08 January 2019 - Luxury Complex Lazure Marina & Hotel, which has significantly changed the look of Meljine and enriched the tourist offer of Herceg Novi, continues its planned extension.

The hardest and most demanding part of the entire construction of Lazure Marina and Hotel complex was to make a hotel out of the historic building of Lazaret, dating back to the 18th century, reports the local News Agency Radio Jadran.

The Lazure Spa, which construction is in progress and is being built as a beautiful building overlooking the marina and the sea, is soon to be completed. The construction and equipping of the Spa Centre cost about 2 million EUR. The Spa includes five types of sauna, Jacuzzi two massage rooms, dressing rooms, a reception desk, and a swimming pool. The complex also includes a gym, a yoga room, a beauty salon, and massage treatment rooms.

The Executive Director of the Lazure Complex, Anna Martynova,  has recently given an interview for Radio Jadran, in which she explained the concept of the Spa: “Work is underway at the Spa Centre, where we first need an expert spa manager. Initially, five employees will be required, and five more people will be employed before the summer season. The Spa is a beautiful building overlooking the marina and the sea. Only Sveti Stefan Complex and Lazure can boast of such a position for their Spa Centre.”

Lazura Marina complex is also currently under construction. The Marina will include 220 berths, and 10 million EUR is invested in this project. The owners of the complex have recently started building an annex building, which, according to the project is a new hotel segment and will have up to 150 rooms and apartments for rent. The opening of the annex building is planned for the spring of 2020.

The company Lazure Montenegro has invested about 32 million EUR in this five-star complex.

08 January 2019 - From February 22-24, Mountaineering Club Subra is organising a night climb of 1679 meters to Subra, a peak on Mount Orjen. They named this tour “The Night of the Full Moon”.

Although there is still more work to be done in relations to the organisation and more detailed instructions for the tour participants, everyone who wants to get experience the sunrise and a great day in the snow with a good company and some warm tea can apply for this unique experience within the next few days.

The interest for this event is already rising, and the interested parties are mostly the mountaineers who have already experienced this adventure and did not want to miss it this year either. The only problem that remains to be resolved is the issue of accommodation in the Mountaineering Home Za Vratlom, which is limited to 50 to 70 beds, which we have to reserve to our friends who come outside of Herceg Novi. On the other hand, the House is open for daily fellowship and welcomes everyone who wants to join us on the tour days.

“This is a tour that takes about 2-3 hours with a larger group; it depends on the snow. All those who want to climb must bring winter equipment. Members of the Hiking Section and the Protection and Rescue Service are in charge of guiding the tour and the safety issues during the course. The Subra Peak is more demanding than the other peaks, so this tour is recommended for those who have passed the basic course in winter hiking. Departure is about 2 or 3 hours in the morning, to wait for the sunrise at the top. At that particular time, when we reach the peak, the sun and moon are in the same "line." Witnessing this is, in fact, the goal of ascent,” says the President of the Mountaineering Club Subra, Duško Avramović.

Participants pay a fee of 3 EUR which includes breakfast upon return from the ascent.

The participants who come from outside of Herceg Novi must report their arrival by February 18, via Facebook page, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone 00382 69 262 331.

08 January 2019 - Caravan Mimosa from Herceg Novi, with traditional trombones, City music, and beautiful majorettes, will mark the beginning of the 50th Mimosa Festival. The caravan represents a tradition of this holiday that is always celebrated with ovations from all guests. Participants of the Caravan always come to a warm welcome and great atmosphere by a large number of gathered citizens, which is also expected this year.

This year, with their music and dance, the participants of Caravan Mimosa will visit numerous cities and invite all citizens to come to Herceg Novi. They will also share promotional flyers and yellow mimosa flowers, by which this winter festival is named.

The Jubilee 50th Mimosa Festival will "unofficially" begin tomorrow when at 4 o'clock in the morning the first of the three Mimosa Caravans depart from Herceg Novi to Vienna with about 60 Caravan participants who announce the flower festival, spring and Herceg Novi summer tourist season 2019. During the following three days, aside from Vienna, the Caravan will visit Novi Sad, Vrbas and Belgrade.

50th Mimosa Festival will officially begin on February 1, with the performance of the regional pop star Zdravko Čolić.

By the Mimosa Fest, the Herceg Novi Tourist Organisation and the leaseholders from the city, have already organised weekend accommodation arrangements named "Mimoza". This arrangement includes the offer of 3 overnights which amount to 45 EUR per person, five overnights amount to 70 EUR, and seven overnights are 90 EUR. It is also possible to arrange meals in one of the restaurants from the city.

Traditionally, Mimosa Caravan will promote the Mimosa Festival and winter and summer offer of Herceg Novi in the cities of Western Europe, Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Until March 22, the Caravan will organise numerous festivities, masquerades, street performances, international encounters, exhibitions, theater performances, and sports events.

