Wednesday, December 8, 2010, Cetinje

Cetinje was the former capital of Montenegro. Here single story cottages share the street with mansions. In 1452 the town was founded by Ivan Crnojevic, ruler of the Zeta State. The Monastery was built in 1785. We had to ride on a bus from the docks thru a tunnel in the mountains and out into the country to this historic capital. The Gothic medieval castle became the monastery. The peasants hid here when the Ottomans and Muslims attacked the town. The first books were printed here in 1494. The church books were made with gold, silver and pearl ornamentation and were protected for 400 years. It is the soul and spirit of these people. The 12 most important ambassadors of Europe came here at the end of the 19th century.
Prince Nicholas was chosen to be educated in Europe. He learned German when very young and attended a primary school in Vienna. He was at the Cadet Academy of Paris at 19 when he was sent a message to come home to takeover the throne. He was coronated from Prince to King. His marriage was arranged in 1860. She was only 15 and he was 19 years old. They were married for 50 years and had 9 daughters. One died at 1 year old, another died at 11 years. Being all girls and out in the country with no nobility around the girls' marriages were also arranged. One, Regina, became Queen of Italy. One married Serbian royalty, 2 married Prussian royalty and one married Russian royalty. One was a tomboy and one remained unmarried. In 1918 the commission decided to join together Montenegeo, Serbs, Croats and Bosnians. During WWI King Nicholas and his queen had to evacuate through Italy to Dieppe, France. They died there in poverty in 1921. When Communism was in control their coffins were not allowed back home. After Communism fell, the coffins were returned to Montenegro.
The Monastery was destroyed and rebuilt many times by the Ottomans and Serbs. Every spring these countries attacked Cetinje. All the embassies that were here have been turned into cultural centers for music, art, theatre and academy. Now there are many people living here concerned with improving the town. The museum was built with parquet floors. Inside are the decorations given to King Nick by the Prussians, Germans, Turkish, Japanese, Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians, French, English, Croatians, Spanish, Illyrians, Romanians and the Pope. They had the formal clothing of the King and Queen and even some of their children. They didn't wear boots, but leather shoes.
Our Lady of the Rocks Island was built by dumping rocks on a reef in the bay. Some fishermen found a painting of Mary and Jesus in 1450 on the reef and thought it was a miracle. So they started to build the island. The bay was 22 meters deep and they started building the island with rocks in 1550. In 1630 they built a small Baroque church with 68 paintings from Paris. The ceiling is painted with Old Testament scenes, Mary's Assumption and Jesus. One hundred services a year are performed here in the form of weddings and baptisms. The bride must leave a present for Mary when they use this church. There are pictures of ships in storms at sea and sailors with maimed arms and legs and they are asking for protection when at sea. The pipe organ is the oldest working organ in all of Yugoslavia. The altar is made from 4 types of marble: white from Italy, most expensive is the green from Italy, yellow marble from sienna and rose colored marble from Egypt. The compass in the courtyard is made of roseand white marble. Buried underneath the church are the first two priests of this church.
A lady from Kotor whose husband was a sailor and away at sea more than at home embroidered a replica of Mary and Jesus above the altar. She used 8 different thread forms including gold, silver, cotton, silk, and even used her own hair for the angels' hair. it took 25 years to complete.
At 2:30 today we took a tender out to the Our Lady of the Rocks Island and the historic Roman Catholic church with each of us carrying a rock. Once there we all tossed our rocks into the sea just around the church and it's courtyard; thereby adding to it's size. That was the cost of admission to the island. When we arrived back on board one of our passengers who is an artist drew a cartoon of fish under the water as we toss in the rocks. The fish has a band aid on his head and throbbing marks above his head to show it was painful when the rock struck him. The caption read, " Those OAT people are here again!"