Stari Bar is a ruined town, and that is precisely what makes it eloquent. Built inland on a rocky shelf below Mount Rumija, safe from pirates but commanding the coastal plain, it passed in turn under Byzantine, Serbian, Venetian and Ottoman authority, each leaving buildings behind. War and a catastrophic explosion emptied it, and the population resettled by the sea; what remains is a maze of roofless walls, vaulted cellars, church apses, a mosque and its minaret, a clock tower, and an aqueduct striding across the approach on tall arches. The film walks the site as an archaeologist would, reading masonry and doorways for evidence of who built what and when, then climbs to the citadel for views over olive groves running down to the Adriatic. Below the walls, the living town and its famously ancient olive trees provide the counterpoint. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage, suited to history and archaeology strands.