The Caravan departs on January 9 for Vienna, followed by Vrbas, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin and Belgrade. The next weekend the Caravan will visit Višegrad, Zlatibor, Bijeljina and Banja Luka. In its third round, the participants of the Caravan will, before the very beginning of the Mimosa Festival, visit Slovenia, i.e., Ljubljana, Novo Mesto, and Kranj.

 Read more about the representatives of Tourist Organisation of Herceg Novi and the Municipality of Herceg Novi press conference on Mimosa Festival and the Caravan on TMN.

06 January 2019 - The successful year for Montenegro’s tourism industry has had positive effects on business operations of the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro, claimed Predrag Jelušić, director of the company.

“In 2018, we generated over €7.1 million thus exceeding planned revenues, and all these extraordinary results happened thanks to the efficient implementation of a 3-year plan, but also due to the responsible approach of our tenants,” he stressed.

In 2019, he added, expects to have a categorisation of public beaches introduced, as well as more activities concentrated on waste on beaches and new responsibilities referring to the sea/ports transport management. By the Coastal Zone Law and Law on Ports, one of the responsibilities of the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro is to manage coastal zone and local ports of general importance and for public use.

“We required introduction and definition of terms city port and municipal slips. By introducing this, we are to create a regulatory framework and grounds for managing ports and other facilities belonging to maritime infrastructure,” noted Jelušić.

In 2019, one of the most important events in the Montenegrin coast would be opening of the Portonovi resort in Kumbor equipped with marina.

When asked whether the new marinas would impose new obligations for the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro, Jelušić said it is good Montenegro will get three new marinas, especially for the development of nautical tourism.

“In this context, the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management of Montenegro will strive to perform public function beside the commercial one. As an example, I should mention planned construction of the water fountains on Tivat airport,” Jelušić said.

He reminded of the fact Montenegro so far has had only two types of beaches – hotel and public – but in line with the guidelines from the Strategy for sustainable beach management, public beaches are now categorized as romantic ones, for same-day visitors, for active vacays, family beaches, pet-friendly and party beaches, and there will be more public nude beaches.

05 January 2019 - Spouses from the Netherlands found a message in a bottle that was sent by the Literary section of the Tivat primary school.

A lot of parents encourage their children to write and send messages with happy wishes to friends and family for their child to connect with people around them. Sometimes, though, we just want to write a message without a specific recipient and let the message find their way to a certain someone. That’s when we awaken our imagination and write a message, put it in a bottle and let it sail away. An even greater wish for numerous children and even adults is to find a message in a bottle. This is a true story about the message in a bottle from Tivat that reached the Netherlands!

On January 5, Katica Čavor, a professor of Montenegrin language at the Primary School "Drago Milović" from Tivat, received an unusual e-mail from an unknown address – a husband and wife from the Netherlands, as reported by the news agency Boka News.

As Ms Čavor explained, the content of the mail referred to the recent event in which spouses from the Netherlands found a message in a bottle that was sent by the Literary section "Good morning, sea" of the primary school in Tivat. A while ago, within the activities of the literary section, the students wrote messages about peace, love and friendship, and put those wishes into decorated bottles which were deployed from the boat "Vodena kočija" at the entrance of the Bay of Kotor near the Mamula Island.

Charlotte and Pedro Elfos, who live in the Netherlands, found the message in a bottle. This message contained beautiful wishes and an e-mail address, in case someone wanted to send a reply. The couple was surprised and quickly sent an e-mail explaining that on October 19, while they were sailing through the southern Adriatic, they found one of the bottles that the students wrote and posted.

“To find your letter at that exact moment in the southern Adriatic was an unexpected and perfect gift for us. A few days before we found the message, we got married in Portugal, and we just went on a honeymoon to Croatia! Your wonderful message meant a lot to us, and it was just magical to find something in the sea like this and read such beautiful messages and wishes," the spouses from the Netherlands wrote, wishing Professor Čavor and her students a happy New Year's holiday.

January 6, 2019 - The 50th anniversary of the Mimosa Festival will open with the pop music star of the region Zdravko Čolić on 1 February. Traditionally, a day later, there will be the Feast of Mimosa, Fish, and Wine on the Herceg Novi Riviera and the first costume ball.

Mimosa Festival Caravan Moves from Vienna 

mne.today

 

The Mimosa Festival announced the Mimosa Caravan this year, which will visit the cities of Western Europe, Austria, and Slovenia, after three decades. Vice President of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, Miloš Konjević announced that Mimosa caravan would visit the capital city of Austria, Vienna, where the City Music, the Majorettes and the Masquerade will present the manifestation on 10 January. On the same day, the Mimosa Festival will be presented at the Tourism Fair in Vienna at the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro stand.

