ANTIVARI (Antibarium; Albanian Tivari, Sla
v. Bar), archdiocese of
A maritime city on the border between Dalmatia and Albania, whose origin is unknown; it first appears as a bishopric in the 8th century, sometimes under Byzantine rule and as a suffragan of Durrës, sometimes as part of the barbarian kingdom of Dioclea and a suffragan of the problematic metropolis of Dioclea in Split. In the 11th century, it began to claim succession to Dioclea and thus metropolitan authority over the ancient dioceses of Prevalitana, supported in this by the kings of Dioclea, who preferred it to the independent Ragusa. The dispute reached a critical point during the tenure of Archbishop Giovanni di Pian di Carpine (1248–52?) and his immediate successors, being adjudicated at the Roman Curia with the support of both authentic and spurious bulls on either side. The outcome is unknown, but from that time Antivari exercised metropolitan rights only over the suffragans of Shkodër, Dulcigno, Drivasto, Suacia, Pulati Maggiore, Pulati Minore or Sarda, Dagno, Sappa, and sometimes also Alessio and Albano, as well as over all Latin Catholics of Upper Albania and Serbia.It was the last of the Albanian cities to be conquered by the Turks (1571), and from that moment its decline began, completed by the bombardment during the Turco-Montenegrin War of 1878. Antivari then had a titular archbishop simultaneously and *aequo principaliter* over the ancient metropolis of Shkodër; upon his death (1886), the two sees received distinct incumbents, with Shkodër retaining all the suffragans. Antivari had often in past centuries borne the title of Primate of Serbia, which was officially recognized by the Holy See only in 1902. At present, though it has only about ten parishes, most of them Albanian, it continues to bear the same title.
Among its more notable prelates were, besides the aforementioned Giovanni di Pian di Carpine, Gregorio (1172–94), whom recent hypotheses tend to identify with the famous chronicler known as the “Docleate priest”; Guglielmo d’Adamo (1234–1341), author of an important treatise *De modo sarracenos exstirpandi* and probably of another, even more important for the history of the region: *Directorium ad passagium faciendum*; Giovanni Bruti, taken prisoner by the Turks at the city’s fall and killed by them on a galley during the Battle of Lepanto (1571); and Vincenzo Znaijevich, who convened and presided over the important National Council of 1703.