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Piva Lake and the Mratinje Dam: the reservoir in Piva Canyon

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Piva Lake from a wooded slope above Plužine, with a long road bridge crossing the turquoise water and forested mountains on both sides under white clouds.
Photo: Nadiia Snitsa, Unsplash License

Piva Lake, Pivsko jezero, is the reservoir that fills most of Piva Canyon in north-western Montenegro. It formed behind the Mratinje Dam, which closed the canyon in 1975, and it stretches upstream from the dam, past Plužine, between steep forested walls.

  • Length: about 45 km (Piva Nature Park gives 42 km)
  • Area: about 12.5 km²
  • Greatest depth: about 188 m
  • Surface: about 675 m above sea level
  • Dam: Mratinje, 220 m high, completed in 1975

The water level rises and falls, and when it’s low a band of pale rock shows along the shore below the trees.

The Mratinje Dam

The Mratinje Dam is a concrete arch dam, curved both across the canyon and from top to bottom. It’s 220 m high and its crest is 268 m long. Building started in 1971, and most sources give 1975 for its completion, though some date the power station’s opening to 1976. The Piva hydropower station at the dam has a capacity of 342 MW and belongs to Elektroprivreda Crne Gore, Montenegro’s power company.

The curved grey concrete wall of the Mratinje Dam rising out of dark blue water, with the road and blue railings along its crest and a limestone cliff behind.
The Mratinje Dam from the lake side. Photo: Vitalii Lytvynov, CC BY-SA 3.0

The M-3, the road from Plužine down the canyon to Šćepan Polje, runs along the crest of the dam. Stopping on the crest isn’t allowed. Below the dam the river runs free again for the last stretch to Šćepan Polje, and Via Ferrata Piva is on that stretch, at the road bridge 20 km from Plužine.

What the lake flooded

The old town of Plužine was in the valley that the reservoir now covers. A new Plužine was built higher up, on the shore, and it’s now a small town of about 1,100 people, the centre of a municipality of about 2,200.

Plužine seen from above, a cluster of houses and apartment blocks with red roofs on a forested hillside over the turquoise lake, with a band of pale rock along the shore.
Photo: Julian Nyča, CC BY-SA 4.0

Piva Monastery stood in the valley too. It was built between 1573 and 1586 and dedicated to the Dormition, and the reservoir would have put it under water. From 1969 to 1982 it was taken apart stone by stone and rebuilt on higher ground near Goransko, about 3.5 km from where it had stood. Its frescoes, about 1,260 m² of them, were taken off the walls and put back in the rebuilt church. The monastery is about 8 to 9 km from Plužine, and you can visit it.

The grey stone church of Piva Monastery with a dark tiled roof and crosses on top, behind a low stone wall, with a small roofed wooden structure beside it and green hills under a blue sky.
Photo: Wiki surfer bcr, public domain

On the water

Cruises of two to three hours run on the lake, some of them by Piva Nature Park. The park also rents kayaks in Plužine.

You can swim in the lake in summer, though the water can feel cold. The shore is steep and rocky in most places, so pick a spot where you can get in and out easily.

Fishing is allowed with a permit, which you get from the Piva Nature Park office in Plužine.

The zipline at Plužine

Zip Line Eko Piva is at the entrance to Plužine, above the lake. The national tourist board lists it as the longest zipline in Montenegro, about 1,400 m in two flights with a short walk between them, at speeds of up to 65 km/h. It starts from the car park of the Eko Piva guesthouse and finishes near the Plužine bridge. It runs in spring and summer, so check that it’s open before you plan your day around it.

Plužine and the climb

Plužine is the last town on the road before the via ferrata, and the bridge where the climb starts is 20 km further on, about 25 minutes’ drive from Plužine over the dam. A morning on the lake and an afternoon climb, or the other way round, fit into one day. We offer start times from 08:00 to 18:00, and plan a day at Piva puts the two together. The complete guide has the route, and Piva Canyon covers the canyon below the dam and the river that feeds the lake.