OLD TOWN OF BAR (STARI BAR)

The old town of Bar is an ancient fortified city built at the foot of Mount Rumija, in a spectacular natural setting. It is the largest medieval archaeological site in Montenegro, and is on the Unesco tentative list. Now in ruins and uninhabited, it's well worth a visit. As you stroll along its fig and cypress-lined streets, you'll discover the remains of several hundred public and religious buildings.

Stamped with the stamp of the various civilizations that have succeeded one another, they provide invaluable evidence of Montenegro's eventful history. Recent excavations have revealed occupation of the site as far back as 800 BC.

Guided tour. A bus shuttles visitors every 30 minutes from the center of Bar. A visit to the old town takes a minimum of 2 hours. The best way to discover it is to stroll through its narrow streets, looking for the architectural details adorning the ruins of its buildings. The panorama is splendid, allowing you to fully appreciate its strategic position, with the sea on one side and a succession of mountains on the other.

To the north-west of the site, you can see an aqueduct built in the ^17th century during the Ottoman occupation. Like the rest of the town, it was partly destroyed in the 1979 earthquake.

From the Ottoman period , the town has preserved an ^18th-century Turkish bath installed in a Venetian palace, as well as a clock tower. This tower stands on the site of an earlier ^15th-century tower.

At the eastern end of the ramparts are the foundations of a church dedicated to St. George, Bar's patron saint. Transformed into a mosque in the ^17th century, it was destroyed by an explosion in 1882. Under its walls, archaeologists have found traces of the foundations of a ^6th-century church.

On the main alley, in the center of the medieval citadel, a very Latin-looking Orthodox church, Sveti Luka (St. Luke), is known for its Byzantine frescoes and icons.

Not far away is the church of St. Veneranda, built in the ^14th century and now converted into a concert hall.

The Church of St. Nicholas, now in ruins, was converted into a mosque during the Turkish occupation. It preserves traces of Serbo-Byzantine frescoes.

The upper part of the ^11th-centuryfortress was used as a prison during the Second World War.