Cetinje Monastery
Ivan Crnojević most likely moved the seat of power from Žabljak to Obod (Rijeka town) already in 1475. Retreating before the Turkish invasion, he moved his capital from Obod to Cetinjsko polje, and in the secluded Podlovćen basin he built first a castle (1482) and then a monastery, according to the vow he made a year earlier in front of the Virgin's icon in her temple in Loreto.
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In the small monastery church with a beautiful iconostasis - the work of Greek masters of the 19th century, there are the graves of Prince Danilo and Grand Duke Bož Petrović. The church also keeps exceptional relics - the holy relics of Metropolitan Peter I - Saint Peter of Cetinje, statesman, clergyman, writer, conciliator of Montenegrin tribes and founder of the state of Montenegro in the new century, as well as world-famous Christian relics - a fragment of the Holy Cross and the hand of St. Jovana Preteče., exhibited in expensive gold caskets, encrusted with precious stones. Created over hundreds of years, the Treasury of the Cetinje Monastery represents one of the richest and most significant museum collections of the sacral type in the Balkans. This precious historical-artistic fund, which can be traced chronologically in the range from the 13th to the 20th century, consists of old handwritten and printed books, works of icon painting, church embroidery, old goldsmithing, woodcarving, etc.
New Monastery
In the period 1701-1704, Metropolitan Danilo, the first ruler from the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty, built a new monastery on the site of the demolished Crnojević palace, which became the political and spiritual center of Montenegro. The newly built monastery inherited the tradition of the old monastery on Ćipur - part of the capital, plates with the coat of arms of Crnojević and the founder's inscription were integrated into its architecture. In the coming difficult times permeated by continuous battles with the Ottoman invaders, the Cetinje Monastery was destroyed and burned several times - in 1712, 1714, 1785, but the Cetinje Metropolitans and the faithful people always restored and enlarged it. Its current appearance, for the most part, originates from 1786.