Ostrog Monastery

Ostrog is a monastery that seems to have been poured into the rock. High on the almost vertical face of Ostroška Greda, at about 900 metres above the Bjelopavlići plain between Danilovgrad and Nikšić, a white façade stands flush with the cliff, its windows and small bell openings set into a band of stone that looks far too sheer to hold a building. From below it reads as a thin bright line on grey limestone; from its terrace the whole green valley of the Zeta opens out beneath. It is the most visited pilgrimage place of the Serbian Orthodox Church, drawing Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim visitors alike.

The monastery grew around a hermit. In the seventeenth century Vasilije Jovanović, Metropolitan of Herzegovina, withdrew to a cave here, and the community he founded appears on a map of Montenegro by 1640. He died at Ostrog in 1671 and was soon venerated as Saint Basil of Ostrog; his body lies in a reliquary in the cave church of the Presentation of the Mother of God. Pilgrims come to pray beside it, and many recount healings and help received there. Local tradition treats a vine that grows straight out of the bare rock near the upper church as a small miracle of its own.

The two cave churches are the heart of the place and the oldest part to survive. A fire destroyed most of the complex, and its present appearance dates from a rebuilding of 1923–1926, but the churches carved into the cliff were spared. The Church of the Presentation keeps frescoes from the end of the seventeenth century, and above it the tiny Church of the Holy Cross was painted by the master Radul, who laid his figures directly onto the living rock, following the bulges and hollows of the cave rather than smoothing them away. Standing inside, the paintings wrap around you like the lining of a shell. Around them cluster the monks' quarters, stitched into the ledge.

Below, the Lower Monastery centres on the Church of the Holy Trinity of 1824 and holds most of the monks' cells and simple dormitories for pilgrims. The path between the two is about 3 km, and the traditional way to cover it is barefoot. Pilgrims bring gifts of clothing, blankets or soap for the brothers before entering the shrine, and the monastery's great feast falls on 12 May, the day of Saint Basil in the Orthodox calendar. The history is not only serene: the monastery was looted of gold during the Second World War, and in 1943 it was the scene of the surrender and killing of a Chetnik detachment that had sheltered there.

Getting there

The nearest town is Nikšić, about 13 km away, and the nearest airport is Podgorica (TGD), about 40 km away. A winding mountain road of around 8 km climbs from the village of Bogetići, just off the main Podgorica–Nikšić road, past the Lower Monastery to a car park beside the Upper Monastery. Trains on the Podgorica–Nikšić line stop at Ostrog station in the valley; from there it is a long uphill walk to the Lower Monastery and a further climb to the upper church. Modest dress is expected inside the monastery.