Bar Things to Do

Under the city walls of the old city of Stari Bar, on the south, the village of Bartule (or is it a hamlet, part of Stari Bar ?) is half hidden by a thick net of electric wires and sits discreetly in the tiny valley of river Vruča. Next time we come to Stari Bar, I would like to have a look to that quiet little village.

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This is the view from on top of the main, and only remaining, entrance into the old city of Stari Bar. It shows what should be an orthodox church or maybe a chapel with tall cypresses behind. A small house is adjoining it and amazingly, it is cut by in two half by a wall.

The second picture is taken from a few meters further and between the cypresses appears a mosque. I wondered if that meant that the church and the mosque shared the small house but I have not been any further to check this hypothesis. Next time, may be !

There are only half a dozen roofed buildings in the old town of Stari Bar. This amazing building is one of them but I am not sure of its identification as it did not bear any sign. It might be either Sveti Veneranda or Sveti Catherine, both built in the 14th century

The Great Palace was built in the 15th century. It is now a fine arts studio but was not open for a visit when we were there. On a whole, when visiting the old city of Stari Bar, I felt that there was unfortunately a great lack of information on what is what.

This church should be Sveti Nikola crkva (church of Saint Nicholas). Unfortunately, I could not visit the inside. Sveti Nikola was built in late Romance style. Under Turkish rule, it was used as a mosque. After the independence, it was at some time used as an ammunition depot and was half destroyed in 1912 by an explosion. It is one of the few buildings that have been rebuilt.

As soon as the 16th century did the city grew outside the walls, south-eastwards and north-westwards. The ancient city began to be abandoned by its inhabitants after 1878. It was already ruined when in 1997, it was severely hit by an earthquake. While the parts outside the walls have soon been rebuilt, mainly by their inhabitants, the ancient part, inside the walls, has only been very partly rebuild and a lot of parts still remain as ruins such as this one.

The main entrance into the old city was built in the 14th century and has a tower. The entrance itself is through a vaulted passage with an iron gate. The inner building is now used as an open air theater.

Unfortunately, I have no photo of the outside but I can tell you that the street is very steep, without any shade, which means that in summer, you are very happy to reach the gate and its shade !

Amazingly, in the middle of the main street stands a well. At first sight, it seems that it should be some very ancient well. However, if you decipher the Cyrillic writing, it says "Mijo Mali?inj, 1997" ! The explanation is that in 1997, an earthquake destroyed the city. Private grants, such as this one, allowed to rebuild the city and to give to the inhabitants access to water while the water system was out of function.