Two hundred people, a stream that comes cold out of the karst, and a two-hundred-year-old mill that became the best-known table on the bay.
Morinj is tucked into the innermost green corner of the Bay of Kotor, on the western shore between Risan and the Kamenari ferry crossing, where cold freshwater springs rise from beneath the mountains and meet the salt of the Adriatic. The result is an unusually lush, wooded landscape of streams, chestnut trees and old stone watermills, with the small Morinj river threading down past them to the sea. It is one of the bay's most peaceful spots, valued for natural beauty, clear swimming and exceptional food rather than crowds or nightlife.
Scenes from Morinj
Where to stay in Morinj
Donji Morinj
Best for the shore — apartments on the water, the pebble beach at the door, and the trunk road of the 1960s running between the two
Gornji Morinj
Best for the upper half of the village: stone houses, terraced ground at Svrčak, and at Gornji Berberovići a fortified house with defence towers on the corners of its courtyard
Naluka
Best for Kamp Naluka, the village campsite, near the river mouth
Kostanjica, 2 km on
Best for seventy-seven people, and the next village back toward the Kamenari ferry — quieter again
Morinj, three neighbours along the same shore, and Perast for scale — 2023 census
Morinj holds more people than its next three neighbours together, and finishes thirty short of Perast. One of the two is on every itinerary in the bay; the other is where the itinerary stops for lunch.
MONSTAT, Popis 2023 — population by settlement. Gornji Morinj is suppressed, so Morinj is shown as Donji Morinj only.
Who visits Montenegro
Share of foreign overnight stays, 2025
MONSTAT · 2025
Who lives here
Census population, Morinj municipality
Flat for fifty-five years — every census from 1948 to 2003 put Donji Morinj between 243 and 261 people. Then a fifth of them went in twenty years, to 207. MONSTAT suppresses Gornji Morinj’s count, so the hill half is not in that number. The neighbours along the shore are smaller again: Kostanjica 77, Strp 36, Lipci 17.
A reading village on a working stream
Morinj was never a port. It had springs, olives and seafarers, and in 1803 it put a school in a private house. Widths are to scale; the Austrian band takes in the French years, 1807 to 1814.
Municipality of Kotor’s adopted Morinj plan; Wikipedia (sr, hr) on Morinj; the Morinj court file.
A day at the stream mouth
Village hours, set by one kitchen and one beach
09:00the sea is coldest where the streams come out — freshwater springs under the surface keep it that way all summer
13:00the mills open at noon and take bookings online; turn up without one and drive on
17:00the slope behind the village takes the sun off the shore early
22:00the road empties; the stream does not
In the world's press
Morinj reaches the foreign press for one reason, and it is not the mills. By a decision of the command of the IX Naval Sector Boka, the Yugoslav People’s Army ran what its own paperwork called a "centre for the reception of prisoners" here from 3 October 1991 to 18 August 1992. Three buildings held Croatian prisoners of war and civilians; interrogation was done in others. Three of the men held there died in the centre and three more after they left it.
2018
tportalMontenegro has paid €1.43 million in court-ordered damages to former Morinj detainees, says the lawyer who acted for them.
2022
Radio Free EuropeA memorial plaque goes up at the site on 10 October; about fifty residents block the road over its wording, and the prime minister calls for it to come down.
The case ended with the Higher Court in Podgorica (Ks.br.19/12, 31 July 2013), confirmed on appeal (Kž-S.br.44/13, 27 February 2014): four former JNA reservists convicted of a war crime against prisoners of war, two to four years each. The Centre for Civic Education publishes the file in full.
1803
Meanwhile, in 1803
The year the village opened a school
Morinj,1803: the village opens a school taught in the vernacular — the first in Montenegro, says Kotor’s adopted plan. It starts in the house of Pavle Tripov Matković and his wife Andrijana, moves later to Kirilo Milinović’s, and is joined to the provincial state school in 1871. A library follows in 1843.
The Boka —Venice has been gone six years and the bay is Austrian. The French take it in 1807 and Austria takes it back in 1814; the school outlasts all three.
Paris:Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States, doubling the size of the country that buys it.
