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Impressions from the small sailor's town in Boka
P E R A S T
Aurorae2005-09-29 12:08:59
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Perast is an old sailor’s town, about 15 km from Kotor, and together with it, it was the only coastal town in Montenegro that has never been conquered by Turks. It is a small peaceful town, where you go if you want to take a good rest, enjoy the beauty of old and touch the history, as it is the town from another time, it doesn’t belong to the present. You’ll see nothing modern there. Just the old, but really OLD houses, many middle aged ruins, churches, narrow streets and high stairs. There is only one restaurant/café at the entrance to the town. Someone said once that it’s the only place where you go when you want to get lost in Europe. Such tranquility, nature beauty and authenticity, a place unspoilt with modernization but yet so cultural and historic, is quite rare to find. Maybe then it’s not strange that many celebrities have a house there. You can see Goran Bregovic jogging in the evening along the coast, he is one of the summer residents of the place, and he is not the only one.
The inevitable was visiting two petite islands: Gospa od Skrpjela and Sv.Djordje - Lady of the Rock (sounds so IDIOTIC in English!), and St.George.
The island with the church Gospa od Skrpjela is artificial. It was made in honour to the icon of the Lady with the child that was found on the old reef rocks stemming from the sea over there. It took 200 years to drag rocks to build an island, and another 300 years to build the church in honour to the Lady on it. The church became a holy place for the sailors, as they went there to pray before they were to sail off on a long journey, perhaps never to come back, as lots of ships were lost in the storms or pirate attacks. They made vows to donate treasures if they come back safely, and usually after the journey they made silver tokens on which they carved the motives from the sea battles and storms they survived, or parts of the bodies they lost eventually.
There is a museum
...
See photographs from:
Serbia Montenegro Gallery
Maria, 2005-12-12 15:22:34