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MONTENEGRO – KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

Country name: Crna gora

Capital: Podgorica

Language: Serbian

Currency: Euro

Population: 625,266 (2011 census)

Surface area: 14,026km

Time zone: GMT + 1hr

National Day: 13 July

Geography

The general aspect of Montenegro is that of a succession of elevated ridges, diversified here and there by a lofty mountain peak, and, in some parts, looking like a sea of immense waves turned into stone.

Sir J Gardner Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro (London, 1848)

The mountainous character of the Balkan peninsula is reflected in its name. A Turkish word meaning a chain of mountains, balkan was initially used to describe the Stara Planina range in modern Bulgaria. Later, and particularly from the 19th century, it came to be used to describe the whole region – with distinctly negative connotations.

One of the most extensive mountain ranges in the Balkan peninsula is the Dinaric Alps. Stretching southeastwards some 700km from the Slovenian border, the Dinaric Alps run the length of Croatia, through Montenegro and into Albania, from where they continue as the Pindos Mountains into Greece. Their steep western slopes present an almost impenetrable barrier towards the Adriatic (a factor which has contributed to the relative isolation of inland Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia from the various ‘Mediterranean’ civilizations to have settled along the coast). Perhaps not surprisingly, their inhabitants have always been fiercely independent. With the exception of a narrow strip of coastline, almost the entire territory of Montenegro is occupied by these mountains.