Petar II Petrović-Njegoš

Not to be confused with Petar I Petrović Njegoš.

P
Photograph taken by Anastas Jovanović, 1851
Personal details
Born	Radivoje Petrović (1813-11-13)13 November 1813 Njeguši, Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro
Died	31 October 1851(1851-10-31) (aged 37) Cetinje, Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro
Nationality	Montenegrin Serb
Denomination	Serbian Orthodox Christian

Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian Cyrillic language: Петар II Петровић Његош , pronounced [pêtar drûɡiː pětroʋit͡ɕ ɲêɡoʃ]; 13 November 1813 – 31 October 1851) was the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan of Cetinje and a philosopher and poet, who, through his establishment of Montenegrin secular organs, is considered to have been responsible for the secularization of Montenegro.

Njegoš was born in the village of Njeguši, near the town of Cetinje. Growing up amongst illiterate peasants, he left his home at age eleven to be educated in the Cetinje monastery, at that time the only place of learning in Montenegro. Upon the death of his uncle, Petar I, Njegoš became the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro at the young age of seventeen. As a ruler and reformer, one of his greatest achievements was persuading the feuding clan chiefs of Montenegro to introduce fair taxation, as well as a codified set of laws based upon common rights, into their primitive mountain communities. He became a leading proponent of liberating and uniting the Serb people, willing even to concede his princely rights in exchange for a union with Serbia. Although this did not occur during his lifetime, he successfully laid foundations for political and cultural ideas of Yugoslavism and at the same time introduced modern political concepts to Montenegro. He held the position of Prince-Bishop until his death of tuberculosis at the age of 37 in 1851.

Venerated as a poet and philosopher, Njegoš is especially known for writing the epic poem The Mountain Wreath, which is considered to be a masterpiece of Serbian and South Slavic literature, as well as the national epic of Montenegro, Serbia and both the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Following his death, he was buried in a small chapel atop Mount Lovćen, which was destroyed by the Austro-Hungarians during the First World War. Afterwards, his remains were moved to the Cetinje Monastery and were then again moved to the rebuilt chapel in 1925. The chapel was then, somewhat controversially, replaced by Ivan Meštrović's mausoleum in 1974, with the support of Yugoslavia's Communist government.

Njegoš has remained largely influential in Montenegro, as well as in neighbouring countries. His works have been used as ideological tools by a wide variety of groups including irredentists, Serbian nationalists and Communists. In 2011, he was deemed the "Montenegrin Shakespeare" by the British newspaper The Independent.

Early life

The village of Njeguši where Njegoš was born.

Petar II Petrović-Njegoš was born Radivoje "Rade" Tomov Petrović on 13 November 1813 in the village of Njeguši, near Cetinje. Most scholars write his birthyear as 1813, others as 1814. His father was Tomo Markov Petrović, of the Petrović clan of the Njeguši tribe. The Petrović family had been the hereditary Serbian Orthodox Metropolitans (Prince-Bishops) of Cetinje since 1696. His mother was Ivana Petrović (née Proroković) from Veliki Zalazi, the daughter of Njeguši captain Lazo Proroković. Njegoš's birthplace in Njeguši was dominated by the Petrović ancestral home, which was the only house in the village that was two-storied and made entirely out of stone. Its existence bespoke the importance of the Petrović clan within the Njeguši tribe. At the time of Njegoš's birth, Montenegro did not exist as a state as it was recognised as a part of the Ottoman Empire, its borders were undefined, headhunting and cattle rustling were widespread and Montenegrin tribes and families were dissipating their strength in ancient blood feuds (krvna osvjeta). Njegoš spent his early years in Njeguši, where he passed his days as most of his contemporaries by tending his father's flock of sheep, playing the gusle and attending local family and church celebrations where stories of past battles and suffering were told. Njegoš's education was relatively meagre. As a teenager, he studied under the direction of his uncle, Petar I, for about a year, and was also educated by a group of monastery pupils who indoctrinated, enlightened and disciplined him in their lifelong calling in service of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Njegoš spent a further year in the Savina monastery and its seminary, followed by three years in a school run by a Montenegrin monk, where he mastered the rudiments of the Italian language. Aside from Italian, he also studied Russian and French and read extensively. Before the death of Petar I, the teenaged Njegoš was entrusted to Sima Milutinović, an eccentric Serbian traveller and poet, who pioneered themes concerning the creation of Montenegro and integrated them into his romantic poetry, which was written in unusual syntax and used an unparalleled number of neologisms. His exuberant personality was hardly fit for a mentor, but Milutinović taught the young Njegoš many things, including teaching him how to shoot, sword-fight, play sports and stay healthy.

