Cetinje is a city (population 14,700 in 2003) in the southern Montenegro municipality of the same name (population 18,749 in 2003). The city nestles on a small Karst plain surrounded by limestone mountains, including the majestic Mt. Lovćen, the Black Mountain from which Crna Gora (Latinised as Montenegro) gets its name.

Centinje became the capital of Zeta (current day Montenegro) in 1482, when Ivan Crnojević moved his court here from the banks of Lake Skadar to escape rampaging Turks.

At the end of WWI Montenegro was absorbed into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) and Centinje lost its position as a seat of government.

In 1946, the Montenegrin capital was moved to Podgorica (then Titograd), when Cetinje’s highly defensible plateau location proved incapable of supporting expansion, but it remains the country’s royal capital and the seat of the throne.

See also: List of historical national capitals

de:Cetinje