  Asteroid (234) Barbara is the prototype of a category of asteroids that has
been shown to be extremely rich in refractory inclusions, the oldest material
ever found in the Solar System. It exhibits several peculiar features, most
notably its polarimetric behavior. In recent years other objects sharing the
same property (collectively known as "Barbarians") have been discovered.
Interferometric observations in the mid-infrared with the ESO VLTI suggested
that (234) Barbara might have a bi-lobated shape or even a large companion
satellite. We use a large set of 57 optical lightcurves acquired between 1979
and 2014, together with the timings of two stellar occultations in 2009, to
determine the rotation period, spin-vector coordinates, and 3-D shape of (234)
Barbara, using two different shape reconstruction algorithms. By using the
lightcurves combined to the results obtained from stellar occultations, we are
able to show that the shape of (234) Barbara exhibits large concave areas.
Possible links of the shape to the polarimetric properties and the object
evolution are discussed. We also show that VLTI data can be modeled without the
presence of a satellite.