Reign

Accession

A portrait of Njegoš from the time that he was Prince-Bishop of Montenegro.

Petar I, the long-time Prince-Bishop of Montenegro (vladika), died on 19 October 1830. The last years of his life were rather unhappy ones, as he struggled to find a successor from the Petrović clan who was both literate and a monk to carry on his role. His two primary candidates were his nephews, Mitar and Đorde, the first of whom subsequently died. His second nephew later wrote to his uncle from St. Petersburg to inform him that he wished to enroll in military school rather than become the next Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. With literate monks being in short supply in the Prince-Bishopric, Petar I died without having formally appointed a successor. Seeing that their chances of holding the Metropolinate within their clan were slipping away, members of the Petrović family acted quickly to ensure that one of their own would be crowned the next Prince-Bishop. Their most credible candidate was Rade Tomov Petrović, who was not formally a monk and whose education was relatively meagre. However, the Petrović clan ignored this in order to keep political power within their family and had Rade ordained as an Archimandrite before any further theological objections could be raised. Simultaneously, the Petrović clan's traditional rivals, the Radonjić clan, believing that Rade's youth and rushed manner of ordination might indeed provoke opposition, began to campaign against the young Prince-Bishop and his family. In response, the Petrović clan retaliated violently. First, the Civil Governor of Montenegro, Vuko Radonjić, who had been exiled in 1818 and was then permitted to return, was accused of conspiring with Austria against Montenegro. Despite the fact that there was little evidence to support or refute these accusations, he was sentenced to death before having the sentence commuted by Njegoš first to imprisonment and then to exile. However, despite the clemency, Vuko's educated and well-travelled brother, Đuzo, was murdered by members of the Petrović clan on the day of his family's slava. Other members of the Radonjić clan also met violent ends, either being murdered or being uprooted from their homes and having their houses razed to the ground. Vuko Radonjić died in 1832, not long after being exiled to Kotor. Sima Milutinović, Njegoš's one-time mentor, also had to flee to Kotor after a rift with the young Prince-Bishop. However, he soon returned from exile on the understanding that the relationship would from then be on the young Njegoš's terms. Despite having significantly reduced the threat of being upsurped by a member of the Radonjić clan, challenges to Njegoš's authority never fully ceased in the fractious and divided Montenegrin state.

Ruler of Montenegro

The beginning of Njegoš's reign was marked by a revival of Montenegro's relationship with the distant Russian Empire. At the same time, Njegoš and his associates moved to transform the court of the deceased Petar I into a new governing body, the senate, which was composed of the most powerful tribal chiefs of Montenegro. The aim of the newly created senate was to limit disruption and factionalism. Initially, a Montenegrin named Ivan Ivanović Vukotić was the president of the senate, and his nephew Matija Vučićević acted as his deputy. The senate's decisions were to be enforced by a unit known as the Gvardija, which initially comprised 150 soldiers. Their number later swelled to 450. The unit's duties included enforcing the decisions and proclamations made by the senate, mediating in various civic disputes, and acting as a police force. A separate paramilitary unit known as the Perjanici was also formed; it served as Njegoš's personal guard, as well as a police force.

