By visiting its museums, visitors can introduce themselves to the culture and rich history of Podgorica. The cultural heritage of the people of Montenegro is very rich, and its people are very proud of their long history. Visitors can enjoy the Podgorica City Museum, the Museum of Marko Miljanov, as well as the very interesting Natural History Museum.
Podgorica City Museum – established in 1959, this museum combined the Modern Gallery and the Gallery of Risto Stijović. In 1974, it became the Museum and Gallery of Titograd, as was the city’s name at the time. The diverse museum collection enables the exhibitions to be separated into four different sections, including the showing of museum objects, archival artefacts, photographs, as well as many other items from all periods of the city’s history, which shows the most important events, periods and notable people from Podgorica’s history. Archeological material from the 3rd century BC attracts the most attention.
The Marko Miljanov Museum- 13km from Podgorica, the ancient city of Medun, the locality once inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of the Labeats,established in the 4th century BC, is located. Beneath Medun sits the house where Montenegrin hero and writer Marko Miljanov lived. In 1971, the house was converted into a museum dedicated to his life and work. The museum is divided into three parts: historical, ethnographic and literary/historical. The historical part displays the most significant events from the life of Marko Miljanov, illustrated in photographs as well as personal belongings: national costumes, weapons, documents and photographs.
The development and establishment of the Natural History Museum of Montenegre dates back to 1961, when the Government of Montenegro, with its seat in Podgorica, decided to found the museum. The museum first displayed only a few hundred taxidermy birds, mostly from the Shkodra Lake area. In the ensuing years, the museum collected many more plant and animal specimens, which attracted the attention of nature lovers. Visitors can see many examples of algae, moss, fungi, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, flowers, birds and mammals. Time took its toll on the collection, so the collection was effectively halved after the great earthquake of 1979, when the building was heavily damaged, but the herbariums and geological/paleontological collection were undamaged.
