In Podgorica and Budva, religious communities have become important investors: they are building schools, churches, mosques, cultural centers, solar power plants, transformer stations, as well as residential and commercial buildings.
The Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG) obtained data for this article from the capital and Budva, where construction of religious buildings and other investments related to religious communities are underway and planned. However, neither the Budva nor Podgorica municipalities have answered numerous questions important for the research - what is the attitude of local governments towards religious institutions.
Our question remained unanswered as to whether all religious communities are treated in the same way, how much religious projects have cost local budgets in the past decade through exemptions, reductions, land transfers, infrastructure interventions and other benefits, and whether citizens have ever been included in a public debate on the impact of religious community projects on the city's space, infrastructure and budget.
Podgorica
In Podgorica, according to the documentation of the Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, religious communities were beneficiaries of budget allocations, investors in residential and commercial facilities, carriers of projects of general interest, and subjects of various utility regimes. What is missing is a clear response from the state and the Capital City: according to what rules, for whom, and why.
Documentation obtained by CIN-CG shows that the proceedings were formally conducted through legally prescribed procedures, but that religious communities in Podgorica are not in the same regime when it comes to communal obligations.
The most striking example of the difference in treatment is seen in the case of the Metropolitanate of the Montenegrin and Littoral Serbian Orthodox Church (Metropolitan Church). For the complex at the Old Airport, which includes the 4.451-square-meter Saint Sava religious gymnasium and the 309-square-meter temple of the same name, whose founder is Risto Drekalović, the owner of KIPS, the initial calculation of the utility fee amounted to more than 260.000 euros. After the intervention of the then Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism in 2023, headed by Ana Novaković Đurović (URA), the high school is completely exempt from paying utilities, while an 80 percent reduction is applied to the church. With the exemption and tax reduction, they paid 6.048,18 euros for the church alone.
At the same time, in 2024, the Jewish Community was awarded a fee of over 46.000 euros, without exemption, for a significantly smaller facility, a two-story cultural center.
The Metropolitanate also built a multi-story building in the most attractive part of the city
The documents indicate that the role of the Metropolitanate in the capital is not limited to the construction of churches, parish houses, or auxiliary religious facilities, but is also a participant in significant residential and commercial developments, as well as agricultural production.
Documentation shows that the Metropolitanate of Podgorica was also a co-investor in a market-oriented residential building in the very center of the city. The Metropolitanate, together with the private company Volvox Engineering, is a co-investor of a luxury residential building next to the Church of St. George in Podgorica, in the most attractive part of the city.
Mitropolija is building on another plot in a more luxurious part of the city, within the scope of the DUP "Business Center Kruševac - Zone B", a business building with an area of approximately 4.277 square meters is planned, with garages, business premises and business apartments.
In Zagorič, this religious organization also received urban planning and technical conditions for the construction of a smaller building, with the possibility of doing business on the ground floor. In Konik, it was also approved for the construction of the “MCP Gimnazija” transformer station, as a local facility of general interest.
On cadastral plots in the Cerovice administrative district, in Piperi, which are registered as fifth-class forests and which were transferred to the ownership of the Metropolitanate on the basis of a gift, the construction of a facility in the “agriculture - housing in agriculture” zone is planned. Although the plan formally allows up to 150 m2 of residential and 350 m2 of commercial space, this is an area without a detailed urban plan and without basic communal infrastructure. The documentation shows that the facility is planned in a zone whose primary function is agricultural production.
Also, urban planning and technical conditions for construction on more than a hectare of agricultural land in Mataguži were issued to the Metropolitanate, although the applicant did not submit proof of fulfillment of one of the basic conditions from the plan - that he does not own other uncultivated agricultural land.
The documentation also does not contain data on a registered agricultural farm, which raises the question of whether agricultural use is being used as a formal basis for construction in an area that is not urbanized.
Documentation shows that, in September last year, the Metropolitanate also submitted a request for the legalization of an illegal building in Berim, near Podgorica.
The 3.430 square meter Islamic Community Complex in the historic city center
Urban planning and technical conditions from March 2019 reveal that the Islamic Community planned a 3.430 square meter complex in the heart of the Old Town, with almost 100 parking spaces, an underground garage, a restaurant and apartment accommodation. Although formally defined as a “religious facility”, the documentation shows that it is not a classic prayer space, but a multifunctional complex with commercial and administrative facilities. All of this is planned in the oldest, historical core of Podgorica, an area that should be treated with particular care due to its ambient and cultural value.
In 2022, the Islamic community also received urban planning and technical conditions for the construction of a mosque in Durres. This is a plot of land on which the 18th-century Hadrović Mosque was located until the middle of the last century. However, the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Heritage stated in a letter from April 2022 that the remains of the former mosque have not been recognized as a potential cultural asset, and that there are no grounds for issuing conservation conditions. This paves the way for new construction without an additional protection regime.
However, the documentation for the Islamic Community does not show a preferential financial regime. In Stara Varoš, a little over 50.000 euros were paid for utilities, for the construction of the mosque in Durres about 6.000 euros, while for the mosque in Konik a fee of a little over 10.000 euros was determined. In these cases, there are no exemptions or drastic reductions in utility fees similar to those recorded in some of the projects of the Metropolitanate.
Construction continues.
The intensification of construction of religious buildings in Podgorica is yet to come. According to the Spatial and Urban Plan (PUP) of the Capital City, the largest number of religious buildings, 18 of them, will be built by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), one by the Catholic Church, two buildings are planned for the Islamic Community and one for the Evangelical Church.
