Stara Varos

Stara Varos sits on the east bank of the Morača river opposite the modern centre, the oldest continuously inhabited quarter of Podgorica. The Sahat Kula clock t…Stara Varos sits on the east bank of the Morača river opposite the modern centre, the oldest continuously inhabited quarter of Podgorica. The Sahat Kula clock tower stands at its heart on the small Becir Beg Osmanagic square, a single seventeenth-century Ottoman survival from the era when the town was an Ottoman outpost on the empire's western edge. A network of stone lanes drops south from the tower toward the river, with the small Ribnica fortress remains, the Skaline area's tighter cluster of houses and a handful of mosques and konobas tucked into the side streets.

The quarter survived the heavy bombing of 1944 better than the modern centre, so its low stone houses, workshop yards and arched windows still read as a single architectural piece. Renovations across the past decade have brought back several of the older houses as cafes, konobas and a small handful of guesthouses. The Hadži-Pašina Mosque on the southern edge is still in use, and the Saint George's Church across the river anchors the quarter's eastern view. Most evenings see the Skaline area fill quietly with locals walking the river path.