Perast
Perast,
located twelve kilometers from Kotor, was once one of the most
beautiful baroque towns on the Boka Kotorska. But the earthquake in
1979 left almost nothing but rubble and ruins. The view from the
fortress above the road from Kotor to Herceg Novi shows that Perast
won’t deserve the tag “ghost town” for very long now. There is
construction and reconstruction on every corner; real estate prices
are even higher than in Dubrovnik in Croatia.
Settlement
in this region dates back to the Neolithic age. Archeologists date
findings back to 3500 B.C.
With
the exception of Kotor, Perast was the only town along the Boka
Kotorska that never had to surrender under the pressure of the
Turks. Perast developed early
into a shipbuilding and seafaring center. Even the Russian czar
Peter the Great sent the best of his cadets to the Boka to be
educated in the nautical school.
Sveti
Juraj and Gospa od Skrpjela are two small islands directly off the
coast of Perast. On Sveti Juraj is a Benedictine monastery; on Gospa
od Skrpjela a baroque church was built in 1630.
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