Podgorica the capital and largest city of Montenegro. Podgorica’s favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement. The city is close to winter ski centres in the north and seaside resorts on the Adriatic Sea. Some three kilometres (1.9 miles) north-west of Podgorica(Titograd) lie the ruins of Roman-era Doclea, from which Roman Emperor Diocletian hailed.
In later centuries, Romans “corrected” the name to Dioclea, guessing wrongly that an “i” had been lost in vulgar speech. “Duklja” is the later version of that word. When founded (before the 11th century), the town was called Birziminium. In the Middle Ages, it was known as Ribnica. The name Podgorica was used from 1326. From 1946 to 1992, the city was named Titograd in honour of Josip Broz Tito, the former President of Yugoslavia.
