Since I am a parish priest in a parish in the Podlovćen area, I am often asked what is happening with Njegoš's Church on Lovćen and with a certain right they expect to hear from me something more than newspaper reports. I did not know much because I had last been to Lovćen in November last year and I told what I had seen then, that the road from Cetinje to Jezerski Vrh, where the Church is located, is in extremely poor condition (one gets the impression that it has not been repaired for years), that a tunnel has been dug, an integral part of the works on Meštrović's mausoleum, and that the chapel-church stands proudly in its place.
Recently, "Politika" brought the news that work on Lovćen has resumed and that a crypt for Njegoš's bones has been excavated. This has shaken all of us who respect Njegoš and his last will to lie in the church, and it has encouraged me to go to Lovćen and see with my own eyes what is being done up there and inform all those who are interested about it. On St. Peter's Day in the afternoon, four of us arrived in one car at the foot of Jezerski Vrh and continued our journey on foot. The workers we found there kindly let us climb to the church. The path that used to lead to the chapel has been largely destroyed. The tunnel is ugly. Inside is a bulldozer. I don't like Lovćen and mechanization. Poetry and banal prose! The first part of Lovćenska Kapa is almost destroyed, to put it mildly, it has been torn apart, the middle too. The chapel still stands, but it is somehow sad. Due to the strong detonations during the blasting, the plaster from many joints on the church fell out, the lightning rods were distorted, and one or two were completely torn out, the fence was shaken, several stones were broken, the relief of Saint George above the entrance door, although protected by boards, cracked, and a large pile of stones was thrown out on the north side of the church, so that it is impossible to walk around. On the same side, on the stone fence itself, a pit several meters long and deep continues (meaning that the blasting was carried out next to the chapel itself). It is now impossible to go to the end of Lovcenska Kapa. The workers say that this pit is the crypt that was written about. So, they will place the bones of the unfortunate Bishop there, against his will... What a welcome for the great Njegoš!
When it came to the blasting in the immediate vicinity of the chapel, the mausoleum builders promised His Eminence Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorska, Mr. Danilo, that they would protect it completely, however, only the cross on the chapel and the relief of Saint George were “protected”. Surely someone will ask who will be responsible for the damage to the chapel and around it. I ask that too?
One more thing. Even from afar, when approaching Jezerski vrh, you can notice something red on the slopes of this peak. The mausoleum builders are recklessly throwing red soil down the hill during the works, not caring what impression this river of redness leaves. The impression that the wounded Lovćen is bleeding irresistibly imposes itself on me…
Is there any hope that the church on Lovćen will still remain in its place and that Njegoš’s last will will not be violated? From a human perspective, no! The appeals of all cultural people from our country and abroad, not to demolish the Church and build a mausoleum of dubious artistic value, did not resonate in Cetinje. The court case between the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Municipality of Cetinje has not been concluded, and despite all this, work on the mausoleum is being carried out. Logic comes to a dead end…
So, after all, nothing (especially) new on Lovćen!
The text of the blessed memory of Archpriest-stavrophor Momčilo Krivokapić, long-time governor of Boka Kotorska, published in “Pravoslavlje” on July 29, 1971, No. 104 – 107.
Prepared by Olivera Balaban
(Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral)