evidence: Over time, it was challenged by the idea of Montenegrin ethnic state. This caused a break in the identity of the Montenegrin Orthodox, which con¬tinues to preclude their final national self-determination. As holders of the Ottoman- Islamic state concept, the Slavic Muslim population of Montenegro was historically strongly distanced from Christian fellow countrymen speaking the same language. At the same time, they identified with the rest of the Slavic Muslim population, most¬ly concentrated in Bosnia, which finally enabled their co-existence with the Bosniak national construct. Given the extreme complexity of the religious and ethnic image of Montenegro and the processes that shaped it, it is expected to raise many important research questions. The attached paper focusses on one of them. Almost the entire area of intertwined relations between Slavic Catholics (Croats) and Orthodox (Serbs/ Montenegrins) was located in the part of the Montenegrin coast that defended itself against the Ottoman invasions during the Venetian rule (eastern Boka Kotorska, the town of Budva, Paštrovići), that is, the part that was liberated from the Ottomans at the turn of the 17th century (western Boka Kotorska, the mountain range of Orjen in its hinterland, Grbalj, the immediate surroundings of Budva).