Bakar is a port for bulk cargo and used to be known for its industrial complex that included a coke factory, which produced a considerable amount of pollution.

The coat of arms was in the artistic style typical for the period, with a cartouche with large landscapes and ornamentation around the shield within a circular inscription.

The shield of the coat of arms features a red-and-white checkered top or "chief", with three local gray stone castles on green hills in the middle, and a black anchor on orange at the bottom.

In February 1918, during World War I, Gabriele D'Annunzio and Costanzo Ciano took part in a daring, if militarily irrelevant, naval raid on the harbour of Bakar (known in Italy as La beffa di Buccari, lit.

During WW II, in Bakar was an Italian concentration camp, where civil population from Province of Ljubljana,[6] as well as Croats and Serbs was interned.