In 1832, Vukotić and the young Njegoš launched an attack against the Muslims of the town of Podgorica who were assisting the Ottoman Porte (central government) in subduing rebellions in both Bosnia and Albania. To bolster their hopes of success, the Montenegrins secured a promise of additional assistance from the rebelling Hoti clan of Albania. Nonetheless, Njegoš's attempt to take Podgorica failed as his forces were defeated in the ensuing battle for the fortified town. The guerilla style of mountain warfare of Njegoš's troops proved incapable of dealing with the Ottomans and their cavalry. For Njegoš, who would never again lead Montenegrins into battle, the defeat was a lasting source of regret. In response to the Montenegrin assault, the Ottoman vizier, Mustafa Reshid Pasha, seized on it as a convenient provocation. He exploited the opportunity to launch attacks against Montenegrin towns and villages, where he impaled and hanged many of the Montenegrins that he was able to capture. Subsequent political pressure from Russia discouraged the Montenegrins from seeking revenge.

Oil painting of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš from the time that he was the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro.

In 1833, Njegoš travelled to St. Petersburg to be ordained as the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. There, he was given 18,000 rubles of financial aid by Tsar Nicholas I, in addition to 10,000 rubles that the Russians had previously promised to give to Montenegro, as well 8,000 rubles to strengthen Montenegrin state institutions. Furthermore, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church promised to regularly provide all the necessary equipment and funds needed for maintaining religious services in Montenegro. When Njegoš returned from Russia, he did so bearing gifts such as money, books and icons, as well as a printing press that was brought from Venice. As there were only a handful of literate Montenegrins at the time, the use of the machine appeared unpromising and so Njegoš used the device to publish some of his own poems as well as those of his former mentor Sima Milutinović and the Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, whom Njegoš had met while staying in Vienna in 1834.

While Njegoš was away in Vienna and Russia in 1833, Ivan Vukotić used his absence to seize more power for himself. However, Njegoš himself had been sufficiently strengthened by his visit to Russia and quickly moved to push Vukotić aside. Njegoš then installed instead his own brother Pero as the leader of the Senate, with his first cousin Đorđe as Pero's deputy. Vukotić and his nephew were subsequently exiled to Russia, from where they continued to tarnish Njegoš's reputation abroad. However, despite the expulsion of many of his adversaries, Njegoš still faced significant domestic threats to his rule from discontent tribesmen who were unhappy over his newly implemented policy concerning taxes. The young Prince-Bishop acted quickly to suppress such animosity towards him and responded by declaring Petar I, his uncle and predecessor, a saint, as he intended to use the fact that there was a saint in his family to threaten potential opponents of rule his with spiritual sanctions. In the aftermath of this declaration, the Orthodox population responded to Peter I's sainthood with enthusiasm, while local non-Serb authorities in areas bordering Montenegro viewed it with unease and used the opportunity to accuse Njegoš of channelling Russian funds to other members of the Petrović clan. In 1836, these allegations prompted a rebellion in several areas of Montenegro over discontent with food shortages and demands for taxes. The revolt was eventually suppressed by two prominent members of the Petrović clan, Njegoš's cousins Đorđe and Stanko Stijepov.

German press reports which described Montenegro as "primitive" had enraged Njegoš, who sought to disprove such accounts by building a twenty-five-room residence in Cetinje which was soon dubbed the "Biljarda" after a billiard table which he had transported to Cetinje from the coast. Construction of the residence was completed by 1838.