The Serbian Orthodox Church will build two monasteries, in the settlements of Tološi and Kuči, three parish houses are planned in Donja Gorica and Momišići, as well as churches and other religious buildings in Sadine, Zagorič, Velje Brdo, Ćemovsko polje, Pod Goricam, Konik...
The Islamic community will build a mosque in the Konik settlement and an Islamic center on the road to Tuzi. The construction of a Catholic church is planned in Fundina, while the Evangelical Church Riječ Božja will build a temple in the Preko Morača part of the city.
"In the process of drafting the Amendments to the Podgorica Urban Development Plan, which were adopted last summer, we noticed - and stated in the comments we sent to the public debate at the time - that there is a disproportion in the planning of religious buildings in relation to basic public functions. Namely, we noticed at the time that the Draft envisaged 18 new religious buildings, while the Draft Amendments did not plan a single new school, nor an increase in the capacity of educational or health institutions," the organization Ko ako ne arhitekta (KANA) told CIN-CG.
Despite the large religious construction project that is coming up in Podgorica, during the public debate on the amendments to the Urban Development Plan, religious organizations requested the possibility of building additional facilities and facilities. Their requests were mostly accepted, according to KANA.
"All this means a greater possibility that, if the planned facilities are implemented, a significant part of Podgorica's future gathering spaces and social life will be created within religious complexes. It is true that religious buildings can also have a public function and often offer facilities that serve the wider community. However, it is also important to say that they cannot be a substitute for public facilities planned, financed and provided by the public administration for all citizens under equal conditions," KANA states.
Budva: Legalization of 2.000 square meter complex unsuccessful so far
The Metropolitanate also has ambitious construction activities and plans in Budva. According to the urban and technical conditions from 2016 and 2019 in that municipality, in Podmaine, the construction of a religious complex of 10.067 square meters is allowed. However, documentation from 2022 and 2025 shows that the Metropolitanate, on a neighboring plot, illegally built two large buildings of about 2.000 m2, the legalization of which was denied. These are the "Old Residence" and "New Residence" of the monastery in Podmaine.
The request for legalization stated that the buildings were completed and moved in. However, by a decision of the Secretariat for Urban Planning and Sustainable Development of the Municipality of Budva dated January 22, 2025, the request was rejected as irregular.
From 2022 to 2026, the Metropolitanate also conducted several procedures related to the Church of the Holy Trinity in the protected zone of the Old Town in Budva. It initiated procedures for various interventions in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Trinity: construction of a fountain, electrical installations and lighting, erection of a candle burning house, and requests for several other reconstructions of this significant cultural and historical monument, for which permits were obtained.
Although the documentation shows that the procedures were conducted through institutions, the frequency and multi-year repetition of the requests raises the question of transparency: is this a single project implemented in phases, or a series of formally separate interventions that change the appearance and function of the space within the cultural property.
The Municipality of Budva and the Metropolitanate concluded an agreement on the construction of the Church of St. Mark on November 11th last year. The agreement was signed in the Cetinje Monastery by Metropolitan Joannikius and the President of the Municipality Nikola JovanovicThe construction of the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Mark, as they said, is planned in accordance with the urban design for the cathedral complex, "and will be realized as a religious, cultural and architectural facility of special importance for Budva and its citizens."
The Municipality of Budva has committed to financing the development of complete project and technical documentation, the municipal equipping of the site, as well as to award the Metropolitanate a donation in the amount of one million euros, which will be planned in the Municipality's budget for 2026. Also, the local government will participate in the financing and construction of underground garages within the complex of the future temple.
The draft urban planning project for the complex of the Orthodox Cathedral in Budva was approved by the Government at a session chaired by the Prime Minister in early December 2023. Milojko Spajic.
One of the key objections that was accepted at the public hearing was that when relocating the chapel, which is a valuable architectural work by a famous Budva architect, Slobodan Mitrovic, should be based on the design of the existing state of the chapel.
Five years ago, architect Mitrović wrote to Metropolitan Joanikije and the then chief state architect. Vladan StevovićHe did not receive any answers. Mitrović states in his letter that he won the competition with his 1986 city chapel project, but that his appeal was not motivated by saving the chapel, but by obtaining a better and higher quality solution for that space.
He states that a better location for the planned temple is the church land on a hill in Bečići. He also raised the issue of the fact that St. Stefan Štiljanović, who is the only saint from Budva, does not have a church dedicated to him, although 750 churches have been built in Montenegro in the last three decades.
"The planned magnificent temple is squeezed between the parish house and the supermarket, and no matter how it is placed (east - west), only one side is open to the road and passage, and on three sides it is closed, inaccessible and invisible. To all this, I would like to add that a magnificent temple has no place next to a cemetery, and the church of St. Petka and the Podmaine monastery, at a distance of 500 meters, have pretty much formed the habits of the surrounding population for liturgies on Sundays and holidays," Mitrović's address states.
According to the latest information, the construction of the cathedral in Budva will not begin this year, because the plans have not yet resolved the issue of relocating the city chapel.
And while both cities are grappling with a lack of schools, kindergartens, health and cultural institutions, it seems that there is no shortage of space for religious communities.
"If, in the planning process, space is more easily found for religious buildings than for schools, kindergartens, health centers, sports and cultural facilities, then part of what should be universally accessible public space is gradually being ceded to organizations that, even when acting in the general interest, still operate outside the public service system and are not equally open to all citizens," KANA assesses.
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