Cultural and Historical Heritage
The Old Bar is located at a steep cliff, inaccessible from three sides, at the foot of Mount Rumija. The strategic position and sources of drinking water were the most important reasons why the Old City of Bar, unlike other coastal cities, was built approximately 4 km away from the seashore. This city, whose citizens earned a living from crafts, olive oil and the salt trade, was successively built-up over the centuries. The oldest parts are situated on a prominent plateau on a cliff, where the city gate from 10th-11th century is located. Not far from here, isolated from the inhabited part, there is The Citadel (Fortress), which used to have a purely defensive function. Even today, there are remains of numerous churches of different styles and from different periods. The foundations of the Roman-Gothic Cathedral of St. Đorđe from the 11th century have been preserved, along with the two Gothic churches of St. Katarina and St. Veneranda, while the gunpowder factory and Ammam (Turkish bath) originate from the Turkish period. The west part of the town was fortified later, first in the 14th century and then again, during Venetian rule in the 16th century. In this part of the town there are the remains of St. Nikola’s Church, which was probably founded in the 13th century by Jelena Anžujska (d’Anjou), the wife of the Serbian King Uroš. Situated in a small turning square in the city centre, there is a well-preserved church dedicated to St. Jovan. Out of the town, north of the upper fortress, there are well-preserved remains of an aqueduct from the 16th and 17th centuries, which supplied water from the mountain to the city. Modern archaeological research which revealed ceramics from the 8th-6th centuries B.C., the period when an Illyrian settlement used to be here, proved that the foundations of the Old Town of Bar are more than two and a half millennia old.
King Nikola’s Palace (Castle) It was built in 1885 on the seashore. The palace was a present from King Nikola to his daughter Princess Zorka and his son-in-law Prince Petar Karađorđević. It consisted of a large palace, a little palace, a chapel, guardhouses and a winter garden. In 1910 a spacious ballroom was built in the palace. As part of the palace, there is a park with many different species of Mediterranean vegetation, among them a cork tree. In front of the palace, there was a wooden pier, which served as a mooring for boats and yachts. During the period between 1866 and 1916 King Nikola owned ten yachts. One of them, named “Sibil” was bought from novelist Jules Verne, while the last yacht he bought, called “Rumija” was sunk in 1915 by the Austro-Hungarian navy in the area of today’s harbour. Here, one can also find a large flower garden, made of a stainless steel structure of interesting shape, which was given as a present by the Italian king, Emanuel, and which is nowadays used as the restaurant called “Knjaževa bašta” (“The Duke’s Garden”). Nowadays, the palace building complex is used as the Homeland Museum of the City of Bar, as well as for festivals (concerts, exhibitions and literary events).
Haj-Nehaj Ruins of the medieval town of Nehaj, founded in the 15th century are 10 km (north-west) from the town of Bar. They are located on an inaccessible hill 225 metres above sea level. It was first mentioned in 1542 and it was built by Venetians for defence purposes. St. Dimitrije’s Church, with two altars (Orthodox and Catholic), which dates from the 13th century and is older than the fortification itself, is located in the town.
