Urbanizzazione nel contesto rurale del Montenegro centrale

The republic of Montenegro became an independent state on June 3rd 2006. Since then, Podgorica has assumed the role of the capital city of a sovereign state, with all the matching institutional centres and foreign embassies, modifying also its urbanistic asset and adapting them to the newly created needs. However, despite being the main urban centre both because of the number of its inhabitants and its position in the only plain of an almost entirely mountain state, the city still resembles a big rural settlement that grew in time without losing its original characteristics, intestad of being a true urban configuration. As a contrast to Podgorica, there is the historical capital of Cetinje, a small settlement situated at an altitude of 800m, a true barycentre of the original state nucleus, and less that of today's Montenegro, that was built between XVIII and XIX century: despite having not many inhabitants, it is a true urban settlement, with impressive XIX century buildings and places full of symbolic and identity meaning all around the city. In fact, Cetinje is the real soul and cultural centre not of the multinational state, but of the Montenegrin nation, meaning those who recognize themselves in a national identity that has grown in strength at the beginning of the XXI century but is still consolidating, and is different from the Serbian identity despite sharing the Language and the religion. These "central" urban poles, together with Niksic, the second largest city of the country, are the main Montenegrin axis from a political, demographical and communicational point of view. They exist together with the mountains of the North, which make the poorest area of the country: a net of small settlements distanced around 30 km from each other, with not Always easy ways of communication among them due to the climatic and environmental factors. This is the "less Montenegrin" part of Montenegro, characterized by ample uncultivated rural areas, and are inhabited by Serbian, Bosnjak-Muslim and Albanian minorities. Symmetrically opposed to this internal region, there is the old "Venetian Albania", the coastal area, with a chain of small cities separated by smaller settlements, which goes from the Kotor Bay to the Albanian border near the river Bojana. Almost every one of these settlements is still heavily influenced by the Venetian building schemes, and in many cases there are still antique walls around the cities: the two most Southern cities, Bar and Ulcinj, which were integrated into the Ottoman empire for centuries, are different from all the other ones because of the first one's strong anthropic Albanian component, and in the second case, because of the clear majority of Albanian population. All of the coastal cities are commercial or touristic harbours, despite having scarce communication lines with the rest of the country because of the environment; heavy mountains standing right over the coast. Therefore, the coastal part of Montenegro can be considered as the most economically active region of the country, and also the most famous internationally.