About Žabljak
The city of Žabljak is located in the northwest of Montenegro, in the heart of the Durmitor region, at an altitude of 1450 meters above sea level and is the highest urban settlement in the Balkans. It is located at the foot of Durmitor and surrounded by 23 mountain peaks over 2200 meters, with 18 mountain lakes and the Tara River Canyon, the deepest in Europe. Today, over 4500 inhabitants live in Žabljak and the surrounding area.
The first Slavic name for this place was “Varezina voda”, probably because of the strong spring of drinking water, around which the settlement was formed. Later, it was called “Hanovi” or originally “Anovi”, where trade caravans rested. Žabljak officially received its current name in 1870, when the construction of a church, school and captain’s house began on the same day. During the war and devastation, the old buildings disappeared. Only the Church of the Holy Transfiguration remained, built in honor of the victory over the Turks in 1862. The emergence of Žabljak was accompanied by the beginning of several trade and craft shops and taverns. Thus, already in the 1880s, Žabljak represented a kind of market, which gradually led to it starting to take on the role of the administrative center of the Durmitor region.
In the period before World War II, Žabljak was a small town with typical mountain architecture. Already in that period, the unique nature began to attract a large number of tourists from the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but also from abroad. In particular, due to its connections with Montenegro, there were numerous guests from Italy. In addition to the magnificent natural environment, the richness of this area with wildlife and the advantages it offers for hunting and fishing, brings many lovers of this type of sport to Žabljak.
During World War II, the town was burned down. All the homes and institutions were burned down, and nothing remained of this small mountain settlement, except rubble and burnt-out areas. Since then, until today, Žabljak has been built and rebuilt, becoming the center of winter tourism in Montenegro. The unique and diverse natural resources, in such a small area, recommended Žabljak as the ecological capital of the first ecological state in the world. The members of the Parliament of Montenegro, intoxicated by the fresh mountain air, at an extraordinary session, held under the open sky, made a decision to proclaim Montenegro the first ecological state and unanimously chose Žabljak as its capital.