 

The caravan will be in Vrbas and Novi Sad on 11 January, and on 12 January in Zrenjanin and Belgrade. On the second turn, the Caravan will travel to Višegrad and Zlatibor on 17 January, and then visit Bijeljina and Banja Luka on 18 January. Following will be guest appearances in Slovenia, Ljubljana, Novo Mesto, and Kranj. Also, 50th Mimosa Festival Caravan will Montenegrin towns and neighboring Trebinje.

 

The aim of organizing Mimosa Caravan beyond the borders of our region is that Mimosa Festival got the function it had when it founded - to intrigue visitors, bring them to Herceg Novi during the winter and announce the summer season, explained the municipality manager, Dragan Šimrak. As he said, in the last ten years, Mimosa has "lost its function and now needs to get it back."

January 5, 2019 - Prcanj is the old naval center of Boka Bay once known as a postal center of the Republic of Venice, whose sailors were responsible for the transfer of mail from Istanbul, via Boka Bay, to Venice. It was a place of considerable privilege, ultimately the status of an autonomous maritime settlement. All this has contributed to the economic development of the area, as evidenced by today's gorgeous architecture of houses, palaces, churches, and chapels that descend along the coast in the length of 4 km. Among the valuable objects of cultural heritage, stands the parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the most beautiful and most impressive sacral objects in Montenegro. Due to the remarkable cultural landscape, and also the peace of Boka Bay, Prcanj is a favorite summer resort for guests enjoying the embrace of ages, which are traced here ever since Roman times.

Glavati Bay, photo by Antonela Stjepcevic

 

It was in the Middle Ages within the Kotor district. The land belongs to either the Catholic Church or the Kotor noble families. Kotor's noblemen in Prcanj raise their summer houses, and farmers from Prcanj or the surrounding villages worked on their properties. The settlement here, as in other parts of Boka, is not located directly along the coast, but at a distance of 100 to 200 meters. In Prcanj, this was a besieged hive, made up of small groupings of houses, which were pedestrian roads connected with the property on the coast. Today, you can discover these old roads as hiking paths in the company of local mountain hikers from Kotor's Vjeverica Club. Or by yourself, with the help of a map that is available at info points of the Tourist Organization of Kotor. On the same paths, the people of Prcanj went to the shore in the Middle Ages, where there were few groups of houses related to navigation and trade at the time, such as gates, small shipyards, and "mandraći." Although they do not enjoy the deserved protection, some of these "mandraći," built with dry stone without binder, resist the teeth of time to this day.

photo by Aleksandra Kapetanovic, expeditio.org

 

While under the rule of the Venetian Republic, Prcanj gained fame in a rather unusual way. By the end of the sixteenth century, the administration noticed that sailors from here were able to sail to Venice in less time than the government ships. As a result, it was then decided to give Prcanj the responsibility for the permanent postal service of the Republic. Prcanj's status ensured a decree of 1625 that praises the inhabitants of the port for their conscientious and capable handling of the state mail. The order was of tremendous significance for the town, making Prcanj officially a naval town. The economic rise of the site also contributed to the families of merchants, shipowners, and seafarers. After gradually buying property along the coast, they built representative palaces and houses, which at the beginning of the 19th century were over 140.

photo by Zoran Nikolić

 

During the Napoleon rule of the Boka Bay, Prcanj lost its significance in maritime affairs. After the Congress of Vienna, Boka became part of a province called the Kingdom of Dalmatia, what initiated a revival of the Pecan's maritime economy which lasted until the end of the 19th century.

Prcanj of Today

photo by Miroslav Marusic, Boka News

 

The most impressive feat of architecture in Prcanj is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, which represents the synthesis of the religious, cultural and economic history of the place. Venetian architect Bernardino Maccaruzzi designed the church project in 1789 when it was built the supportive wall in classical style. The church facade is baroque with Corinthian and Doric columns and displays a collection of paintings and sculptures worthy of its size, including works by Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Balestra, Meštrović and numerous other artists.

05 January 2019 - The book "Illustrated Lexicon of Herceg Novi", whose promotion was held in Igalo a week ago, represents a unique presentation of the symbols of the city under the Mount Orjen.

According to the words of the author, Vladimir Roganović, the Illustrated Lexicon of Herceg Novi was created to remind its readers of all the reasons that exist to love the city of Herceg Novi. Roganović explained that through the stories within the book, the readers could unravel many secrets that exist within the city. The selection and creation of 75 stories are the results of a long journey of discovering the bare soul of the city of Herceg Novi. The publisher of the book is the Tourist Organisation of Herceg Novi.

