Bar is the main seaport of Montenegro, located at the foot of the mountain-mass Rumija. This is one of the sunniest Europe's locations, where the sun shines on average 270 days a year, and a water temperature is 24-26°C already by the middle of May.
A historic spot of the town is the fortress Old Bar, 4 km away from the sea on a hill (110 m). The town was first mentioned in the annals in the IX century. Mihajlo Vojislavljevic, the first King of Montenegro (of Zeta in the past) was crowned in Bar in 1077. It was here that "Chronicles of the Doclean Priest", the first literary work on South- Slavic soils, was written in the XII century. Today the Old Bar is an open-air big museum, which spreads for 4-hectare area.
Near the Old Bar, in Mirovice, there is one of the world's oldest olive trees at more than 2 milleniums of age. In 1963 the tree was declared a monument of nature, and has been under the care of the State since.
In 1878, after the Turkish domination for some centuries, the town was rejoined Montenegro so that the country has got a long-awaited gateway to the sea. Bar has started developing on a new spot not only as a seaport, but also as a town since then. Montenegrin Duke Nikola built his summer residence "Topolica" at the seaside at the end of the XIX century (today a museum and a concert hall).
