Virpazar

Lake Skadar National Park


This tiny town, gathered around a square and a river blanketed with water lilies, serves as the main gateway to Lake Skadar National Park. If you're interested in sampling local wines, you'll find family-run vineyards and tasting cellars in the surrounding hills.

Virpazar (Вирпазар) may be a small speck on the map now, but it was once considered so strategically important that the occupying Turks built the Besac fortress on the hill looming above the village. After their downfall, Virpazar became an important trading town (pazar means marketplace) with a lively port; in the early 1900s, it was connected to Bar by Montenegro's first narrow-gauge railway. It was also the site of one of the country's first significant uprisings against Axis invaders in WWII, an event commemorated by a striking bronze sculpture near the bridge.