The market town of the Lim valley: a 12th-century church that commissioned the Miroslav Gospel, and the station on the Belgrade–Bar line where passports get stamped.
Bijelo Polje je sjevernocrnogorski grad na rijeci Lim, poznat po bogatom multietničkom nasljeđu i srednjovjekovnim spomenicima. Crkva Svetog Petra, iz 12. vijeka, među najstarijima je u zemlji i sadrži ostatke ranih fresaka. Grad služi kao praktična kapija ka planinskom masivu Bjelasica i njegovim aktivnostima u prirodi. Sa živom čaršijskom četvrti koja odražava vjekove osmanskog i slovenskog kulturnog prožimanja, Bijelo Polje nagrađuje putnike koji istražuju manje posjećenu unutrašnjost Crne Gore.
Prizori: Bijelo Polje
Boravak u gradu Bijelo Polje
1 smještaj u gradu Bijelo Polje
The country by municipality
Municipality populations, 2023 census
Fourth-largest municipality in Montenegro, and much the largest in the north — Berane, Pljevlja and Rožaje hold between 23,000 and 25,000 each.
MONSTAT 2023 census, municipality level
Town or countryside
Share of each municipality living in its main town, 2023
Seven in ten people here live outside the town — the lowest share of any large municipality in the country.
MONSTAT 2023 census, municipality and settlement level
Ko posjećuje Crnu Goru
Udio noćenja stranih gostiju, 2025.
MONSTAT · 2025
Ko živi ovdje
Popis stanovništva, opština Bijelo Polje
The sparkline is the municipality: 50,284 people in 2003, 38,662 in 2023 — nearly a quarter gone in twenty years. The town holds 11,635 of them, which leaves Bijelo Polje the fourth-largest municipality in Montenegro and the least urban of the big ones.
Nemanjić, Ottoman, Yugoslav
Four and a half centuries of the town’s recorded life were spent as Akova, an Ottoman market on the Dubrovnik caravan road. Widths are to scale.
Church presumed c. 1190; Gospel commissioned 1180, transcribed 1186–1190; Ottomans take Bihor in 1455; mosque 1691–1912; railway 28 May 1976.
A day on the Lim
A working town, and the trains that stop in it
00:00the Lovćen sleeper for Belgrade calls at 00:10, the one for Bar at 03:44
08:00the market: cheese and produce out of the valley
12:00the northbound day train, summer only, leaves at 12:52
15:00St Peter’s and Nikoljac — two medieval churches, both near the centre
17:00the summer day train south for Podgorica and Bar, 17:40
20:00the main-street korzo; at 578 m the evening cools fast
1912
U međuvremenu — 1912
The year Akova became Bijelo Polje
Bijelo Polje,the First Balkan War opens on 9 October 1912. The Eastern detachment of the Montenegrin army, under brigadier Janko Vukotić and stationed around Kolašin, Žabljak and Andrijevica, takes Mojkovac, the town on the Lim and Berane inside a month. Ottoman Akova ends after four and a half centuries.
St Peter’s —the church that had served as a mosque since 1691 returns to the Orthodox parish. The rebuilt nave’s reconsecration is set for Petrovdan 1923; the founder’s plaque, moved under the Ottomans, now stands above the west door again.
The Sanjak —the district governed from Novi Pazar since 1865 and from Sjenica after 1902 is divided between Serbia and Montenegro. The frontier settles at Dobrakovo, fourteen kilometres north of town, where it still runs.
The Atlantic:the Titanic had gone down that April. Nineteen-twelve reached the Lim in October.
Today —the Ottoman name survives on the town’s mountaineering and caving club, Akovo, whose members guide the four-hour trips into Đalovića cave.
Glasovi
“Made for the church of St Peter at Miroslav’s order: 362 parchment pages, some three hundred miniatures and initials in gold, one of the oldest surviving manuscripts in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic.”
The Miroslav Gospel
UNESCO put it on the Memory of the World register in 2005. The book went to Hilandar, then to King Aleksandar in 1896, and is now in the National Museum in Belgrade; Wikipedia’s account places the transcription itself, 1186–1190, in Kotor rather than here.
Bijelo Polje: uporedite sve hotele
Pretražite hiljade hotela i apartmana sa aktuelnim cijenama.
Bijelo Polje leži na Limu na sjeveru Crne Gore, blizu granice sa Srbijom, oko 100 km od Podgorice putem. Jedan je od većih sjevernih gradova i stanica na pruzi Beograd–Bar, pa je lako dostupan i bez auta.
Šta znači ime grada?
Bijelo polje. Uobičajeno objašnjenje su bijele rade koje su nekad prekrivale livade uz Lim, a ime se prvi put pominje u 14. vijeku. Dolina je i danas obradiva, široka i zelena, s brdima s obje strane.
