Perast

Perast (Пераст) is an old town in 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. 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 slow. The prosperity of the city brought the Venetian period, and it was of particular importance in the border area around 1482, after taking the Turkish part of the coast from Herceg Novi to Risan. When a small village finally became a city, its inhabitants thought about reinforcements. The fortress of the Holy Cross and a dozen defensive towers were built. After the successfully held battles, Perast began to use some of the political and economic privileges, in particular, it had the right to guard the Venetian flag of St. Mark after 1654 by holding a siege by the Turks under the leadership of Mehmed-aga Rizvanagić. Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy traveled from Herceg Novi to Perast in 1698 and he wrote that in the town of Perast live Croats. He also recorded that there were no Orthodox churches in the city while a Greek church existed in a village not far away, and that Serbs of Greek faith who were military people similar to the Don Cossacks lived in the village. Perast also had free trade with the Republic of Venice and was granted the forgiveness of the Venetian authorities in the ruthless fight against pirates on the Adriatic. Because of this, the city grew and was enriched: only in the 18th century.