Podgorica - Ποντγκόριτσα

^{Click here to see the map of the area in full screen}.

THE Podgorica (Serbian: Подгорица / Podgorica), is its capital and largest city Montenegro with a population of 156,169 inhabitants. It is an important economic, commercial, administrative and cultural center of the country and the seat of the University.

At a glance

It is located on the western side of the Balkans, north of Albania, at the confluence of the Moraca and Rivnica rivers. Due to its location near the Adriatic, it is an attraction for many tourists.

The inhabitants are mainly engaged in agriculture as well as in trade (mainly timber, which flourishes due to the many mountain ranges that surround it). It is rich in archeological monuments and orthodox temples and monasteries.

In 1474 it was occupied by the Ottomans and after the Congress in Berlin in 1878 it became part of independent Montenegro. In 1918 the union of Montenegro with Serbia took place and Yugoslavia was founded. During World War II, the city was bombed more than 70 times during the war, killing more than 4,100 people. The city was liberated by the Yugoslavs in December 1944. In July 1946 it was renamed Titograd and became the capital of the Yugoslav state of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro. This was followed by a period of great prosperity, which focused on increasing the population of the city and the creation of many industrial facilities in it. This boom stopped during the break-up of the Yugoslav Federation in the 1990s. In April 1992, in the post-Tito era, it was renamed Podgorica. At the beginning of the 21st century, with the end of the Yugoslav Wars, the city began to be rebuilt. Following a referendum held in 2006, it was decided that Montenegro would secede from Serbia, with the city of Podgorica officially designated as its capital.