Šta je crkva Svetog Petra?
Crkva iz 12. vijeka na rubu grada, i razlog zbog kojeg se Bijelo Polje pominje u svakoj istoriji književnosti: ovdje je osamdesetih godina 12. vijeka za kneza Miroslava napisano Miroslavljevo jevanđelje, najstariji sačuvani ćirilični rukopis ovog prostora.
Gdje se danas nalazi Miroslavljevo jevanđelje?
U Narodnom muzeju u Beogradu, a ne u Bijelom Polju. UNESCO ga je 2005. uvrstio u registar Pamćenje svijeta. Crkva u kojoj je nastalo i dalje stoji, a grad čuva faksimil.
Šta se može raditi oko Bijelog Polja?
Istočno je Đalovića klisura sa svojim pećinskim sistemom, jednim od najdužih na Balkanu i još uvijek neistraženim do kraja. Na jugu je Bjelasica za šetnju i skijanje, a sam Lim koristi se za rafting i ribolov.
Vrijedi li se zaustaviti u Bijelom Polju?
Prije svega zbog crkve Svetog Petra, i kao praktičan predah na putu ili pruzi prema sjeveru. To je radni grad mješovitog stanovništva, a ne turističko odredište, i najbolje ide kao pola dana uz Đalovića klisuru ili Bjelasicu.
Ima li aerodrom u Bijelom Polju?
Ne — najbliži je aerodrom Podgorica (TGD), 114 km putem.
Bijelo Polje – Mojkovac: koliko je kilometara?
23,3 km putem, oko 40 min vožnje.
Koliko je bezbjedno u Bijelom Polju?
Britansko Ministarstvo inostranih poslova (FCDO) nema upozorenje protiv putovanja u Crnu Goru; svoje smjernice je posljednji put revidiralo 13. avgusta 2026. To je njihova procjena države u cjelini, ne naša i ne ocjena o ovom gradu, pa je pročitajte sami prije puta. Broj za hitne slučajeve u Crnoj Gori je 112.
Bijelo Polje kroz godinu
julPetrovdan — 12 July, the patron feast of St Peter and Paul — the day set for the rebuilt church’s reconsecration in 1923
sepRatkovićeve večeri poezije — the poetry festival, running since 1973, opens on 3 September, Risto Ratković’s birthday; the 56th edition ran 3–5 September 2026, with 46 books entered for his prize
Lokalni tanjir
Riblja čorba
Below the town the Bistrica runs into the Lim at the place everyone calls the Ušće. The municipality holds its Dani riblje čorbe there: fish soup, grilled and smoked river fish, and folk music on the bank.
the Miroslav Gospel, made for St Peter’s here, joins UNESCO’s Memory of the World register
12th c.
Starost grada
the church of St Peter and Paul, founded by Prince Miroslav of Hum
1530s
Manastir
Nikoljac’s frescoes — twelve cycles and about 150 figures of saints
1976
Pruga za Beograd
the Belgrade–Bar line opens; Bijelo Polje is now its border station
10.5 km
Plava špilja
Đalovića cave in the Bistrica gorge — surveyed length, and the longest in Montenegro
11,635
Stanovništvo
2023 census, the town itself; 38,662 in the municipality
MONSTAT 2023 census · CANU lexicon on Nikoljac · UNESCO Memory of the World · showcaves.com survey
Koliko vremena treba za Bijelo Polje?
Nekoliko sati
1The church of St Peter and Paul — the founder’s plaque and the six-storey belfry
2Nikoljac: frescoes of the 1530s, the Passion in eighteen scenes, St Nicholas in ten, St George in twelve
3The market and the Lim embankment
4Coffee and burek before the road north
Two medieval churches and a river, all within walking distance of the station — enough for the two hours a Belgrade-bound train leaves you.
Cio dan
1East up the Bistrica into Đalovića gorge, some 40 km out — four hours underground over about 2,500 m
2Late lunch at the Ušće, where the Bistrica joins the Lim
3St Peter’s in the afternoon light
4The korzo, then the 17:40 train south if you are not driving
The cave is the reason to give the town a whole day: 10.5 km surveyed, the longest in Montenegro. The Akovo club guides it in small groups, summer and autumn only.
Gdje odsjesti — Bijelo Polje
Town centre
Najbolje za the main street, the market and the railway station within a few minutes’ walk
Nikoljac
Najbolje za the monastery quarter, quieter than the main street
The Ušće
Najbolje za where the Bistrica meets the Lim — fishing water, the fish-soup ground, and the road east to the gorge
The Bjelasica road
Najbolje za village rooms south of town; the range begins about twenty kilometres out, Crna glava at 2,139 m
