nly the circumstances

                    around its establishment,

                    in the late C15th, seem to

                     have determined the 

                     historic role of Cetinje.  It's founder Ivan Crnojević, the ruler of Zeta, saw the inhospitable field at the foot of Lovćen surrounded by the impassable mountains as the place of last refuge and hope for the survival of his state, squeezed between the Ottoman empire and the Republic of Venice. It was not, the refuge of a desperate man trying to save his life. He therefore let the spirit of renaissance imbue his new home and monastery in Cetinje; his heir Djuradj, the last ruler of Zeta, brought Ivan’s idea to life by establishing the famous printing house, which would become known far beyond the borders of his small country. This brief moment of light would illuminate their path to the  Montenegrin people through the dark centuries that followed.