Cetinje
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Cetinje is a city (population 14,700 in 2003) in the southern Montenegro municipality of the same name (population 18,749 in 2003). The city nestles on a small Karst plain surrounded by limestone mountains, including the majestic Mt. Lovćen, the Black Mountain from which Crna Gora (Latinised as Montenegro) gets its name.
Centinje became the capital of Zeta (current day Montenegro) in 1482, when Ivan Crnojević moved his court here from the banks of Lake Skadar to escape rampaging Turks.
At the end of WWI Montenegro was absorbed into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) and Centinje lost its position as a seat of government.
In 1946, the Montenegrin capital was moved to Podgorica (then known as Titograd), when Cetinje’s highly defensible plateau location proved incapable of supporting expansion, but it remains the country’s royal capital and the seat of the throne.
Cetinje has been cultural and educational centre of Montenegro for five centuries. There are five republic institutions: the Central National Library ‘Djurdje Crnojevic’, the National Museum of Montenegro, Archives of Montenegro, Republic Institute for Preserving Cultural Heritage, and the Montenegrin Royal National Theatre ‘Zetski dom’. All these institutions keep, process, and give at disposal enormous literary treasure, and protect both mobile and immobile cultural monuments throughout Montenegro.
Cetinje has rich publishing and printing tradition. The printing house of Crnojevici (1492-1496) and the books published there are of great importance for Montenegrin and Serbian culture and history as well as for the culture of other Orthodox Balkan peoples. Its greatest contribution refers to spreading Cyrillic type. Thus, it represents an important link on a chain of the world culture. There were a number of printing houses that continued this great printing tradition. These are: Njegos’ Printing House, which operated between 1833 and 1839 and the State Printing House which was founded in 1858. It was renamed in 1952. Since then it has been known as ‘Obod’.
From the very beginning up to present time Cetinje printing houses have published over 3,000 books which represents a huge contribution to the Montenegrin cultural heritage. The first Montenegrin literary and scientific annual called ‘Grlica’ (‘Turtledove’) was published in 1835 while the first Montenegrin papers named ‘A Montenegrin’ was published in 1871. Since then, sixty different papers and over thirty magazines have been published. In the year of 1914 at Cetinje, a town havimg less than 6,000 inhabitants, the amazing six daily papers were published.
The oldest libraries of Montenegro, where the oldest books and documentation of great value are being preserved, are located at Cetinje. It makes Cetinje internationally recognized as well. The oldest library among these is the Library of the Cetinje Monastery, which was founded by the end of the 15th century at the time when the Printing House of Crnojevici started operating. Today, seventy-five old manuscripts written in Cyrillic, then four incunabula, and many old liturgical books are kept there.
The first public reading room in Montenegro known as ‘The Reading Room of Cetinje’ was founded in 1896. Since its founding it has been the cultural centre of Montenegro. The fruitful activity of this reading room was continued by the Town Library and the reading room called 'Njegos', which disposes of over 63,000 books and volumes of periodicals.
Also, the school libraries of Cetinje have a long tradition. The library of the oldest school at Cetinje today known as Njegos elementary school dates back to 1834, and the library of the clerical college and the Girls’ Institute ‘Carica Marija’ dates back to 1869 and the library of the Gymnasium to 1880.
Cetinje is also famous for its museums. There are the Museum of the Cetinje Monastery, State Museum, Petar Petrovic Njegos' Museum, Ethnographic Museum, Electric Industry Museum, History, and Art Museum. All these except the Museum of the Cetinje Monastery and Electric Industry Museum are integrated in one institution called the National Museum of Montenegro. Numerous museums and the huge fund of museum items that are kept there made Cetinje a town-museum.
Cetinje has always been a cultural centre. Every second year the international art exhibition called Cetinje Biennial is being held there. Its founder is Prince Nikola Petrovic, great-grandson to King Nikola I.
Cetinje is also a see of Eparchy montenegrin and the littoral of Serbian Orthodox Church.
See http://www.cetinje.cg.yu .
See also: List of historical national capitalsde:Cetinje fr:Cetinje sr:Цетиње