The New Bridge

Picture the quay around 1900. A steamer comes in from the lake. Sacks of dried bleak, ukljeva, wait to be loaded: this fish is the village’s main export. Somewhere a telegraph clicks. This is Rijeka Crnojevića in King Nikola’s time, and the New Bridge belongs to it.

King Nikola’s busy river port

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Rijeka Crnojevića was Montenegro’s main lake port and market, often described as the trade gateway to Cetinje. In the 1880s King Nikola built a winter palace at Ljeskovac. In 1885 the steamer Žabljak started the first regular line on the lake. By 1899 the village had about 500 people, a court, a telegraph, a post office and an arms workshop. The steamers Mala Morača and Karatuna ran to Virpazar, Skadar and Plavnica.

Then, in 1905, King Nikola built the New Bridge, Novi most. It is about 120 metres long and stands on the road towards Virpazar. It is still in use today. You can read more about these years in the history of the Petrović-era river port.

Two bridges, two rulers

About 50 years separate the village’s two bridges.

Danilo’s Bridge is short, narrow and older, and it comes with a legend about an iron hook. The New Bridge is almost three times as long, and it carries a road. One is a protected monument; the other is still part of everyday life.

What we don’t know

Our sources tell us who built the New Bridge, when, how long it is and where it stands. They tell us little else. We do not know what it is built from, who designed it or what it cost. If you know more of its story, tell us.

How to get there

The New Bridge is on the road towards Virpazar. Virpazar itself is about 25 km away, about 35 minutes on a single-lane lakeside road. Find the bridge on the map, and see Getting there for parking, buses and taxis. About 3 km by road above the village, Pavlova Strana looks down on the river’s horseshoe bend.