Godinje Village and the Crmnica Wine Landscape

Godinje and the Crmnica hills have been settled and farmed since the medieval period, when the Crnojević dynasty held the Lake Skadar shore and the inland hills were given over to vines, olives and pastoral agriculture. The village grew as a stone farming settlement on the terrace above the lake, its houses, lanes and terraces built from the local karst stone and arranged around shared cisterns and gardens. Crmnica wine — a dark red wine from the local vineyards — has been the region’s signature produce for centuries, shipped down to the lake and traded across Montenegro. The village survived the Ottoman and modern periods largely intact and remains a living settlement, though many houses are now only seasonally occupied. Wine production continues in private cellars and small holdings, and access to any of them is by arrangement, not as of right.