Concurrently, on Montenegro's northern border with Herzegovina, Serb tribesmen around the town of Grahovo, who were still feudatories of the Muslim ruler of Herzegovina, refused to pay the haraç, an Ottoman tax directed against non-Muslims. Recognizing the need for outside assistance, the tribesmen declared that they were subjects of Njegoš and thus invoked the support of Montenegro. Determined to crush this insubordination, Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović, the vizier of Mostar, launched an assault against Grahovo at the beginning of August 1836. When the town fell to the Ottomans, the vizier ordered his forces to seize captives and to burn the town to the ground. As honour demanded, the Montenegrins, under the command of Njegoš's brother Joko and eight close kinsmen, gathered several hundred men to launch a counter-attack in an attempt to rescue the captives. Although initially successful in rescuing the local clan leader and his followers, the Montenegrins were quickly overrun by the cavalry of feared Ottoman commander Smail-aga Čengić while they skirmished with the combined forces of Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović and Ali Pasha Resulbegović of Trebinje. In the ensuing confrontation, the teenaged Joko and Stanko Stijepov's son Stevo were hacked to death by the Ottomans along with forty other warriors. Smaïl Aga had Joko's severed placed on display. With the tribesmen of Grahovo being forced to take an oath of loyalty to the Ottomans in order to be permitted by them to return to their homes, and thus being forced to not avenge the death of the Montenegrins, including that of Njegoš's own brother, the young Prince-Bishop's hopes of quick revenge were squandered. News of the defeat at Grahovo soon spread abroad and in 1837 Njegoš was forced to travel to St. Petersburg for a second time to defend his behaviour before the Russians. While in Russia, he was criticized for engaging in "unmonkish" behaviour, particularly because he was fond of being in the company of women. Despite this, Russia not only continued to disburse the annual subsidy paid to Montenegro but even increased it, and from 1837 the Russians provided wheat to the Montenegrins for a short period of time while the country experienced a severe famine. This relationship with the Russians made Montenegro's neighbours suspicious of the tiny state and of its ultimate goal of gaining access to the Adriatic Sea, as the Great Powers of the time saw a Montenegro with access to the sea as a risk of Russian penetration into the Mediterranean. While in Russia, Njegoš was encouraged to undertake further action to strengthen his own hold on power within Montenegro as he increased the size of his personal guard and punished more harshly those who disturbed the peace by feuding and raiding across the frontiers. In 1838, Njegoš stopped wearing his priestly robes in favour of the colourful costume of a mountain chief, which was later to become the Montenegrin national dress.

In 1838, Montenegro, under Russian pressure, signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans. The treaty, however, brought about the briefest of pauses as the clashes and beheadings continued soon afterwards. In 1840, four years after the Montenegrin humiliation at Grahovo, Njegoš ordered a Montenegrin tribal leader, Novica Cerović, to ambush Smaïl Aga Čengić, the Ottoman commander who was responsible for killing Njegoš's brother Joko. The assault occurred in the village of Mijetičak, north of Nikšić. In the ensuing clash, Smaïl Aga was shot and his severed head was later brought to Njegoš. As a sign of his gratitude, Njegoš made Cerović a senator.

Clashes between the Ottomans and the Montenegrins ensued as a result of Smaïl Aga's death, but ceased upon the signing of a pact in Dubrovnik in 1842. In 1843, the Ottoman governor of Shkodër, vizier Osman Pasha Skopljak, the son-in-law of the late Smaïl Aga, invaded Montenegro from Lake Skadar, and seized the small but strategically important islands of Vranjina and Lesendro. The Ottomans subsequently offered Njegoš recognition as ruler of Montenegro in exchange for his recognition of the overall sovereignty of the Sublime Porte. He refused, and instead attempted to retake the islands by force. However, the indifference of the Great Powers prevented him from taking any significant action. In 1847, severe drought prompted the Montenegrin tribal chiefs of Crmnica to revolt against Njegoš's authority. The chiefs, enticed by the Ottoman Empire's offer of much-needed wheat, launched their rebellion without the support of all the members of the Petrović clan and as such came to the point of being defeated before Osman Pasha sent his forces to reinforce the rebels. With Njegoš's brother leading the resistance, the Montenegrins pushed the rebels and the Ottomans back as one of the most important of the rebellious tribal chiefs, Markiša Plamenac, was shot by his own kinsmen after he fled to seek refuge with the vizier. A second rebellion was suppressed as well, with Njegoš having its instigators shot. Njegoš then sent an assassin to Shkodër in a failed attempt to have Osman Pasha killed. Subsequently, Njegoš survived several assassination attempts ordered by the Ottoman governor, including attempted poisonings and an attempt to destroy his headquarters. The ensuing stalemate led to an easing of tensions between the Montenegrins and the Ottomans as the situation on Montenegro's southern border stabilized.

