Insider's guide to Podgorica: the most boring city in Europe? No, we've got soul
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https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/12/insiders-guide-podgorica-boring-europe-soul Version 0 of 1. In five words Small, sunny, nostalgic soul, Gorica Sound of the city According to stories told by my mum (who was born in the early 50s) the Ribnica river was the main summer gathering place for young people. And there was plenty of water flowing through it then. This year, the river was full of water after heavy rainfall in June. But this is very rare for Podgorica, and the river is normally completely dry in the summer months. Best building Dvorac Petrovića (Petrovic Castle), built in 1891, is the former residence of the dynasty Petrovic and is located in Kruševac, the most beautiful part of Podgorica, and the largest public park in the city. In 1984, King Nicholas’s castle chapel and the surrounding buildings were converted into an art gallery, which is now part of the Centre for Contemporary Art of Montenegro. The centre’s permanent collection includes a unique and international selection of over 1,000 artworks from 60 different countries, and nowhere else in south-eastern Europe can you find such a showcase of important and diverse works than here. Worst building Although only in the construction stage, the business centre of Normal Tours Company – a skyscraper of 12 floors near the Hotel Podgorica – is the worst building in the city. This skyscraper will destroy Hotel Podgorica, designed by Montenegrin architect Svetlana-Kana Radevic in 1967, in the time of Tito’s Yugoslavia. This hotel is the most significant architectural achievement in Montenegro. Although the planning officers asked that the Normal Tours building permit be annulled, the construction of the skyscraper continued. At the same time, a request that the hotel Podgorica be protected as a cultural asset was denied by the capital. Homegrown talent Montenegrin guitar player Milos Karadaglic topped the Classical Music Charts in the UK in 2011. He was only 16 when he sent a demo tape from the then war-torn Balkans and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Best Instagram account There are many nostalgic accounts like Podgoricki vremeplov (Podgorica time machine) and Podgorica nekad i sad (Podgorica then and now), but I recommend one that shows Podgorica today: Instapodgorica by Maja Sekulic. She started the account after reading negative comments about Podgorica: “People quickly proclaimed Podgorica the most boring city in Europe, both domestic and foreign. But Podgorica has a soul.” Biggest controversy In the 90s, Podgorica, along with Banja Luka (a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina), was the greenest city in the former Yugoslavia. But recently Podgorica greenery has disappeared to be replaced by residential and commercial buildings. There are currently 60 developments planned for the city’s central area. If they are implemented, Podgorica will lose the battle with concrete. The look on the street Moment in history Dubrovnik in Croatia rose to fame as the filming location for the TV show Game of Thrones, but we in Podgorica reached international stardom over 50 years ago, when the movie The Trojan Horse – starring John Drew Barrymore and Steve Reeves – was filmed in the city’s Ćemovsko park in 1961. Best local artist In July 2014, young artist Danilo Baletić released Bobo – a transformer robot made of scrap materials – onto the streets of Podgorica. Like in the Transformers film, Baletić’s robots were meant to defend the city from evil things – such as waste and rubbish in the streets. The artist’s reach was certainly broad, with international media writing about his eight transformers. Assembled using auto waste, Baletić hoped to send a message to the world to “preserve the earth”, but sadly, our city didn’t get much cleaner. Top insider’s tip Podgorica has recently been enriched with a pedestrian walkway that snakes 12km through the city, beginning at the entrance of the Park Forest Gorica (city centre), with another few pedestrian footpaths planned for the near future. These trails are perfect for leisurely walks, and are well marked with lookout points along the way. But for those who prefer longer hikes, the 65km route around the Korita is a must. In the city, don’t forget to drink the famous fermented boza drink at Korzo bar in the city centre, one of the places most reminiscent of the old Podgorica. And if you’re looking for tasty burek pastries, then visit Feto, whose buregdžinica is located under the stadium of the Budućnost football club. What does your city do better than anywhere else? Podgorica may not be the most architecturally beautiful city in this part of Europe, but it definitely has an excellent geographical position – so you can be at the beach and on the mountain in the same day. The city is only 50km from the Adriatic sea, and you can also hike up the mountains right from your own front door. How green is your city? As mentioned, Podgorica was once one of the greenest cities in the former Yugoslavia, and the greenery that the city has today is largely an inheritance of that time. But authorities don’t do much to increase the prevalence of green areas, and they are often sacrificed for the sake of the construction of office buildings and apartments, of which close to 60,000 are empty, according to the census of 2011. Even the official documents indicate the problem – green areas in the city’s urban core are not linked together, and new neighbourhoods are built largely without planned green space. But last year, the first bike path was built and there are plans for more. Five to follow Aleksandar Grum Maja Kostic Brljok Jelena Tomasevic KIC “BudoTomovic” From me Damira writes for the daily newspaper Vijesti, runs a blog, and is an amateur photographer and civil activist in her Montenegrin hometown. You can follow her here. Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion |