Through the Land of the SerbDurham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
History
Through the Land of the Serb
Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
Montenegro -- Description and travel; Serbia -- Description and travel
Leaving Cetinje by its only road, we soon reach the top of the pass, and
a sudden turn reveals the land beyond. We have come across Europe to the
edge of Christianity, and stand on the rocky fortress with the enemy in
sight. The white road serpentines down the mountain side, and far below
lies the green valley and its tiny village, Dobrsko Selo; on all sides
rise the crags wild and majestic; away in the distance gleams the great
silver lake of Skodra. Beyond it the blue Albanian mountains, their
peaks glittering with snow even in June, show fainter and fainter, and
the land of mystery and the unspeakable Turk fades into the sky--a scene
so magnificent and so impressive that it is worth all the journey from
England just to have looked at it.
We cast loose our third horse, and rattle all the way down to Rijeka,
skimming along the mountain side and swinging round the zigzags on a
road that it takes barely two hours to descend and quite three to climb
up again; for Cetinje lies 1900 feet above the sea, and Rijeka not much
more than 200 feet.
Rijeka means a stream, and the town so called is a cluster of most
picturesque, half-wooden houses, facing green trees and a ripple of
running water and backed by the mountain side--as pretty a place as one
need wish to see. The stream's full name is Rijeka Crnoievicheva, the
River of Crnoievich, but for everyday use town and river are simply
Rijeka. But its full name must not be forgotten, for it keeps alive the
fame of Ivan Beg Crnoievich, who ruled in the latter half of the
fifteenth century, in the days when Montenegro's worst troubles were
beginning. Unable to hold the plains of the Zeta against the Turk, Ivan
gathered his men together, burnt his old capital, Zabljak, near the head
of the lake, retired into the mountains, and founded Cetinje in 1484. He
built a castle above Rijeka as a defence to his new frontier, and swore
to hold the Black Mountain against all comers. But he meant his people
to grow as a nation worthily, and not to degenerate into a horde of
barbarians. He founded the monastery at Cetinje, appointed a bishop and
built churches. And--for he was quite abreast of his times--he sent to
Venice for type and started a printing press at Rijeka. In spite of the
difficulties and dangers that beset the Montenegrins, they printed their
first book little more than twenty years later than Caxton printed his
at Westminster. Ivan is not dead, but sleeps on the hill above Rijeka,
and he will one day awake and lead his people to victory. The printing
press was burned by the Turks, and the books which issued from it--fine
specimens of the printer's art--are rare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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