In 1847, Njegoš published The Mountain Wreath. The next year, he met with a Serbian emissary named Matija Ban in order to discuss plans for an uprising in Bosnia and Macedonia (then called Old Serbia). Although enthusiastic about the prospect of uniting the Serbian people, Njegoš was more concerned about developments in neighbouring Bosnia and was painfully aware of how little he could do to influence events beyond Montenegro's borders. With a series of revolutions sweeping across Europe the following year, Njegoš's health worsened.

Later life and death

By the fall of 1849, Njegoš began experiencing an incessant cough and soon it was discovered that he had tuberculosis. By the early spring of 1850, it had become clear that his condition was life-threatening. Hoping to avoid the uncertainty that had preceded his own accession to office, Njegoš nominated Danilo, the son of Stanko Stijepov, to succeed him as Prince-Bishop in the event of his death. Critically ill, Njegoš travelled to the Italian town of Padova, where he spent time resting. In the summer of 1850, he returned to Montenegro, where he attempted to heal his sickness with natural medicines and by spending time outside in the fresh, mountain air. There, he was disturbed by reports of Omer Pasha's plan to invade Montenegro. Subsequently, he returned to Cetinje. However, by October 1851 his condition rapidly deteriorated and he died on 31 October 1851, at the age of 37. The following year, he was succeeded by Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš, who renounced the office of Prince-Bishop and became the first secular prince of Montenegro. This development acted as a symbol of Njegoš's political success, as his earlier establishment of Montenegrin secular organs which acted as substitutes for the Prince-Bishop when he was abroad prepared the ground for the secularization of the Prince-Bishop's function.

Works

Despite his political achievements, Njegoš is arguably best known for his poetic and literary output. His writings drew on folklore, lyric poetry and biblical stories. He began writing poetry at the age of 16, and in his life he wrote numerous plays and works of epic poetry, including The Voice of Mountaineers (1833), The Cure for the Turkish Fury (1834), The Serbian Mirror (1835), The Ray of the Microcosm (1845), The False Tsar Stephen the Little (1851) and, perhaps most famously, The Mountain Wreath. It was written in Cetinje in 1846 and first published in Vienna in 1847. Njegoš was inspired to write the play after his mentor Sima Milutinović allegedly heard a folk song about a massacre of Muslims while staying in Montenegro. Basing The Mountain Wreath on this same legend, Njegoš created one of the most influential works in Serbian literature and, consequently, a national myth about the massacre of Serb converts to Islam. Written as an epic poem, the play is based on a historical period in Montenegrin history during which many Montenegrin Serbs converted to Islam. Njegoš wrote the epic at a time when the liberation of Serbs from Turkish rule was glorified in Serbian national-romantic interpretation as the peak of the Serb people's historical path. He dedicated it to Karađorđe, the leader of the First Serbian Uprising, who "roused people, christened the land, and broke the barbarous fetters, summoned the Serbs back from the dead and breathed life into their souls," and set it against the backdrop of an all-out struggle by the Serbian people for liberation from Turkish domination. Set at the end of the 17th century, the central character in The Mountain Wreath is Bishop Danilo, the leader and sovereign of Montenegro. During his reign, he faces mass-conversions of Serbs from Orthodoxy to Islam. For him, these converts are the fifth column of the Ottoman Turks, whom he considers to be a permanent threat to the freedom and sovereignty of the Serb people. Montenegrin clan leaders converge to decide what must be done with Slavic converts to Islam. After much deliberation, they agree that massacring the Muslim converts is the best way to combat the Ottoman Turks. A meeting is arranged with a delegation of Muslim Slavs. During the meeting, the Muslim delegates are given the ultimatum that they can "convert either by water, or by blood". After their refusal, the Montenegrin warriors proceed to massacre the Islamized Slavs in an event which the reader does not witness.

