In the old town of Perast, in the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro

 “When the pearls of nature were sown, on this soil an owerflowing handful was gathered. The most beautiful contact between the earth and sea took place at the Montenegrin littoral.”

-- Lord Byron
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(in the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro) Perast is an old town situated a few kilometers northwest of Kotor; it is noted for its proximity to the islets of St. George and Our Lady of the Rocks. Perast lies beneath the hill of St. Elijah, on a cape that separates the bay of Risan from the bay of Kotor narrowest part of the Boka Kotorska.

+ Despite having only one main street, this town boasts 16 churches and 17 formerly grand palazzi. 7 Perast is a preserved gem whose cobblestone alleys date back to the reign of the Venetian Republic. While its attractive side streets can be seen in just a few hours, Perast is a town that is best savored slowly. Make your way from produce markets to airy coffee shops, making contact with the friendly locals as you go. Off the coast of Perast, smaller islands dot the Adriatic coastline while surrounding mountains touch the edge of the sea.

+ According to archaeologists, the first settlements appeared in the area of Perast in the Neolithic period; 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 records of Perast refer to 1336; at that time there was a small fishing village here, with a shipyard. The prosperity of what became a city begn to grow during the Venetian period, which was of importance in the border area around 1482 (after the Turkish part of the coast emerged). The city's inhabitants began to think about reinforcements (and the fortress of the Holy Cross and a dozen defensive towers were built). Perast began to use some of its political and economic prowess, after it gained the right to guard the Venetian flag of St. Mark after 1654, by resisting a siege by the Turks. Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy traveled to Perast in 1698 and wrote that in the town of Perast live Croats.

+ Perast also had free trade with the Republic of Venice and was granted the forgiveness of the Venetian authorities in the fight against pirates on the Adriatic. Because of this, the city grew and was enriched. And, since one of the best maritime schools was housed here, Peter I was sent here from Russia by promising sailors yhey would soon be training with the extraordinary captain Marko Martinovic. When Napoleon defeated the Republic of Venice in 1797, Perast was faithful to Venice for several months, but in the end the city had to lower the flag of St. Mark. In 1918 the city became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, and in 1941 it became part of the Italian province of Cattaro (Kotor). It was only in 1944 that the city gained independence in Yugoslavia and became one of the administrative areas of the Montenegrin Republic. Since 2006, the city has finally become part of an independent Montenegro.