An ancient, archaic sensation..

Quest Reviews

According to the presumptions of the archaeologists, the first settlements appeared in the area of Perast in the Neolithic; There are also monuments of the Illyrian, Roman and early Christian periods. The city was founded by the Illyrians, named after one of the local tribes; Pirusti. The first memories of Perast refer to 1336—at that time there was a small fishing village, which had a shipyard, and there were always several commercial and fishing boats in the harbor. But since the strategically important island of St George, which belonged to Kotor, is in the immediate vicinity, the development of Perast was going very slowly.

• . It is situated a few kilometres northwest of Kotor and is noted for its proximity to the islets of St. George and Our Lady of the Rocks.

Perast lies beneath the hill of St Ilija (873 m), on a cape that separates the Bay of Risano from that of Kotor, and overlooks the Verige strait, the narrowest part of the Bay of Kotor. The average yearly temperature in Perast is 18.3°C, and the number of sunny days is 240 (or around 2,500 sunny hours per year). Near Perast there are two islets: one is called Sveti Đorđe (St George) or Sveti Juraj and the other Gospa od Škrpjela (Our Lady of the Rocks), and each has a picturesque chapel. Gospa od Škrpjela is particularly interesting given that it is the only artificially-built island in the Adriatic, with an area of 3,030 m², it was built upon a rock (Škrpjel) after two Venetian sailors from Perast found a picture of the Virgin Mary on it in 1452.