The cover of The Mountain Wreath.

Over time, the alleged but historically not recorded massacre of Islamized Serbs on Christmas Eve of 1702 as described in The Mountain Wreath has become solidly embedded in popular memory. The literary critic and linguist Vojislav Nikčević stated that the artistic power of the epic and its lively spirit makes both readers and scholars experience the events being described as reality, rather than myth. The extermination of "the treacherous converts" as described in Njegoš's play acquired in the national consciousness the significance of the catharsis of a nation. The massacre is vested in religious apotheosis, despite the fact that murder is contrary to the basic tenets of the Christian religion, and despite the fact that Njegoš's work is a mythological and poetic construction. The Serbian historian Slobodan Jovanović asserted that Njegoš reconciled himself to the massacre of Islamized Serbs as a political necessity, one that served the interests of Montenegro.

Legacy

1,000 Yugoslav dinar note issued in 1994.

20 Serbian dinar note issued in 2006.

Njegoš has been regarded as an ambitious and able ruler, who has enjoyed enormous prestige both in his lifetime and since. Apart from having laid the foundations for the modern Montenegrin state, he was one of the most acclaimed South Slavic poets of his time. His indispensable contributions to the development of Montenegrin infrastructure included establishing the first two elementary schools in Montenegro, establishing the first Montenegrin periodical, opening two small factories to produce gunpowder in Rijeka Crnojevića, and building roads and wells in Montenegrin villages. He also sent sixteen young Montenegrins to be educated in Serbia, seven of whom returned upon completing school. In addition to establishing a central authority and attempting to create Montenegrin infrastructure, he also contributed greatly to the revival of Serbdom in Montenegro as, during his reign, Montenegrins were persuaded to stop wearing their Turkish fezzes in favour of a traditional Montenegrin cap and an Obilić Medal of Valour (named after the medieval Serbian knight Miloš Obilić) was instituted and became the country's highest military decoration in a move to reinforce Montenegro's bond with Serbs in Serbia and in other lands.

Since his death, Njegoš has remained one of the foremost political and cultural fathers of the Serbs. Various political factions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—including Serbian nationalists, Yugoslavs and communists—have adapted his works to justify their actions. Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, is said to have been influenced by Njegoš's literary works, as is Radovan Karadžić, the leader of the Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War. In the early 20th century, after the founding of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Njegoš became the national poet of the state. When the Communists came to power after the Second World War, the government declared Njegoš to be the national poet of Yugoslavia, and indeed, in 1947, during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publishing of The Mountain Wreath, the communists exploited the jubilee to promote Njegoš as a poet of a Montenegrin nation, and not a Serb one. This revision of Njegoš's ethnic identity could have been related to the Yugoslav communist policy of Brotherhood and Unity and the promotion of a Montenegrin ethnic group which was accorded by the communists the status of a nation separate from the Serbs in 1943. Thus, Njegoš's works, particularly The Mountain Wreath, have been used as a source for various layers of collective identification amongst Serbs, Montenegrins and Yugoslavs. More recently, Serbian nationalists have used his works to justify and incite ethnic-hatred during the Yugoslav Wars and subsequently they have been removed from all school curiculums in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, for many Montenegrins, The Mountain Wreath, in the decades following Njegoš's death, has become a national epic because it reaffirmed their connections to the Serbian and Christian world and because it celebrates the military skill of their warriors. For other Serbs, the poem became a significant piece of literature because it evoked themes similar to the Kosovo epics and it reminded them that they stood in solidarity with the people of Montenegro in their struggle against the Ottoman Turks. The work of Njegoš functions in that of a manner parallel to Shakespeare in the English-speaking world as the language is that of an acknowledged literary masterpiece which, although archaic, is at the same time eminently quotable, having supplied the modern Serbian language with numerous proverbial expressions. The epic poem has also become the basic educational text for Montenegrins and Serbs. In Montenegro it was, and still is, learnt by heart, and has been integrated into the oral tradition. Njegoš's portrait can often be seen in taverns, offices, hospitals, on Yugoslav and later Serbian currency and in people's home in both Montenegro and Serbia. Njegoš is Montenegro's national poet and has been called a "Montenegrin Shakespeare" by the British newspaper The Independent.

