July 12, 2020 - "I'll tell you a story" is the title of the exhibition of paintings by Hana Mirkov, which opened last weekend in the exhibition space of the Tivat Municipal Museum and Gallery.

"Hana's specific expression in her paintings is recognizable not only in this city or this country, but also abroad. Each of Hana's works is a separate illustration of an event, a legend, a specific part of the city, a tradition, a situation or a universal value. According to the motifs, like the scenography, that she places on the canvas, even those who do not know the legend, story or sights of a city, can get to know it through her paintings. Of course, Hana's ability to sensitively choose themes and motifs leaves a really positive impression on all those who view her work,” stated the Director of the Municipal Museum and Gallery Jelena Bošković, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition.

She highlighted that the inspiration for 25 exhibited works in acrylic, pencil, and combined technique - pencil, ink and pen, came to Hana with the reading of the book "Antique Bassoon" in which well-known Tivat journalist and publicist Mašo Čekić draws together numerous stories and interesting legends from the history of the Bay of Kotor and the former way of life of its inhabitants.

“The story I told in these works is colourful, removed from the expected context, it makes us who we are and inspires our lives with new energy. This amazing book with wonderful stories strongly encouraged me to create because while reading, the pictures came to me on their own and I simply had to produce them as I did,” said the artist, Hana Mirkov.

Photo - Hana Mirkov

Mirkov was born in Split in 1989. She finished art high school in Cetinje in 2008, from where she graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts. She continued her education at the Accademia di belle arti di Bari, Italy. She lives and works in Tivat. She has participated in numerous collective and solo exhibitions, both in the country and abroad, as well as dozens of artists’ colonies in Montenegro and Serbia. She has been a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro since 2012.

July 10, 2020 - Blue Flag coordinators in the Mediterranean region have gathered together during the Covid19 pandemic to raise environmental awareness. The Blue Flag, as with all programmes of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), leads to increased awareness among locals, local authorities, tourists and all users of beaches and marinas, so that they take a more active role.

Ten national Blue Flag operators have called on local communities, NGOs and the general public to join forces and contribute to Mediterranean Blue Flag Week, held in the second week of July. Due to the pandemic this year, no beach cleaning activities will be organized, but an educational campaign will be held on social networks - #BlueFlagMedWeek -, according to Saša Karajović, the national coordinator of Blue Flag Montenegro.

Join us under the slogan "Caring for the sea that unites us!" Every day during the week, we will be dealing with one of the important issues in the Mediterranean; posts shared on social networks should be tagged #BlueFlagMedWeek.

Daily topics:

6th July – Microplastics 

7th July – Cigarette Butts

8th July – Covid Waste 

9th July – Biodiversity 

10th July – Health and Safety 

11th July – Floating Debris 

12th July – Environmental Education 

The photos used in the campaign were provided by the national Blue Flag and Young Eco-Reporters operators from ten Mediterranean countries.

The photo for the topic of microplastics was taken by Marija Kazimirova (Knightsbridge School, Tivat), for which she won second prize at the Young Eco-Reporters of Montenegro Competition in 2019.

28 June, 2020 - The village of Suscepan, 1.5 km from the center of Herceg Novi, and at an altitude of 300 metres was, according to the architect Marin Đurašin (1954 - 2000), the centre of ancient Troy.

Đurašin’s theory (he also wrote a book on the subject, although his death prevented him from publishing it) was that the whole of Boka Kotorska was ancient Troy, and that Suscepan was its centre. Troy, or Elijah (ancient Greek: Τροία [Troía] or Τροίας [Troías], or Ίλιον [Ílion] or Ίλιος [Ílios]; Latin: Troia, or Ilium; Turkish: Truva or Troya), was a legendary city and the scene of Trojan war, which is partly depicted in Homer’s Iliad, an epic poem in ancient Greek composed in the 9th or 8th century BC.

This assumption did not have a greater impact, nor did it lead to greater tourist interest in the village, which offers a beautiful view of the entrance to and the interior of the Bay of Kotor.

The village of Suscepan was assumed inhabited in the Middle Ages and has been under Turkish, Venetian, Austro-Hungarian rule. It had, in the main, followed the fate of Herceg Novi, then that of the whole of Boka Kotorska and Montenegro.

Until World War II, the locals lived mainly from agriculture and livestock. Olive oil and wine were produced, grain was sown and vegetables were planted. Fruit was also grown - most often figs. A few inhabitants worked in nearby Herceg Novi - mostly in trade and tourism.

Suscepan - Bostanj Spring

Today, no-one in the village is exclusively engaged in agriculture. Most often it is an additional activity or carried out solely to meet individual need.

Until the increased construction at the end of the last century, the village looked like a typical coastal Boka village. The houses were built at a distance of 500 - 700 metres, and the hamlets were connected by paths paved with stone. They were built on slopes and along the perimeter of rare arable land. Today, almost every house has a tarmac - or more often concrete - road.

The few inhabited old houses in the village are built of local stone. Upstairs is a living area for the family, and the ground floor-barn is used to accommodate wine, oil, grain, flour and other foodstuffs. In some houses on the ground floor there are cattle.

