches, grapes and vegetables come off it, and roadside stalls sell them through the summer.

Not much on its own. The fortress hill gives a good view over the plain, and the Zeta is used for swimming in summer, but Spuz is a stop rather than a destination on the way between Podgorica and Ostrog.

By car in twenty minutes from Podgorica, or on the Podgorica–Niksic buses that use the old road. Trains on the Belgrade–Bar line pass nearby, and there is a station serving the village.