Perast

Perast (Cyrillic Пераст; Italian Perasto ) is a belonging to Opština Kotor town in Montenegro. It lies beneath the St. Elias mountain ( 873 m) at the shore of the Bay of Kotor and there is the place with the mildest climate and most sunshine hours per year. About the promenade on the Bay Perast Risan is connected to the north and Kotor in the southeast.

At Perast are the two small islands of St. George ( Sveti Djordje ) and St. Mary's on the Rock ( Gospa od Škrpjela ). On one island, the cemetery of the village, the other is with their chapel a famous pilgrimage site.

In the Middle Ages Perast and the other places on the bay between the local principalities (Zeta, Bosnia ) and the Republic of Venice were controversial and ownership changed frequently. The place suggested was the first on the bay voluntarily under the protection of the Venetian Republic. Because many residents had served the Venetians especially true in the fleet of the Republic, gave the Signoria the small town of 1368 the sonorous title of " Fedelissima Gonfaloniera " ( most faithful standard-bearer ).

The old Perast had no city wall, but was protected by nine individual towers. These were the 15th and 16th century to protect against the Ottomans after the place was in 1420 again came under the rule of the Venetians built. After the end of the Turkish wars Perast had its heyday in the 18th century. In the village there were four companies, which together maintained a fleet of more than 100 merchant ships. Many of the Come to prosperity captains chose Perast to their retirement home and built smaller or larger villas that still characterize today's cityscape. End of the 18th century, Perast had more than 1600 inhabitants. When in 1797 the Venetian rule ended with the defeat of the Republic, this was very much regretted by the inhabitants, for they had always been in good relations with the Venetian Republic.

In the 19th century the city lost its importance and the population dropped to 1910 to 430 today live in Perast still 349 inhabitants (2003 ).

Worth seeing is the Orthodox Church of the place in which there is a small exhibition of relics, liturgical objects and jewelry.