The Story of Stari Bar
A once abandoned town that has been brought back to life.
Stari Bar is a small fortress town located at the bottom of Mount Rumija, just a few kilometers from the newer city of Bar, also located in Montenegro. Stari Bar, which means “Old Bar,” was the original city of Bar before the the coastal Bar was founded in the 1900s.
In time, modern Bar has become one of Montenegro’s major seaports and an important industrial area. So, if you’re looking for a good holiday destination in this country, we would recommend going to Kotor instead. But even so, if you ever find yourself around Bar, make sure you visit the ruins of Stari Bar, as it is really impressive.
Stari Bar played an important role in this part of Montenegro for more than 1,000 years. Over the centuries, the city went through its fair share of troubles: it was ruled in sequence by the Venetians, the Serbians, and the Hungarians, before coming under the control of the Ottoman Empire. It remained under Turkish rule until 1877, when the locals bombed the town’s aqueduct and managed to cut off the water supply. After this event, the town was reclaimed by Montenegro.
The aqueduct was repaired after this incident, but it was completely destroyed again during a devastating earthquake in April of 1979. Soon after that, most of the population was forced to abandon the town and settle much closer to the water in modern Bar. Later on, the 500-year-old aqueduct was renovated once more, making it usable even today.
Soon after the repair of the aqueduct, people started to settle in Stari Bar again, and the once-forgotten town was brought back to life. Today, almost 2,000 people live on the grounds surrounding this fortress.
We predict that the old town’s population will probably grow along with its tourism potential. In addition to Stari Bar being one of the world’s largest fortified archaeological sites, the most interesting part of this place is that its ruins have not yet been fully excavated. Therefore, there’s a good chance that we are going to hear some very cool things about this town in the future.
Bonus: Near Stari Bar’s fortress lies an old olive tree reputed to be more than 2,000 years old. Some say that this tree, located in Mirovica, is the oldest tree in Europe and one of the oldest in the world. It costs around 1 euro to visit, but it’s worth every cent.
Written by Alexandra Palconi.
Photos via Flickr.
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We have also written about Wigry National Park, Krk Island, and Budva.
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