Stari Bar
| Stari Bar Стари Бар Old Bar | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
|
Fortress Bar | |
  Stari Bar Location of Stari Bar in Montenegro | |
| Coordinates: 42°05′14″N 19°07′35″E / 42.08722°N 19.12639°E | |
| Country |
 Montenegro |
| Municipality | Bar |
| Elevation | 241 m (791 ft) |
| Population (2003) | |
| • Total | 1,864 |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Postal code | 85354 |
| Area code | +382 30 |
| Vehicle registration | BR |
Stari Bar[1] (meaning Old Bar) is a small town in Montenegro. In Italian and some English sources it is known as Antivari,[2] and was called Antibarium in Latin. It is located inland, a few miles from the new city of Bar, resting on Londša hill, at the foot of Mount Rumija. According to the 2003 census, the town has a population of 1,864 people.
History
In the early Middle Ages Bar remained a subject of the Byzantine Empire. But Michael I incorporated it about 1054 into his kingdom of Duklja, from which it passed to the Serbian Kingdom and then Empire under the Nemanjić dynasty. During the 300 years of Serbian rule, Bar periodically asserted its independence and towards the beginning of the thirteenth century it was briefly in union with the Republic of Venice, but a strong Serbia asserted its suzerainty. About 1360, the Balšić princes of Zeta gained control of Bar as the Serbian Empire crumbled, but they didn't hold it long as Louis I of Hungary took it briefly before it returned to Venice in 1443. Bar remained under the rule of the Venetian Republic until it was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1571 as part of the Ottoman expansion into Europe.
On 13 November 1877, during the second Montenegrin push for independence from the Ottoman Empire, the town was besieged by pro-independence forces under the command of Mašo Vrbica (Машо Врбица). The defenses of the town were in the hands of Ibrahim Bey, who refused to surrender the town despite the Montenegrin's bombardment with heavy artillery, consisting of four Russian guns, and six Turkish guns that had been seized at the Battle of Nikšić. The bombardment lasted over seven weeks and much of the town was destroyed. On 5 January 1878, the Montenegrins detonated a 225 kilogram explosive inside the Bar Aqueduct which cut off the town's water supply. Ibrahim Bey surrendered the town on 9 January. The Bar peninsula and the town were awarded to the newly recognized Principality of Montenegro at the Berlin Congress of 1878.
After the Montenegro earthquake in 1979 destroyed the aqueduct that supplied water to the town, the location was abandoned, and the new town of Bar constructed on the coast at the old port facilities. After the aqueduct was restored some years later, people began to return.
Demographics
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1948 | 1,417 | — |
| 1953 | 1,679 | +18.5% |
| 1961 | 1,803 | +7.4% |
| 1971 | 1,559 | −13.5% |
| 1981 | 1,514 | −2.9% |
| 1991 | 1,968 | +30.0% |
| 2003 | 1,864 | −5.3% |
Ethnicity in 2003
| Ethnicity | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Montenegrins | 729 | 39.10% |
| Muslims | 510 | 27.36% |
| Serbs | 221 | 11.85% |
| Bosniaks | 101 | 5.41% |
| Albanians | 101 | 5.41% |
| Romani | 14 | 0.75% |
| Egyptians | 7 | 0.37% |
| Croats | 6 | 0.32% |
| Slovenes | 1 | 0.05% |
| Macedonians | 1 | 0.05% |
| Yugoslavs | 1 | 0.05% |
| Others | 60 | 3.21% |
| Total | 1,864 | 100% |
References
- ↑ Stari Bar (Approved) at GEOnet Names Server, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- ↑ "Antivari" in Pace, Edward Aloysius (1922) Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement and Yearbook I (being Volume 17 of the Catholic Encyclopedia), page 46
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