In front of the village houses is a part of the yard - terraces - paved with stone and surrounded by a low wall-seat. In some yards there was also a “bistjerna” for collecting rainwater. The terrace was covered with vines and served as a small extension of the house proper, for gathering after a hard day’s work. In the summer, sometimes a table was brought out, so people could eat on the terrace.

The garden also has a threshing floor - a round paved surface covered with stone slabs. This was used for threshing grain.

The village does not have an official centre, but the population used to gather around the Bostanj spring. The spring is channelled, the area around it paved and has a stone wall-seat. In addition to this spring, there is also a spring in Smokovac and Zirina.

Saint Stephen’s Church

 During religious festivals, locals gather around the village church of Saint Stephen. The church was built at the end of the 19th century, but it is assumed that there had been a building there previously. The church is a single-nave, vaulted building with an apse of a semicircular base and a bell tower on a pediment with three bell windows. It is built of stone, but all the walls, except at the front, are plastered. According to the motifs from the preserved parapet slab, which is today in a museum, it is assumed that there was a pre-Romanesque church on the site, dating from the 10th or 11th century.

 The Church of Saint Stephen

The iconostasis is the work of Corfu icon painter N. Aspioti. Around the church is a gate with tombs. It is thought by some that the church was built by the Bosnian king Tvrtko (founder of Herceg Novi) or Stevan Kosača.

The Legend of the Village's Origin

Legend has it that the Bosnian King Tvrtko I began the construction of the church of St. Stephen in the centre of Herceg Novi, inviting the most famous masters of that time from Kotor and Dubrovnik. But one morning, the stone disappeared from the square and appeared about 1.5 kilometers from the city - in its current location. The king was advised to build a church there, which he did. According to the legend, the settlement that started to grow around the church was named Sveti Stefan (Saint Stephen) - later Suscepan.

Each to Their "Own" Troy

German entrepreneur and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began excavations on the hill of Hisarlich in today's northwestern Turkey, near the sea coast, southwest of the Dardanelles under Mount Ida in 1873 and claimed that this was the location of ancient Troy.

Researcher Ilija Ogorelica claims that ancient Troy was located near Belgrade, more precisely on the border of the settlements of Rušanj, Ripanj and Lipovačke šume. Milutin Jaćimović claims that Troy is "the Serbian historical capital of Skadar".

Mexican Roberto Salinas Price (1936 - 2012), philologist and wealthy Mexican passionate homerologist, first put forward the idea in the 1980s that Troy was on the east coast of the Adriatic and that the Trojan War had taken place in the Neretva Valley, and that the holy the city of Troy was on the site of present-day Gabela.

There are also theories that Troy was located at Ljubuški in Croatia, and also in Macedonia,… but with no scientific evidence supporting the claims.

/S.Kosić/

Montenegro's potential as a location also presented at the Film Festival

The "Otter" project directed by Srđan Vuletić and screenwriter Stefan Bošković will be showcased at the "Co-Production Speed Meeting Session" 

June 25, 2020 - At this year's Cannes Film Festival, the Montenegro Film Centre will, for the fourth time, present contemporary Montenegrin cinematography within the virtual pavilion, which is part of the online version of the film market "Marché du Film", offered in a different format due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Montenegrin project "Otter" (working title: "Valley of Monuments"), from director Srđan Vuletić and screenwriter Stefan Bošković, and produced by Artikulacija Film from Podgorica, will be presented at the "Co-Production Speed Meeting Session", which will be held for the first time within an online edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Young director Sara Stijović will be presenting her project "Djina" about Djordjina ‘Djina’ Markuš, with concept and screenplay by Nataša Nelević, and produced by Branimir Žugić and the company "LIVE production", which was selected for the programme "La Fabrique Cinéma de l'Institut Français" within the Film Festival in Cannes. The feature-length documentary "Djina" is the first Montenegrin and the only European project selected this year for La Fabrique Cinéma.

"The virtual environment, running from June 22 to 26, brings together more than 8,500 participants, with 250 stands and 60 pavilions. In order to support the film industry globally, as well as its professionals, the online version of the ‘Marché du Film’ will offer more than 1,200 online screenings for participants, as well as the opportunity to purchase rights to more than 2,300 feature films. More than 150 virtual panel discussions, talks and round tables, concerts and presentations are planned.

At online meetings with film professionals and representatives of institutions from all over the world, the Montenegrin virtual stand offers accredited visitors access to an overview of film projects from the country, which are in various stages of production. Capacities and possibilities of interest to foreign co-producers, production companies and other interested parties will be promoted," the Film Centre highlights. Montenegro has been present at the Cannes Film Market since 2011.

Location potential also presented

This year, for the purposes of promotion, the Montenegro Film Centre enabled accredited market participants to download the electronic version of two catalogues: "Montenegro - Film Destination", which shows the potential for filming in Montenegro, and "Montenegrin Cinema 2020", which presents current film projects at different stages of production.

During the festival, the Montenegrin Media Desk (Creative Europe) will also be active, with representatives participating in panel discussions and online meetings.