Stari Bar, Montenegro Photography

Photographing Stari Bar

Stari Bar is a ruined hilltop fortress town above the modern coastal city of Bar — over a thousand years of Byzantine, Serbian, Venetian, and Ottoman rule ended in a single 1878 bombardment, leaving a roofless maze of stone walls, towers, and a still-standing 18th-century clock tower.

Where to shoot

Sahat-Kula Clock Tower — the 1752 Ottoman clock tower beside the southern gate, one of the only structures still standing to its full height.
St. Catherine's Church — a 14th-century church built into a tower above one of Stari Bar's lower gates.
Bar Aqueduct — a 17th-century stone aqueduct that carried spring water 3km into the fortress, rebuilt after the 1979 earthquake.
Stara Maslina — an olive tree over 2,000 years old at Mirovica, just outside the ruins, protected by the state since 1957.

When to go

Early morning, before the sun is directly overhead — the ruins have almost no shade, and the stone lanes hold heat fast through a Montenegrin summer afternoon.