Three trunk roads and two border crossings meet at a village of 132 people — and it wrote and directed the most expensive film Yugoslavia ever made.
132 innbyggere
910 moh.
TIV lufthavn · 54 km
Named in a Kotor document, 1440
Vilusi er en liten bosetting nær Nikšić i sentral-Montenegro, beliggende på karsthøylandet i Nikšić-regionen. Området er preget av tørr kalkstein, sparsomt grasland og tradisjonelt husdyrhold. Det gir et innblikk i den barske, selvforsynte levemåten i Montenegros vestlige innland.
2023 census — 44 households, and 36 residents over 70
910 m
Høyde over havet
at the junction; the Grahovo field below sits at 695–780 m
54 km
Flyplass
Tivat by road; Dubrovnik 63 km, Podgorica 85 km
1976
Siste tog
the 760 mm line through the village closed; a construction train had reached Vilusi in August 1937
2,895 mm
Nedbør
a year on the Grahovo field, 13 km down the M-8 — Nikšić records 1,990 mm
Salthua
Festning
an antique castle of that name is placed at Vilusi by Milan Šufflay, 1925 — on one line, in one book
MONSTAT, Popis 2023, settlement tables · Republički zavod za statistiku, comparative census 1948–2003 · road distances by OSRM over OpenStreetMap · rainfall: Grahovo field, and Nikšić 1991–2020 from the Hydrological and Meteorological Service of Montenegro
Her ligger Vilusi
De nærmeste stedene rundt Vilusi, plassert der de faktisk ligger – Nikšić ligger omtrent 22 km unna i luftlinje.
1Stand at the junction: the M-7 comes in from Nikšić, the M-8 climbs up from the Bay of Kotor, the M-9 leaves north for Bosnia and Herzegovina
2Coffee at Konoba Timor, 07:00 to 23:00 — the one kitchen in the village
3The Serbian Orthodox church on the western edge of the village
4Drive the 3.5 km west to Ilino Brdo and look through the gate at Klobuk
Twenty minutes and a geography lesson: Trebinje is 33 km from here, Nikšić 35.
En hel dag
1South on the M-8: 13 km to Grahovo and its karst field, 6.4 km of it by 1.5, periodically flooded, half arable and half meadow
2Grahovac, where the Ottoman column was broken over three days in May 1858 and the district passed to Montenegro
3Keep going — the M-8 runs 38.6 km in all, from this junction down to Lipci on the coast road
4
Hvor bo i Vilusi
Vilusi, at the junction
Best for a school, a Serbian Orthodox church, an EKO station and one konoba — 44 households, and the plateau
Grahovo, 13 km down the M-8
Best for the old district seat at 720 m, above the field, halfway to the sea
Nikšić, 35 km east
Best for the nearest town with hotels, and the municipality Vilusi belongs to
Trebinje, 33 km west
Best for over the border and nearer than Nikšić — the reason the crossing is here at all
Vilusi by road
Kilometres from the junction, measured on the road
Two towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina are closer than Nikšić, the seat of the municipality Vilusi belongs to. The nearest border post, Ilino Brdo, is 3.5 km down the M-7.
OSRM driving routes over OpenStreetMap, September 2026, from the junction at 42.7278 N 18.5951 E
The old Grahovo district today
Residents by settlement, 2023 census
These villages were a municipality of their own until 1960. The largest of them now holds 133 people, and Grahovo, the seat, is down to 102.
MONSTAT, Popis 2023, settlement tables; district composition after the Grahovo municipality was abolished in 1960
Who held the Grahovo rim
A Kotor document names Vilusi in 1440. The village sat in the Ottoman nahija of Riđani, administered from Grahovo, until the Ottoman column was broken at Grahovac in May 1858 and the whole district passed to Montenegro. Widths are to scale.
Sammenlign alle hoteller i Vilusi
Søk blant tusenvis av hoteller og leiligheter med oppdaterte priser.
Vilusi in a Kotor document of 1440, after Bulajić (1987) · nahija of Riđani, seat at Grahovo, a subaşi recorded in 1466 · Battle of Grahovac, 11–13 May 1858 new style, 28 April – 1 May old style · Момчило Мићовић, Бањани (Београд, 2013), стр. 25, on the srez seated at Vilusi 1919–1921.
Vilusi ligger på karstplatået vest for Nikšić, ved den gamle veien som går fra det sentrale Montenegro mot Trebinje og grensen til Bosnia. Det er en liten, langstrakt bygd i vidt, åpent land.
Hvordan er landskapet?
Blek kalkstein, tynt gress, tørrmurer og dolinar, med lange utsyn i alle retninger og få trær til å bryte dem. Høyden og eksponeringen gjør det kaldt om vinteren og lyst og vindpisket om sommeren.
Hvordan har man levd her?
Av husdyrhold. Platået holder lite overflatevann, siden regnet siger rett ned i berget, så det er beite og ikke åkerbruk som har formet landet. Stein er det lokale materialet til alt — hus, sauekve, eiendomsgrenser og sisterner.
Hvorfor betyr veien mer enn selve stedet?
Fordi den bærer trafikken mellom Nikšić og Hercegovina, og regionens historie i stor grad er historien om den ruten: omstridt, befestet og kjempet om gjennom de lange montenegrinsk-osmanske konfliktene, og husket i lokal tradisjon siden.
Hva gir det den reisende?
En kjørestrekning gjennom noe av det tommeste og mest slående landskapet i landet, med Piva og Durmitor i nord og Kotorbukta bak fjellene i sør. Det passer dem som vil forstå terrenget og ikke bare krysse det.
