Day 136: Ostrog Monastery

Aug 17 - Today have arranged for a taxi to take us south to the Ostrog Monastery. The road winds up the east wall of a steep valley, with plenty of switchbacks and white-knuckle moments when the road seems not quite wide enough for passing traffic.

A view to the southwest into the Bjelopavlići plain from the road winding up to Ostrog.

Ostrog Monastery, a Serbian Orthodox monument, was the doing of one Bishop of Herzegovina in the 1600’s, who ordered that the limestone cliff face be carved into in order to construct a well-fortified building. The bishop died in 1671 and was interred in the building, thereafter named St. Basil of Ostrog. Being so high up on the valley wall, it benefited from great natural defenses. It held out for some time against Ottoman forces in the 1800’s.

While the monument is clearly Orthodox, it does serve also as a pilgrimage site for Catholics and Muslims. It is one of the most popular such sites in the Balkans.

The upper portion of the monastery has undergone significant exterior renovation in recent times. It is the focus of the pilgrims who come here in droves.

The lower part of the monastery. Here all the paraphernalia can be purchased to support the Orthodox Church, including candles and flasks of holy water. We were there early enough in the morning that the lines were not long, but we were warned that on busy days, the wait to get in can be hours.

An alcove for placing candles in the lower monastery. Virtually everyone here was present for reasons of pilgrimage, and we noted that people were really serious about their devotion rites.

A photo to give a sense of how this monastery is built right into the wall of the cliff.

One of the many water fountains.

The intricate tilework, which I’ve seen in at many Roman or Byzantine sites, is also here, though many are modern renovations. The wall around the tiling is the raw cliff wall, chipped away with small tools.

Petting the lamb of Vasilije Ostroški (St. Basil of Ostrog).

Of course, the most interesting part couldn’t be photographed. The primary objective of the pilgrims is to enter the room where St. Basil’s remains are kept, wrapped in dark red linen in a coffin. The walls of this tiny room, which obviously has been chipped into the cliff, are completely covered with vivid paintings. The ones on the ceiling are blackened from the years that candles have been burnt here. Odette was in front of me, and when it was our turn, I told her to go forward and pretend to kiss the wooden cross in the priest’s hand. He patted her on the head, like he understood that she didn’t know what was going on. She sort of froze up so I picked her up and pretended like we were both kissing it. A lot of people in this room were also kissing a framed picture of St. Basil, the wall, the doorjamb, what have you. Anyway, it was just funny to see how mystified Odette was by all this piety.

All in all, because the line was short, we spent a bit less time up here than I had thought necessary. I woke up the taxi driver and we went down to another Orthodox church at a lower elevation.

From the lower church I got a view of Ostrog.

At the Lower Ostrog Monastery church down the hill, which is quite small. There were two Orthodox priests that stopped to take a selfie here.

The inside of the church. Like parts of the monastery above, they’ve covered the ceiling completely with paintings.

Back to Nikšić and boring homework for Odette, trip planning for me. The taxi worked out really well, in that everything went by the meter, including the wait times. All was tabulated on a receipt and I just paid the total. Not the usual taxi negotiations I am used to.

Montenegro