Podgoritsa

Podgoritsa (Croatian, Podgorica), the largest town in Montenegro; on the left bank of the river Moracha, and in a fertile valley which strikes inland for 18 m. from the shores of Lake Scutari to the mountains of central and eastern Montenegro. Pop. (1900), about 5500. Spread out on a perfectly flat plain, Podgoritsa has two distinct parts: the picturesque Turkish quarter, with its mosques and ruined ramparts, and the Montenegrin quarter, built since 1877, and containing a prison and an agricultural college. These quarters are separated by the river Ribnitsa, a tributary of the Moracha. A fine old Turkish bridge crosses the main stream. Podgoritsa receives from the eastern plains and the north-eastern highlands a great quantity of tobacco, fruit, cereals, honey, silk, livestock and other commodities, which it distributes through Plavnitsa, its port on Lake Scutari, and through Riyeka to Cettigne and Cattaro. After being captured from Turkey in 1877, Podgoritsa was in 1878 recognized as Montenegrin territory by the Treaty of Berlin.