Nevidio Canyon

Interesting facts

Locals also call the canyon Nevidbog, which can be translated as "unseen by God", another name inspired by its gloomy depths.

The notorious "Kamikaze Gate" is a passage about 80 metres long where the walls squeeze together to a slit just a couple of hands wide.

The walls are so vertical that sunlight never reaches much of the canyon floor, leaving it in permanent shadow.

Nevidio is often described as the last canyon in Europe to be traversed by people.

Once inside, polished walls and drops make turning back impractical, so the only way out is downstream to the exit.

The wider Komarnica canyon was nominated by Montenegro in 2011 as one of its 32 Emerald sites under the Bern Convention on European wildlife.

Beyond the canyon, the Komarnica flows on into Lake Piva, a reservoir that drains into the Piva river.

Why it is worth it

Nevidio means "unseen", and the name is earned: the walls of this gorge in northern Montenegro lean so close together over the Komarnica river that daylight barely reaches the water. For long stretches the canyon is a dark slot several hundred metres deep, and at its tightest point, known as the "Kamikaze Gate", the rock closes to a gap of only some tens of centimetres.

The canyon is short but extreme. It runs for about 1.7 km, between an entrance at around 935 metres above sea level and an exit at about 810 metres, while the cliffs above it rise some 400 to 450 metres. The Komarnica, a tributary of the Piva, has worked its way down into a valley first shaped by ice: during the Pleistocene, glaciers flowed off the Durmitor massif along this valley, the largest of them reaching some 15 km in length, and when they melted the river took over the trench they had left. The result is a narrow, twisting passage of polished limestone, cold pools and short drops, with the Grabovnica waterfall pouring in about a hundred metres before the entrance on its northern side.

For a long time no one managed to pass through it. The first successful traverse came only in August 1965, when members of the Javorak mountaineering club from Nikšić, led by Miloš Bojanović, made their way through over two days, spending the night on ledges inside the gorge. Today Nevidio is known as a canyoning route, where progress means wading, swimming, sliding and jumping down the river bed rather than walking.

The gorge lies on the slopes of Durmitor near the village of Pošćenje, a few kilometres from Šavnik in a high, thinly settled landscape of pastures, forests and limestone ridges.

Getting there

The canyon is near Pošćenje, about 5 km from Šavnik; the larger town of Nikšić is roughly 26 km away in a straight line. The nearest airport is Podgorica (TGD), about 71 km away in a straight line, with the onward route by road through Nikšić.

Nevidio Canyon

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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