The creation of the Illustrated Lexicon is the result of the uniqueness of the city. “It’s thanks to Herceg Novi and its peculiarity that I was able to make such a book, so the city can thank no one but itself,” the author explained. He highlighted that he only explored the pages that the city itself was writing for years, and interpreted and composed it all within one Lexicon.

“The book represents a collection of stories. I was motivated by the strong desire that local readers, and the ones who come from all over the world, see and feel the beauty of our city. We all know that Herceg Novi, Bay of Kotor and Montenegro are not regions, nor people that one can meet elsewhere. These are not common places, so the journey within the Lexicon had to be unusual as well,” explains Roganović.

The Lexicon contains a glossary of lesser-known words and expressions, name registry as well as a register of geographical names and city toponyms. Photographs within the Lexicon are works by several authors, including Jefto Bjelica and the famous Dragan Bosnić. According to the author, the book also contains scientific facts, artistic truths, and fiction, lyricism and prose.

The words and photographs in the lexicon are sorted by alphabet so that they form a structure, created to represent a form of a picture book.

04 January 2019 - The organizers of Herceg Novi Comics Festival announced the first guests of this year's edition of the festival. The arrival has already been confirmed by two famous Italian comics authors Andrea Di Vito and Mario Alberti.

World superstar, Italian comics artist Andrea Di Vito, was the first confirmed guest for the 13th edition of the Herceg Novi Comics Festival, which will be held from September 6th to September 11th. Full nine months before the start of the festival, a confirmation has also arrived by another Italian artist - Mario Alberti, who was supposed to be part of last year's Herceg Novi Comics Festival, but due to illness, he had to cancel his arrival in Herceg Novi.

Andrea Di Vito began his work in short stories in the Italian magazine "Interpido", to sail into the Marvel world as a CrossGen's artist, and immediately afterward as an official drawing and fill-in artist "The First and Scion" comic. Later, he followed the conquest of almost all of the most important titles in Marvel's edition, beginning with the series "Young Avengers".

Some of the most famous titles of the greatest publishing house Marvel Comics, such as Annihilation (Annihilation #1-6, as well as Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus # 2), Black Panther #33, Captain America and the Falcon # 8, Civil War: House of M # 1-5, Dungeons and Dragons, Thor # 80-85 and World War Hulk: X-Men #1-3 are only part of the opus that was done entirely by Andrea Di Vito.

The Italian legend of comics art creativity, Mario Alberti, is currently engaged in the latest editions of Tex and Nathan.

Alberti works for the largest American, French and Italian publishers, drawing comics such as The Cutting Edge, Les Chroniques de Legion, special projects for Tex Willer, and a number of cover pages for Aquaman, Wonderwoman, Dr Fate, as well as the X-Men, Spiderman,  and Fantastic Four. With one of the greatest Italian cartoonist stars, Luke Enoch, in 2000, he created the Morgan series for the French market, which became a worldwide hit, in which Mario Alberti is a standalone artist. His significance and greatness in creativity in the world of ninth art is confirmed by the fact that he had the special honor that his five pages art participated in the drawing of the Jubilee 600th number of The Amazing Spiderman comics, and to be the standalone author of the 601st episode.

Announcing such guests nine months before this year's edition, Herceg Novi Comics Festival continues its mission of creating one of the region's most significant manifestations dedicated to comics that have already positioned Herceg Novi and Montenegro very high in the European sky of ninth art.

04 January 2019 - The five pillars on the Moračica bridge, which is also the most demanding structure of the first section of the highway from Smokovac to Mateševo, will be connected by the beginning of summer 2019. More than 130 workers constructed the bridge, and there are many difficulties within the construction process, such as the height and the weather conditions.

Despite the strong wind that is characteristic of Bioče area, 130 workers do construction works on one of the highest bridges within the region, each day at the height of 160 meters.

About 30,000 cubic meters of concrete will be used for the Moračica's span construction, while 5,000 tons of reinforcement will be installed within the construction.

"The spanning structure is built from all pillars, and it is connected in the middle. About one segment of three and a half meters is built for about ten days, which means that we are looking forward to the beginning of the summer when the span construction will be complete, “chief Section 1 engineer Duško Rondović said to the National News Agency TVCG.

After that, asphalting and construction of the reflecting fence and installations on the bridge will begin. During the asphalting process, travelers will be able to get from Moračica to Podgorica through the Mrka tunnel and the Mrka bridge.

"The left bridge is practically complete; the span construction is connected. It remains to build four segments on the right side of the bridge. We expect this to be complete sometime in the spring. In front of this bridge there is the Mrka tunnel where we have just finished the secondary coating, "said Rondović.

In addition to the tunnel Mrka, in the so-called first section of the highway, there will be two more tunnels - Suka and Verešnik, and a total of 300 workers are engaged in the construction works.

Source: CDM