Coordinates on the yacht chart plotter: 42°5.89'N | 19°5.312'E
Bar is the largest seaport of the Montenegrin coast, but cruise liners miss it - tourists are planted in the historically and souvenir-attractive Kotor. There, all by the side - the sights are located across the street from the embankment. The bar is divided into two parts. The Old Bar stands at the foot of the Rumiyah Mountain, it is four kilometers from the sea and New Bar, whose quarters are adjacent to the port. If you are not a fan of medieval ruins, then do not go far from the sea, stroll along the modern streets and get acquainted with the contents of boutiques - small shops selling Italian clothes.
The fact is that the city of Bar is responsible for maintaining regular sea communication with Italy. On the opposite bank of the Adriatic Sea, directly opposite Bar there is a city with a very similar name - Italian Bari. By the way, the Italians on the Montenegrin side are called - Antibari - they say "opposite Bari". To Italy there is 100 nautical miles. The Oceanis yacht will easily overcome this distance in less than a day. Montenegrists say that if you climb higher in Montenegrin mountains, then in good weather and with a certain imagination the country of Italy can be seen on the horizon. Every day in summer and rarely in winter the Adriatic Sea is fearlessly crossed by two passenger ferries of the Montenegro Lines company. Night on the ferry, and the next morning you find yourself on the opposite shore. It is from there, from Italy, come to the boutiques of Bar fashion novelties, wanted by the owners of the shops on the huge Italian shopping centers.
Not only clothes come from Italy to the Montenegrin coast, but also the Italians themselves. In Italy, gambling is prohibited, and in Montenegro casinos, game clubs and bookmakers are almost at every corner. Temperamental Italians come to Montenegro on Friday ferries and over the weekend lower the state, well, or become millionaires - depending on luck.
Acquainted with the present, it makes sense to look into the history of the city and to start off from the promenade to the palace of King Nikola. King Nikola Petrovich Negosh is a representative of the glorious dynasty, who ruled over Montenegro for more than two hundred years, of which fifty-eight fell precisely at the time of his reign. Commander, poet, incredible diplomat, "father-in-law of Europe" - the father of nine daughters, successfully married by the pope. Keep in mind that in addition to a very modest two-story royal residence with an attic, you can easily pass by without recognizing the palace in it. Villa Topolica, so it is customary to call it. The heirs of the dynasty in the enfilades of the rooms are not to be met, but one can look at the exhibits of the historical museum, and afterwards stroll along the shady park and have a cup of coffee in the building of the former Winter Garden, donated by the Italian king Victor Emmanuel to the Montenegrin King Nicola.
The New Bar is a port sounds, horns of cars, people laugh in a crowded promenade, frozen over a hot asphalt air and sheltered from the summer heat shuttered windows narrow concrete buildings. It is a hundred years old. It is only the heir of the city, which stands four kilometers from the sea at the foot of Mount Rumia. It's always quiet there. Old Bar is the beginning of history. This city is now called the largest medieval city of Montenegro, lying in ruins. Moreover, they themselves Montenegrins, led by King Nikola bit overdone when it was freed from the Turks, so still and an earthquake in 1979 did not spare the city.
The stone arch of the aqueduct, which supplied the Old Bar with drinking water for centuries, the powerful fortress wall, the facades of the churches, the Turkish clock tower, the polished stones of the roadway through which the grass breaks through, and the cicadas' chirping in the frozen air this is an atmosphere of an Old Bar. Lay of the Slavic, Venetian and Turkish traditions of understanding the city. The Old Bar stands on the dais. From the fortress walls it looks down with a befit of an older person on a modern New Bar and Sea.
The old town is gradually revived. Archaeologists carefully dig, restorers add the missing, artists fill with meaning. Around the fortress walls there are small plastered houses, drowning in greenery. In this part of the Bar lives quite a lot of Muslims, hence the special oriental flavor of a narrow souvenir street leading to the gates of the Old City. Under the Turkish wooden balconies hanging overhead, you can take a break from the impressions of a cup of tea and compare the taste of the baklava.
Evening falls and Bells of the Orthodox Church of St. Vladimir ring, the Catholic Cathedral of St. Nicholas begins mass, a long-drawn call of the muezzin hangs over the city. Booming ferry, mooring from the pier in Bar City - City opposite Italy, or Italy opposite the city.
