The Obod Printing House

Picture a winter day in January 1494. A monk bends over a printing press. The room is cold, and his fingers are stained with ink. He pulls, lifts the sheet and holds it up to the light. Neat lines of Cyrillic letters look back at him, some in black, some in red.

His name is Makarije. He is a hieromonk, which means a monk who is also a priest. And he is about to finish the first Cyrillic book printed among the South Slavs.

A press from Venice

The man behind the project was Đurađ Crnojević, who ruled after Ivan Crnojević. In 1492–1493 Đurađ set up a printing press brought from Venice.

Writing already mattered here. Seven years earlier, in 1485, Ivan’s charter giving a water mill at Obod to the monastery of St Nicholas had been “written in Rijeka”. The press took that one big step further: from a single handwritten page to whole books, in many copies.

Our sources don’t say how the press made the journey, or how long it took. Nor do they tell us much about Makarije himself. We know his title, his name and his work. For a man who changed so much, that is very little.

Because a ruler set it up, the press is often described as the first state printing house among the South Slavs.

The world around the press

The press did not appear out of nowhere. The family had given to the church before: between 1415 and 1427, Đurađ and Lješ Crnojević built Kom monastery. Around 1475 Ivan Crnojević had fortified Obod. After the Ottomans took Žabljak in 1478, Obod was briefly his capital, around 1478–1482. Then, between 1482 and 1484, Ivan moved his court and the monastery to Cetinje.

So by the time Makarije was at work, the Crnojević family had already lived through hard years of war and moving. Printing church books was a way to build something lasting. That, at least, is how we like to imagine it.

The Oktoih prvoglasnik

Makarije finished the first book on 4 January 1494. That date is given in the Julian calendar, the old calendar used at the time, and we leave it as it is.

The book is called the Oktoih prvoglasnik. An Oktoih is a book of hymns for Orthodox church services. The hymns are sung in eight “voices”, or tones. Prvoglasnik means “first voice”: this book holds the first half of them.

It has 270 leaves. A leaf is one sheet of paper, with a page on each side. The text is printed in two colours, red and black. Red and black ink on 270 leaves: the first Cyrillic book printed among the South Slavs.

More than five hundred years later, about 105 to 108 copies survive. Think of each one as a small traveller in time. For more than five centuries, people have handled it, read from it and kept it safe.

Red and black ink on 270 leaves: the first Cyrillic book printed among the South Slavs.

Three more books

The press did not stop at one book. Between 1494 and 1496 it printed three more:

That makes four books in about three years.

A day at the press, as we imagine it

Nobody wrote down what a working day was like, so let us imagine one. Paper is stacked and waiting. The ink is ready: black in one pot, red in another. A sheet goes into the press, comes out, and is laid aside. Someone reads it slowly, looking for mistakes. Then the next sheet, and the next.

Now multiply that by 270 leaves, and then by every copy. You start to see what four books in three years really meant.

Where did the press stand?

This is the big open question, and we want to be honest about it.

Remember that Ivan had moved his court to Cetinje in 1482, and the monastery in 1484. By the time Makarije was printing, Cetinje was the capital.

For a visitor standing on Obod, the question changes less than you might think. This is where the village keeps the memory of the press, and where the marble plaque now hangs.

What “first” really means

You will hear big claims about this press. We use two careful ones, because they are the ones our sources support:

• the Oktoih prvoglasnik is the first Cyrillic book printed among the South Slavs;
• the press is the first state printing house among the South Slavs.

That is remarkable enough. It does not need to be made any bigger. We would rather be right than impressive.

1496: the last page

In 1496 the Ottomans forced Đurađ out, and Ottoman rule began. The press stopped.

What happened to it afterwards, our sources do not say. Its books, though, outlived it. Some of the copies Makarije pulled from the press still survive, more than five hundred years on.

The cellar room on Obod

Walk up Obod hill today and you will find a cellar room linked to the printing press. A marble plaque marks it.

Stop there for a moment. Imagine the smell of ink and damp paper, the creak of the press, a monk checking each sheet for mistakes. Whether every book was printed on this spot or not, this is where the story is remembered.

Nearby are the ruins of Ivan’s fortress and the Church of St Nicholas, rebuilt in 1743. You reach all of them on foot from the village.

If you want a longer walk, the Obod eco-trail is about 7 km and takes about 3 hours, though sources give different figures. And when the first Rijeka doživljaja day was held on 6 September 2026, its programme included a hike up Obod.

Remembering the Oktoih

The anniversary falls every year on 4 January. Read more on our page about Oktoih Day. To see how the press fits into six centuries of village life, follow the history timeline, or go back to the start with the Crnojević dynasty and Obod.