The Photo Collection of Edith Durham

Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913

ED028_RAI 400.13328 Montenegro. Cetinje. An Albanian walking in the streets of Cetinje (Photo: Edith Durham, s.d.). “Twenty years ago Cetinje was a collection of thatched hovels. Today, modest as they are, the houses are all solidly built and roofed with tiles. Few more than one storey high, many consisting only of a ground floor, all of them devoid of any attempt at architecture; not a moulding, a cornice, or a porch breaks the general baldness: they are more like a row of toy houses all out of the same box than anything else… Cetinje is poor, but dignified and self-respecting. A French or Italian village of the same size clatters, shouts, and screams. Cetinje is never in a hurry, and seldom excited. It contains few important buildings. The only ones of any historic interest are the monastery, the little tower on the hill above it; where were formerly stuck the heads of slain Turks, and the old Palace called the Biljardo from the fact that it contained Montenegro’s first billiard- table.” (Edith Durham, Through the Lands of the Serb, 1904).