Step inside a monastery built into a cliff

Ostrog is a white Orthodox monastery set high into a nearly vertical rock face in the mountains of central Montenegro. It was founded in the 17th century by Basil of Ostrog, who died there in 1671.

There are two monasteries on the hill, a lower one and the upper one in the cliff, about three kilometers apart. Pilgrims walk that stretch barefoot. The group goes up by the local minibus, shoes on.

At the top the building is half rock. Two small cave churches sit inside the cliff, and one of them was painted directly onto the stone of the cave. Shoulders and knees are covered, and no photographs are taken in the cave chapels.

Most of the monastery burned and was rebuilt in the 1920s. The two cave churches survived, and Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim visitors all come to them.