Perast
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Perast Пераст |
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|---|---|
| Town | |
 |
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 Perast
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| Coordinates: 42°29′13″N 18°41′57″E / 42.48694°N 18.69917°E | |
| Country |
 Montenegro
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| Municipality | Kotor Municipality |
| Population (2003) | |
| • Total | 349 |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Area code(s) | 082 |
| Vehicle registration | KO |
Perast (Montenegrin and Serbian Cyrillic: Пераст, pronounced [pɛ̌rast],Italian: Perasto) is an old town on the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. 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) 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.
Throughout the centuries, many empires battled for control of the city. In the 10th century, it was an autonomous city of the Byzantine Empire. From 1186 to 1371, it was a free city of medieval Serbia. It was, from 1420 and 1797 under Venetian Republic of Venice, and Hungarian control for brief periods, but as an independent republic from 1395 to 1420, when then returned to Venetian control once again. French occupation from 1807 to 1814 was followed by Austrian rule until 1918, when Kotor finally became part of Yugoslavia. The city's sixteen Baroque palaces were mostly built in this period, as were its seventeen Catholic churches and two Orthodox churches. The old city does not have a defensive wall, but instead it has nine defensive towers, the most important of which is the tower of the Holy Cross. These were built by the navy of the Venetian Republic in the 15th and 16th centuries.
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Wikipedia