A center of historical and cultural importance, it was founded c. 1484 by Prince Ivan Crnojević of Zeta, and designated as the cathedral monastery of the Eparchy of Zeta.
It was devastated in 1692, during the Morean War, and rebuilt between 1701 and 1704 by Metropolitan Danilo Petrović-Njegoš on the site of the former court of Ivan Crnojević.