Sightseeing stop in Bar: discover beautiful places in Montenegro

Bar highlight

We at Monterrasol Transfers specialize in private car transfers. Together with the transfer itself, we propose that you visit some beautiful places along the transfer route. We call such places optional sightseeing stops (short excursions).

One of the places we selected to propose as a sightseeing stop is a beautiful Bar in Montenegro. Sightseeing stops are a perfect easy opportunity to see new places during your transfer across Montenegro, especially during long distance transfers. Take it as a great option to get in touch with local culture and history. It's good to combine transportation and sightseeing together!

Bar is a coastal town on the shore of the Adriatic Sea and seaport in southern Montenegro. Near by, in 4 km, located small town Stari Bar, famous for picturesque ruins of Stari Bar Fortress, and with great view from the hill to the modern Bar and sea around.

Last reviewed: 7 November 2022

Bar description

The name Bar is a shortened form of Antivari. The name is to be derived from the Latin Antibarum or Antibari, which later in Greek was transformed into Antivarion / Antivari due to its pronunciation. A name taken because of its location and which means "in front of the Bari". Alos exist another variations of the name, which are in Italian sound as Antivari / Antibari; in Albanian, as Tivari or Tivar; in Turkish, as Bar; in Greek, as Thivarion, Antivarion; in Latin, Antibarium.

Local archaeological findings are dates back to the Neolithic era. It is assumed that town Bar was mentioned as the reconstructed Roman castle, Antipargal, in the 6th century. The name Antibarium was quoted for the first time in the 10th century.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavs occupied the Balkans. Duklja, a Slavic, or Serbian state, was mentioned in the 10th century. Jovan Vladimir, ruler at 1000–1016, is the first ruler of Duklja state whose history is known. After, Stefan Vojislav, ruler 1018–1043, the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljevic dynasty, defeated the Byzantines in a battle on a hill near Bar. He made Bar his seat of power.

From 1443 to 1571, the region was ruled by the Venice who called it Antivari, and it was part of the Albania Veneta. That time it was a town with its own coat of arms, flag, statute and mint. In 1571, the Ottomans captured Antivari and held the town until 1878. With the Ottoman conquest, the Catholic Church in the border area and the Archdiocese of Bar began to collapse, because indigenous people began to migrate as Ottomans to that area brought a new ethnic and religious element. Because of a lack of Catholic priests, entire parishes were converted to Orthodoxy.

The Ottomans ceded Antivari to Montenegro at the Treaty of Berlin, after losing the Russo-Turkish War. After negotiations between Foreign Ministers Gyula Andrassy (Austria-Hungary) and Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov (Russia), it was agreed that Bar would be ceded to Montenegro in return for Russian support for Austrian control over Herzegovina. The city-port of Bar itself became militarily neutral, the total number of Montenegrin vessels in the port was placed under limitations and Austria-Hungary acquired the right of patrol of Bar's coastline.

Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian scientist and pioneer in wireless telegraphy, using Nikola Tesla's patented technology, made a radio connection between Antivari (Bar) and Bari on 30 August 1904. In 1908, the first railroad in this part of the Balkans was put into operation there.

The Old Olive tree of Mirovica is said to be one of the oldest olive trees in Europe and one of the oldest trees in the world. In 1957, it was placed under state protection. Numerous legends and traditions are associated with the tree. For instance, families that had a dispute would come to the tree to make peace. This explains its name, Mirovica, mir meaning peace.

The Bar Aqueduct is a stone aqueduct located 4 km north of the town of Bar. The Bar Aqueduct is the only remaining aqueduct in Montenegro, and one of the largest and best preserved aqueducts from the three remaining ones in the former Yugoslavia, which include the Diocletianus Aqueduct near Split in Croatia and the Skopje Aqueduct in North Macedonia.

Stari Bar ("Old Bar") is a small town in Montenegro. It is located inland, a few kilometres from the new city of Bar, resting on Londsa hill at the foot of Mount Rumija.

Stari Bar has seen its fair share of troubles. Over the centuries it was taken over by the Venetians, the Serbians, the Hungarians and the Ottoman Empire. The scene of a siege in 1877, when the town was finally reclaimed from the Turks after the locals bombed the Bar Aqueduct and this way cut off the water supply of Turks defence forses.

One hundred years later, in 1979, that same aqueduct, since repaired, was destroyed again by a major earthquake, and the community Stari Bar was abandoned. Today it lies in ruins, and a new city of Bar was built down by the sea and has become an important port city for Montenegro. The old town, the Stari Bar, has never been repaired.

For visitors of Stari Bar, the most important part of the town is the Stari Bar Fortress. There you’ll find cobblestoned pathways leading underneath ancient arches; towers that stand firm even though the original buildings around them have crumbled away; plants that come from between the bricks; bushes blooming with flowers escaping over walls; gates that lead to the remains of tunnels within the fortifications.

You can walk the paths and see the windows. You can make out the foundations that would have halls, the ones that would have been houses. And you can peer over the edge and see down the hill to the modern Bar and out to the water.

We know good things to see in Montenegro. We know the roads, well-known tourist attractions like UNESCO sites, and off-the-beaten-path places.

If you would like to learn more about Montenegro and explore it by visiting different attractions, come with us for a private tour. We can travel all across Montenegro and we will show you all the important tourist attractions together with the hidden gems of this beautiful country. Feel free to contact us!

We have developed numerous itineraries for private car tours in Montenegro as well as in neighboring countries, including tours passing through several countries as one journey. Solo private tours and tours for Seniors are available also.

Transfers to Bar

Currently we know prices for these car transfers to Bar:

Private transfers from Croatia

• private car transfer Dubrovnik to Bar

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