Crmnica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crmnica (Montenegrin Cyrillic and Serbian Cyrillic: Црмница, pronounced [tsr̩mnitsa]) is one of the local communities (mjesne zajednice) of the municipality of Bar and a historical region in southern Montenegro. It was one of the four sub-regions of Old Montenegro, where it was known as Crmnička nahija ("the nahija of Crmnica").
Crmnica is located in south-western Montenegro, between the historical area of the Paštrovići tribe and Shestani/Krajina to the south. Crmnica is the most fertile region of Montenegro and it is well known for a local variety of viticulture, the Vranac. In the 19th century, the region consisted of the following villages: Boljevići, Braćeni, Brijege, Bukovik, Donji Brčeli, Dupilo, Gluhi Do, Godinje, Gornji Brčeli, Komarno, Krnjice, Limljani, Mačuge, Mikovići, Orahovo, Ovtočići, Podgor, Popratnica, Seoca, Sotonići, Tomići, Trnovo, Utrg, Virpazar and Zabes. Many of them today are depopulated or completely uninhabited because of the mass emigration wave that began in the 1990s. Virpazar, the central settlement of the region, has 277 inhabitants as of 2011.[1]
The population adheres to Orthodoxy; roughly, the majority of the population declares as Montenegrins, the rest as Serbs.
Origins
Crmnica first appears in the 13th century under two different names, Crmnica and Kučevo, which is the slavicized variant of an Albanian toponym that meant "red place" (kuq). Both names refer to the fact that the region was known for its quarry of red stone.[2]