Serbia —Karađorđe’s uprising is a year away. Tomo Đurov Milinović (1770–1846), born here and taught his letters by a deacon in the village, will make his cannons — two of them in 1813, each in five pieces of 35 kg — and command his artillery at Deligrad.
Voices
“The plague did the killing — moriti — and the name it left behind was Morinj.”
Local legend
How the village got its name
“Among fire, water and wolves’ teeth I raise these pillars for the Orthodox people, 1848. Krile M.”
Inscription on the old school, Morinj
Built into the north façade, beside plaques to Tomo Milinović and to the first school in the vernacular. The ground floor holds the local council, the first floor the primary school. Transcribed in Kotor’s adopted Morinj plan.
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Morinj sits at the head of the inner Bay of Kotor, on the coastal road between Herceg Novi and Risan. It is about 20 km from Herceg Novi and roughly the same from Kotor, tucked into the corner where the bay narrows.
What is Morinj known for?
Its water. Several short, cold streams run down off the Orjen massif and reach the sea here within a few hundred metres, which historically powered watermills and still keeps the village unusually green. That fresh water meeting salt is what gives Morinj its character.
Is Morinj good for a meal?
It has a reputation out of all proportion to its size, thanks to the mill-side restaurants set among the streams and old stone buildings. Booking ahead in season is sensible — people drive here from across the bay specifically to eat.
Are there beaches in Morinj?
Small pebble beaches along the shore, quiet and shallow, with the cold stream water noticeably lowering the sea temperature near the outflows. It suits an unhurried swim rather than a beach day.
Is Morinj a good base?
For a quiet stay with a car, yes. It sits roughly midway between Herceg Novi and Kotor, with Perast and Risan minutes away, and the Kamenari ferry close enough to make Tivat and the Budva Riviera straightforward.
What is there to do around Morinj?
Walk the streams and mill ruins, swim from the pebble shore, drive or boat to Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks, visit the Roman mosaics at Risan, and use the village as a starting point for walks up towards Orjen.
How warm is the sea at Morinj?
From about 13 °C in February to 25 °C in August. It holds above 22 °C from June to September, which is the swimming season. Regional normals from the Herceg Novi station, not a city-precise reading.
How far is Lipci from Morinj?
1.7 km by road, about 4 min by car.
Is Morinj safe?
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has no advisory against travel to Montenegro; it last reviewed its guidance on 13 August 2026. That is their assessment of the country as a whole, not ours and not a judgement about Morinj, so read it yourself before you travel. The emergency number in Montenegro is 112.
Morinj through the year
JunBeach season — loungers and beach bars from June to September — entry free, about €4–8 a lounger, and the water stays cold at the stream mouths all summer
The local plate
Grilled fish, in a mill that pressed its own oil
Morinj’s mills ground grain and pressed olives for the villages around it almost to the middle of the twentieth century. Four still stand. Three are derelict — one of them keeping its original mill machinery on the ground floor — and the fourth, the Ćatović family’s, was restored in 1994 on a property the family had held two hundred years. It took the BIG SEE Tourism Design Award in 2020 for creative story and identity.
Where Ćatovića Mlini, in the mill gardens above the shore road — noon to 22:30, reservations online; plus the restaurants and café on the beach at Donji Morinj
By tradition Dragomanovići — renamed for the plague
Morinj in numbers
207
Population
2023 census, Donji Morinj settlement
Trn
The river
the mills were built where it comes out of the ground, and it reaches the sea inside the village
3
Churches
sv. Jovan Bogoslov (16th c.), sv. Sava (1873) and sv. Tripun — an older sv. Jovan at Svrčak fell in the 1667 earthquake
1803
Opened
the school, taught in the vernacular; a library followed in 1843
Kotor region
UNESCO listed
Kotor’s adopted plan puts Morinj inside the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor, on the World Heritage list
7.2 km
The ferry
to the Kamenari ramp and the crossing at Verige — Kotor is 24.7 km by road, Perast 12.7
MONSTAT, Popis 2023 (Donji Morinj settlement) · Municipality of Kotor’s adopted Morinj plan · Wikipedia (sr, hr) · road distances from mojaavantura.com
The shape of the bay
Towns at their true positions; the water drawn as a ribbon
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