Krivošije

Krivošije (Кривошије, kriv̞ɔ̌ʃijɛ) are a historical tribe and microregion in southwestern Montenegro, located on a high plateau belonging to the Orjen mountain range, north of the Bay of Kotor. Krivošije was historically located at a tripoint between the Principality of Montenegro, Austro-Hungarian (formerly Venetian) Bay of Kotor and Ottoman Sanjak of Herzegovina. It is speculated that the name of the region is derived from the last name Krivošić, which is mentioned in 15th century Ragusan sources. In Serbian krivi (neutral form krivo) means "bent" or "crooked" оr "guilty", while šije (singular: šija) means "necks", and it may be derived from some ancestor with a deformity. It might also be derived from the word krv meaning blood, as in linked by blood relationships. During William James Stillman's travels, an American Journalist, in 1904, he listed the Krivošije (Crivoscians) as a Slavonic tribe. Krivošije are a mountainous karst region above Risan, located at around 1000 metres above the sea level, spanning on 114 km2 of land. It is a high plateau on the northern and eastern branches of Mount Orjen (1894 m) in southwest Montenegro, near in the hinterland of the Bay of Kotor. A significant geological and geomorphological feature of the region are the glacial deposits distributed across the whole of the plateau. They were deposited by valley glaciers coming from Orjen during the Ice Age. Krivošije is the region with the greatest rainfall in Europe. Reovačka greda is a mountain ridge located near Crkvice in central Krivošije, is the location of the region's highest peak Pazua (1769 m), which is used for trad climbing. Settlements in the region include Crkvice (inhabited location with the highest annual precipitation in the Europe), Dragalj, Han, Malov Do, Knežlaz, Ubli, Unijerina and Zvečava. Krivošije are within the Mediterranean subtropical belt. While summers are hot and sunny, autumn, winter and spring are rainy seasons. A peculiarity of the littoral Dinarids is the precipitation regime as the settlements of Orjen receive more precipitation than any others in Europe.