Old Town Bar

To stay in Bar, and not visit its old part, that is, the Old Bar, it is the same as if you haven’t been in that town at all. The Old Bar, which is 4 kilometers away from the center of the New Bar, is situated on a very steep cliff in the base of the mountain Rumija. The town has been successively built for several centuries.

Primarily the area that the Old Bar encompassed was much closer to the shore, but because of the frequent pirate attacks, population had to move to interior, so today the Old Bar is almost 5 kilometers away from the sea.

Bar is constituted of the fortified city lake, encompassed by the walls from the XI and XII century, which were renewed in the XIV and XV century. During the visit of that part of Bar, you’ll see an old city gate from the XI century. Beside the gate, there is a Citadela, which had exclusively defensive character. As a part of the Old Bar is annexed it the Venetian era, during the XV century and in the first half of the XVI century, a great number of monuments authentically testifies of that time.

There are two still very well preserved churches: the church of St. Katarina from the XVI century and the church of St. Veneranda from the Xv century. In the old part of the town there is a Turkish bathroom – a steam bath from the XVII century, a powder magazine, as well as some other interesting buildings, like the remains of the church St. Nikola, which in the year 1288 was built by the wife of the Serbian emperor Uros, better known as Jelena Anzujska or Jelena Kurtnejska. Below the Old town there are the remains of aquaduct from the XVI and XVII century, through which the water was brought to town.

The Old Bar, in which today no one lives, used to be full of inhabitants who were engaged in various kinds of trading, selling olive oil, salt, craftworks…

In the Old Bar there is also a place Podgrad (Undertown), which dates from the middle century, but in which people live even today. In the community there are several old inns, shops, craft shops, s well as meat market. In Podograd two mosques and a catholic church of St. Marija are situated.

Especially during the last few years, the society of friends of the Old Bar, and the descendants of the families that used to live in it, have set in motion an action for revival of the Old Bar, as an ancient architectonic compound and the oldest settlement on the territory of that town. From summer to summer Old Bar has become very interesting to architects, archeologists, cultural and public workers, who reveal interesting ideas and create various projects for the revitalization and preserving Old Bar from oblivion. That is the way to introduce younger people from Bar but also numerous tourists with all that Old Bar used to signify.

If you wish to meet the surroundings of the Old Bar, then we recommend that you easily take a stroll to a place called Mirovica, where the famous trunk of an over 2.000 years old Bar olive tree is located.

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