Hva bør man planlegge for?
Sen vår til tidlig høst er det fornuftige vinduet, ettersom vintrene gir snø og hard frost. Tilbudet er det en liten bygd kan gi, så la Nikšić være stedet der du spiser, fyller drivstoff og handler før du drar.
Har Vilusi flyplass?
Nei — den nærmeste er Tivat lufthavn (TIV), 54 km unna langs vei.
Hvor langt er det fra Vilusi til Rudine?
13,2 km langs vei, omtrent 30 min med bil.
Er Vilusi trygt?
Det britiske utenriksdepartementet (FCDO) fraråder ikke reiser til Montenegro; rådene ble sist gjennomgått 13. august 2026. Det er deres vurdering av landet som helhet, ikke vår og ingen dom over Vilusi — les den selv før du reiser. Nødnummeret i Montenegro er 112.
Swim at Risan, 44 km from the village, then climb the 900 m back up for the evening
The M-8 is the reason to come: one road from this junction to the Bay of Kotor, dropping 900 m in 38 km.
En helg
1Out through Ilino Brdo into Bosnia and Herzegovina; Trebinje is 33 km and a different country
2North to Bileća, 30 km, and Bilećko Lake — the Trebišnjica reservoir the Grančarevo dam closed in 1967
3Back in through Deleuša and Vraćenovići on the M-9, 17 km from home
4Sunday on the plateau: Petrovići counted 102 people in 2023, Broćanac Viluški and Vraćenovići 28 each
A weekend here is a border loop, and the roads still run as if the frontier were not there.
Hvem besøker Montenegro
Andel av utenlandske gjesters overnattinger, 2025
MONSTAT · 2025
Hvem bor her
Folketellinger, Vilusi kommune
From 477 people in 1953 to 132 in 2023 — down 72 per cent in seventy years. MONSTAT had to suppress three of Vilusi’s eight age brackets in 2023 because 0–9, 10–19 and 30–39 hold 21 people between them; 36 residents, better than one in four, are 70 or older. Forty-four households remain.
I verdenspressen
Vilusi reaches the national press when its roads do — and once when its most famous son died.
2012
SeeNewsThe rebuilt Vilusi–Petrovići road opens to traffic, the first section of the route north to the Vraćenovići crossing.
2014
Government of MontenegroTransport minister Ivan Brajović opens 5.5 km of rebuilt trunk road at Kuside, on the Nikšić–Vilusi route.
2016
OnogoštAnother 2.5 km is rebuilt at Trubjela on the road to Vilusi, with the tender for the Ilino Brdo stretch still to come.
2017
CdMThe five kilometres from Vilusi to the Ilino Brdo crossing are rebuilt for €2.5 million, and the crossing itself widened to three lanes.
2024
Al Jazeera BalkansVeljko Bulajić dies in Zagreb at 96; the obituary calls Battle of Neretva by far the most expensive spectacle ever shot in the former Yugoslavia.
Four road-works stories and an obituary: the press record of a junction.
1969
I mellomtiden, i 1969
The year the Bulajić brothers took Neretva to the Oscars
Sarajevo,29 November 1969: Battle of Neretva premieres, with Tito in the audience. Veljko Bulajić, born in Vilusi in 1928, directed it; his brother Stevan, born in Vilusi in 1926, wrote the screenplay. Estimates of the budget run from $4.5 to $12 million — either way it is still the most expensive film made in Yugoslavia.
Hollywood —the film takes a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards. Orson Welles, Yul Brynner, Sergei Bondarchuk, Franco Nero and Curd Jürgens are in the cast.
The poster:Pablo Picasso drew one of the posters. By Bulajić’s telling he waived his fee and asked for a case of the best Yugoslav wine; no independent account of the deal has surfaced.
Vilusi —the family had come back here from Sarajevo when the war began, and all three brothers joined the uprising on 13 July 1941. The eldest, Đorđe, died of his wounds. The village behind them held 396 people at the 1961 census and 283 by 1971. It holds 132 now.
Stemmer
“Five thousand people waited at the new station on a hot day, two hours past the timetable; two old fighters led a kolo on the tracks until the train came.”
Boško Roganović, „Ćiro“ je stigao u Nikšić, Novine Nikšića, 10 March 2014
The first train up from Bileća reached Nikšić on 12 July 1938, after thirteen years of intermittent building. Vilusi had seen one a year earlier: a construction train got to the village in August 1937, reported by the Belgrade daily Vreme on 11 August. Near Trebinje the 760 mm line branched for Čapljina, Dubrovnik and Zelenika on the Bay of Kotor. Nikšić–Čapljina closed in 1976.
“Kadri Pasha was cut down — by one version by Spasoje Vučetić of Vilusi, by another by Staniša Koprivica of Banjani.”
Lokal legende
Јагош Јовановић, Стварање црногорске државе и развој црногорске националности (Цетиње, 1948)
Vilusi gjennom året
julStatehood Day, 13 July — the holiday marks both the Berlin recognition of Montenegro in 1878 and the 1941 uprising, which the Bulajić brothers joined in this village on that date
Den lokale tallerkenen
Cicvara
Yellow or white cornmeal worked with kajmak — the clotted cream skimmed off slowly boiled milk — until the melted kajmak floats on top. It is eaten with a spoon, and in Montenegro a plate of it set before a guest with sliced pršut is the highest honour the house can pay. Its country is exactly this one: the karst highlands of Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina 3.5 km up the road, and south-western Serbia. Half the Grahovo field below the village is meadow.
Hvor Konoba Timor at the junction, 07:00 to 23:00, cooking local and regional — the only kitchen in Vilusi
