Podgorica

Podgorica is the capital city of Montenegro. Montenegro is a country in the south of Europe.

More people live in Podgorica than in any other part of Montenegro.

Podgorica is the capital of Montenegro. Its name comes from two words meaning 'at the foot of the little mountain', the encyclopedia Universalis explains. The city lies on a plain in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Morača River.

Montenegro's statistics office counted 179,505 people in the Capital City of Podgorica in its 2023 census. That is more than in any other municipality, and close to 29 out of every 100 people in Montenegro.

Universalis places Podgorica (from the Serbo-Croatian pod and gorica) on the karst plain of the same name in southeastern Montenegro, on the Morača, at a natural crossroads where the Morača valley, cutting north through the Dinaric Alps toward Serbia, meets the Zeta valley leading to Nikšić.

MONSTAT's 2023 census enumerated 623,633 usual residents in Montenegro. The Capital City of Podgorica had the most, 179,505 (28.78%), followed by Nikšić and Bar. City Population, using the statistics office's census data, lists 173,024 people for the city settlement itself.

A tall white tower holds up a bridge with long cables. It is called the Millennium Bridge.

In the old part of town stands a clock tower.

The Millennium Bridge crosses the Morača River. Its tall white tower holds the bridge up with a fan of cables. It opened in 2005, according to Wikidata.

In Stara Varoš, the old town, stands the Clock Tower, or Sahat kula. The city's tourism office says it was built in the 1700s by Hadži Mehmed-paša Osmanagić. An old one-arch stone bridge, the city's oldest, stands just where the Ribnica River flows into the Morača.

Wikidata records the cable-stayed Millennium Bridge over the Morača as opened on 13 July 2005, with a height of 57 m.

The tourism office calls the Clock Tower, on Bećir-beg Osmanagić Square, the symbol of Stara Varoš, the core of the town under Ottoman rule (it gives 1474–1879), and says Hadži Mehmed-paša Osmanagić built it in the 18th century. It describes the one-arch stone bridge at the mouth of the Ribnica, an area once called Sastavci, as the oldest in Podgorica, believed to date from Roman times and only a few meters high.

Podgorica has five rivers. On hot days people cool off by the water.

Near the city, grapes grow in huge fields.

The tourism office says Podgorica lies on five rivers: the Morača, Zeta, Ribnica, Cijevna and Sitnica. Close to the center is Gorica hill, with walking and cycling paths, an adventure park and a pine forest that gives shade in hot summers.

On the plain outside the city, the Plantaže 13 jul vineyards cover 2,300 hectares, with about 11.5 million vines. Visitors can ride through them on a tourist train. The tourism office also counts Lake Skadar National Park, a home of the rare Dalmatian pelican, among Podgorica's sights.

The tourism office describes Gorica as a popular place for outings near the center, with walking, cycling and fitness trails, an adventure park and a Mediterranean garden of endemic plants, a view over the right bank of the Morača and the Millennium Bridge, and a hill that shelters the city from the north wind in winter.

Plantaže 13 jul's vineyards (2,300 ha, about 11.5 million vines, 29 grape varieties) border the canyon of the Cijevna; the native Vranac variety covers two thirds of them. The office also lists Lake Skadar National Park, a habitat of rare and threatened birds such as the Dalmatian pelican.