Commemoration

The ruins of Njegoš's chapel on Mount Lovćen (top) in 1924. The chapel was destroyed by the Austro-Hungarians in 1916, during the First World War. In 1974, the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš (bottom) was constructed in its place on Mount Lovćen in Lovćen National Park, Montenegro.

Statue of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš in Belgrade, Serbia.

Before his death in 1851, Njegoš had asked to be buried on Mount Lovćen, in a church dedicated to St. Petar Cetinski that he had designed and erected in 1845. At his death, Njegoš was interred at the monastery in Cetinje. In 1855, his remains were taken to Mount Lovćen and they remained there until 1916. In that year, the Austro-Hungarians, who had defeated the Serbian and Montenegrin armies in 1915, decided to erect a monument to Franz Joseph on the summit of Mount Lovćen. Not wishing for a monument to the Austrian Emperor to be located on the same perch as a symbol of South Slavic national feeling, the Austro-Hungarian occupational authorities demanded that Njegoš's remains be removed from Mount Lovćen and transferred to Cetinje. The Montenegrins had little choice in the matter and the remains were removed under the supervision of Serbian Orthodox clergy to avoid any accusation of desecration on the Austro-Hungarians' part. By the end of the war, Njegoš's chapel had been severely damaged. The authorities in Montenegro and the Yugoslav government negotiated for years over the question of where, when and at whose expense Njegoš was going to be buried. During the negotiations, Montenegrin authorities favoured restoring the original chapel, while the authorities in Belgrade opened a competition over the designs of a planned mausoleum. Some of the plans differed greatly from the original Byzantinesque building. However, by 1925, all plans to build a mausoleum were discarded, as the financial reality proved that it was much less expensive to reuse the stone from the mostly destroyed chapel than to bring new material to the site. In September 1925, in the course of a three-day ceremony sponsored and attended by King Alexander himself, the chapel was rededicated and Njegoš's remains were reburied. A Communist government came to power in Yugoslavia following the Second World War. In 1952, Montenegro's communist authorities decided to replace Njegoš's chapel with a mausoleum that was designed by Croatian architect Ivan Meštrović. The chapel was subsequently demolished and in 1974 Njegoš's remains were moved to a newly built mausoleum located at the peak of Mount Lovćen.

A statue dedicated to Njegoš once stood in the city of Priština in Kosovo, but it was demolished, along with a statue of the Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, by Kosovo Albanians in the aftermath of the 1998–99 Kosovo War.

Selected list of works

• "The Serbian Mirror" (1835)
• "The Ray of the Microcosm" (1845)
• The Mountain Wreath (1847)
• "The False Tsar Stephen the Little" (1851)

See also

• Serbs of Montenegro
• House of Petrović-Njegoš
• History of Montenegro

Notes

a.

^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. Kosovo's independence has been recognised by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.

