ANTIVARI (Antibarum; Albanian Tivari, Slav. Bar), Archdiocese of. - A maritime city on the border between Dalmatia and Albania, whose origin is unknown; it begins to be mentioned as an episcopal city in the 8th century, now as subject to the Byzantine empire and a suffragan of Durazzo, now as belonging to the barbarian kingdom of Dioclea and a suffragan of the problematic metropolis of Dioclea or of Spalato. In the 11th century it, in competition with Ragusa, begins to arrogate to itself the succession of Dioclea and therefore the metropolia over the ancient dioceses of Prevalitana, and it is supported in this by the kings of Dioclea, who preferred it to the independent Ragusa; the dispute reached its critical point at the time when Fra Giovanni di Pian di Carpine (1248-1272) and his immediate successors were archbishops there, being conducted before the Roman Curia, with the support of authentic and spurious bulls from one side and the other. It is not known what the outcome was; it is certain, however, that from then on A. exercised metropolitan rights only over the suffragan sees of Scutari, Dulcigno, Drivasto, Suacia, Pulati Maggiore, Pulati Minore or Sarda, Dagno, Sappa, and sometimes also Alessio and Albano and over all the Latin Catholics of upper Albania and of Serbia.
It was the last of the Albanian cities to be conquered by the Turks (1571), and from that moment its decline began, completed with the bombardment on the occasion of the Turco-Montenegrin war of 1878. A. then had a titular who was at the same time and aeque principaliter archbishop of the ancient metropolis of Scutari; when he died (1886), the two sees had distinct titulars, Scutari remaining with all the suffragan sees. A. had often in past centuries borne the title of primate of Serbia, which, however, only in 1902 was officially recognized for it by the Holy See. At present, although it counts only about ten parishes for the most part Albanian, it continues to bear the same title.
Among its more famous titulars 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 "priest of Dioclea"; Guglielmo d'Adamo (1324-1341), author of an important little treatise De modo sarracenoe exstirpandi and probably of another even more important for the history of the country: Directorium ad passagium faciendum; Giovanni Bruti, taken prisoner by the Turks at the capture of the city and killed by them on one of their galleys during the battle of Lepanto (1571); Vincenzo Zmajevich, who gathered and presided over the important national Council of 1703.
Bibliography
Giuseppe Valentini