Brskovo

Brskovo lies among the tributaries of the Tara, in a mountain district once famous for silver. Saxon miners established its workings, while merchants from Kotor and Ragusa came to trade. In the thirteenth century the town possessed a customs office and a mint; its coins were known as grossi de Brescova. A church of the Virgin served the Catholic community, and a hilltop fortification watched over the mining settlements. Brskovo reached its height in the 1280s but declined after the middle of the fourteenth century. Ottoman forces took it in 1399, and by 1433 Ragusan records described the once prosperous town as deserted. Its old mines and scattered ruins remain among the wooded slopes above the valley.