Bibliography

Books

• Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-21193-6. http://books.google.ca/books?id=6HTdZ5rxJ-cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Grammar+with+Sociolinguistic+Commentary&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XJamUeTWKdKHqQHx0oD4BA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA. 
• Aleksov, Bojan (2007). Washburn, Dennis Charles; Reinhart, A. Kevin. eds. Converting Cultures: Religion, Ideology, and Transformations of Modernity. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15822-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=HcvKXwjmxUcC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Beissinger, Margaret H. (1999). Beissinger, Margaret H.; Tylus, Jane; Wofford, Susanne. eds. Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community. London, England: University of California Press, Ltd.. ISBN 978-0-520-21038-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=ncMPfjLn_M0C&printsec=frontcover. 
• Cox, John K. (2002). The History of Serbia. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-313-31290-8. http://books.google.ca/books?id=U765FGDfbPoC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Balić, Emily Greble (2006). Domenico, Roy P.; Hanley, Mark Y.. eds. Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-32362-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Z8ZixRcQfV8C&printsec=frontcover. 
• Duijzings, Ger (2000). Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12098-2. http://books.google.ca/books?id=D1eOpnjo9McC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Judah, Tim (1997). The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-0-300-08507-5. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=B4YbP0fPcMYC. 
• Pavlovich, Paul (1989). "The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro". The History of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Serbian Heritage Books. ISBN 0-9691331-2. 
• Pavlović, Srdja (2008). Balkan Anschluss: The Annexation of Montenegro and the Creation of the Common South Slavic State. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-465-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=4LPfuwer21EC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Rellie, Annalisa (2012). Montenegro. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-381-8. 
• Roberts, Elizabeth (2007). Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4601-6. http://books.google.ca/books?id=G62MCZ3RiIEC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Scheper, George L. (2000). Elrud, Ibach. ed. The Conscience of Human Kind: Literature and Traumatic Experiences. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi B.V.. ISBN 978-90-420-0420-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=eYhgf_Y90soC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Slapšak, Svetlana (2004). Cornis-Pope, Marcel; Neubauer, John. eds. History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries Volume IV: Types and Stereotypes. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.. ISBN 978-90-272-8786-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=YINYl4iv4ecC&pg=PR1&dq=History+of+the+Literary+Cultures+of+East-Central+Europe:+Junctures+and+Disjunctures+in+the+19th+and+20th+centuries;+Volume+IV:+Types+and+Stereotypes&hl=en&sa=X&ei=apqmUdbTK8TQqgGaioGABA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA. 
• Trencsényi, Kopček, Balázs, Michal (2007). Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945) Volume II: National Romanticism — the Formation of National Movements. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-7326-60-8. http://books.google.ca/books?id=TpPWvubBL0MC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Wachtel, Andrew B. (2004). Lampe, John R.; Mazower, Mark. eds. Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-Century Southeastern Europe. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-9241-82-4. http://books.google.ca/books?id=gE1c4wK-ASAC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Zlatar, Zdenko (2007). The Poetics of Slavdom: The Mythopoetic Foundations of Yugoslavia, Volume 2. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-8135-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=ltRWy32dG7oC&printsec=frontcover. 

Web

• "Njegošev mauzolej neće biti srušen" (in Serbo-Croatian). 29 June 2012. http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=29&nav_category=167&nav_id=622646. 
• "Vlada CG odlučuje o obnovi kapele" (in Serbo-Croatian). 18 June 2012. http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=18&nav_category=167&nav_id=619334. 
• "Public art in the Balkans: A Break from Tradition". 24 September 2012. http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2012/09/public-art-balkans. 
• "Super-rich party people say: Let's go to Montenegro". 7 July 2011. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/superrich-party-people-say-lets-go-to-montenegro-2308101.html?origin=internalSearch. 
• "Genocide's Epic Hero". 27 July 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27hemon.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0. 
• Pavlović, Srdja (3 October 2001). "The Mountain Wreath: Poetry or a Blueprint for the Final Solution?". York University. https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/soi/article/view/8038/7210. 

External links

• Petrović Njegoš Dynasty
• The Mountain Wreath