Description of the attraction
Until the end of the construction of the large cathedral of St. Jovan Vladimir in Topolitsa, the main Orthodox church of the city, which gathered hundreds of believers, was the Church of St. Nicholas, which is located on the territory of the Old Bar - the historical district of the city. This church appeared here in 1863. Moreover, nothing is known about its construction.
One of the few written evidence of the appearance of the Church of St. Nicholas was left by the Russian consul in Shkodra, Ivan Yastrebov, who was entrusted, whenever possible, to protect the Christian population in the Shkodra region and monitor the development of events in Montenegro. Yastrebov in his notes was rather stingy in presenting information about the church of St. Nicholas, although it is clear that this church was known to him, for he writes: "In Bar, the church was built in 1863 with the help of Russia." With the exception of one small church, built in 1842 in the same Old Town on the Talushitsa site, about which there is no data, the Church of St. Nicholas was the first Orthodox church to appear in Bar after a long period of Ottoman rule, which began in 1571. If you look at the old engravings of 1550, 1571 and 1688, you will notice that on the site of the church of St. Nicholas there used to be a church building, from which now nothing remains.
The Church of St. Nicholas is a three-aisled basilica, the foundation of which is located on stilts, which is quite unusual for Bar. The builders feared landslides, so they found a way to strengthen the soil under the building. There is a cemetery around the church.
The domes of the temple are covered with frescoes from 1865 from the inside. Probably, the same masters who painted the iconostasis worked on the decoration of the church: Vasily Binovski and his son Milivo.
