Montenegro – Summer 2014
Bar
Shortly after leaving Albania, 
we reached the old town of Bar, which has a 2,500 years of history and is one of the oldest examples of civilization on the Adriatic coast.
We parked in a car-park under the old city and took the road up, covered with little restaurants, souvenir shops, lovely trees and nice houses. Since its conception, Bar had passed through Roman hands, then it ended up in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, when it split into two. 
The first inhabitants of the town were the Illyrians. It was first mentioned in written sources in Byzantine times – in the 10th and 11th centuries. In 1042, the Duklja Slavs took over the area of Bar, as well as parts of Rashca, 
Bosnia and Hoom, thus becoming one of the strongest South-Slavs countries. During this time, Bar rose to prominence, becoming the most important religious, cultural and administrative seat of the Vojislavljevic dynasty. St George Cathedral in Bar was the place of their coronations and burials and until the 13th century ruled over the church in Dubrovnik.
After the fall of Duklja, the town was constantly attacked by both Byzantines and the Bulgarian 
Kingdom of Tsar Samuil. The latter’s success meant that Prince Ivan Vladimir gave himself up peacefully to Samuil and was sent as a prisoner to his palace in Prespa. There, some sources say that Theodora-Kosara, Samuil’s daughter fell in love with him and demanded from her father to be allowed to marry him. Other sources say that his wife Kosara was of Byzantine origins. After Samuil’s death, he was killed by the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Vladislav, who obviously felt threatened by him. Shortly a
fter that he was proclaimed as a saint.
Towards the end of the 12 century, a high ranking member of the clergy from the church in Bar, called Grgur, known in history as the “Priest from Duklja”, wrote the “Annuls of Bar” (Ljetopis popa Dukljanina), one of the largest sources about the history of the Southern Slavs. It was a hagiography of St Ivan Vladimir (980 – 1016) whose capital was in Krajina (Ostros) and we owe him most of the stories of the private life of Tsar Samuil’s family. Some historians today, however, are of the opinion that in his hagiography, he embellished history and heavily changed facts on the side of Ivan Vladimir in order to please his audience.
During the 1183, Bar and its surroundings came the ownership of the Serbian Tsar Nemanjich; then it was taken over by the dynasty of Zeta – Balshichi. During the 15th century it was included in the domains of Princes Stefan Lazarevitch, then Djurad Brankovitch, followed by Stefan Vukchich.
Venice acquired the city in 1443 and from this period until the 16th century, the city of Bar was expanded and fortified and lived relatively freely until it was peacefully taken by the Ottomans in 1571.
The Montenegrin Prince Nikola Petrovitch took Bar in 1878. This marked the slow decline of Bar, as economic and cultural life moved closer to the sea coast. The earth quake in 1979 damaged the ancient city further. Bar became first part of Yugoslavia, then part of the Republic of Montenegro, now and independent state.
In the last 20 years, there had been an effort to rebuild, stabilise and research this city and turn it into the open air museum, which we had the privilege to explore.
Kotor
Our next port of call was Kotor – a Montenegrin town, situated at the end of the gulf of Kotor – a submerged river canyon, surrounded by cliffs and steeply sloping hills.
I was again reading about the history of Kotor, as we were trying to find our apartments. The first glimpses of the old part of town were very
enc
ouraging.
Kotor’s first citizens were Roman – it was first mentioned in 169 BC as a Roman settlement. From the 4th to the 10th centuries it was owned by Byzantium.
In 1002, the city was damaged while it was taken by Tsar Samuil and t
he First Bulgarian Empire, and in the following year, Tsar Samuil gave it to Serbia in a peace pact. However, the local population resisted and only submitted to the Serbs in 1184, while maintaining its republican institutions and its right to conclude treaties and engage in war. The Serbian ownership lasted until 1420, when the city acknowledged the suzerainty of the Republic of Venice, which lasted until 1797, except for comparatively short periods of Ottoman rule
It appears that from 1796, Kotor moved from the hands of the Habsburg Monarchy to those of the Kingdom of Italy, then retuned back to the Habsburg Empire by the congress of Vienna. In 1918, it became part of Yugoslavia and in 1945, part of the Republic of Montenegro, which now is an independent state.
One of the reasons we wanted to see it was the fact it is an Unesco World Heritage site. After leaving our luggage in the hotel, we took a walk in the old city, which was close to our hotel.
The old part is a very well preserved medieval town, with six well preserved churches. Many of the buildings date from the 12th and the 13th century and walking through the labyrinth of narrow and cobbled streets, one could not but marvel at the imposing Ro
man/Italian style of the large buildings, as well as the private houses, shops and squares it offers to the visitor. The 400 years of Venetian rule could really be noticed in the architectural styles one observes. We took some pictures and looked round the shops, some had a beer, others didn’t.
The city walls, which we noted on arrival, not only encircle the old city, but also go to the top of a steep rocky hill, where apparently the Fortress of St John was situated and from where we could have a spectacular look down into the canyon. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the night was catching up with us, we decided not to climb up there. We were told that the walls were up to 20 m high and over 10 m wide in some parts. I was sure the town – walls and all, was often use
d by film crews.
On the next morning we took a walk by the seaside, some of us had a short swim, enjoyed again the fantastic oleander bushes in every house, hanging kiwi vines, grapevines, bright flowers and Italian looking villas with beautiful gardens and little personal boat ports on the bay. Had a meal in a Greek restaurant and then spent a 
second afternoon in the old city of Kotor. In the afternoon a large cruise ship had “parked” in the bay and large group of tourists were being lead into the fortress.
The one thing that marred our delight of Kotor, was the fact that for the 3 nights of our stay there, we had no hot water, in temperatures of over 40C. The ap
artments owner was trying to fix the problem (or not?), but despite that fact that he failed, there was no recognition of the inconvenience we were experiencing and no desire to at least reduce the price marginally as an apology. He knew, that even if we were not pleased with his services, lots of other tourists would still come, irrelevant of what they get for the money the pay – this was the most expensive accommodation on our tour.
On the next day we started for Dubrovnik.