Perast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Perast Пераст |
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| Country: | Montenegro | |
| Subdivision: | Kotor municipality | |
| Location: | ||
| Population: | 349 | |
| Area code: | 082 | |
| Postal code: | 85336 | |
| License plates: | KO | |
Perast (Italian: Perasto, Serbian Cyrillic: Пераст) is an old town in Boka Kotorska (Bay of Kotor), Montenegro. It is situated a few km northwest of Kotor (the venetian Cattaro).
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[edit] Geography & History
Perast lies beneath the hill of St. Elijah (873 m), on a cape that separates the bay of Risan from the bay of Kotor (two smaller bays within the Boka Kotorska) and overlooks the Verige strait, the narrowest part of Boka. The average yearly temperature in Perasto 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 small islands: one is called St. George island, and the other called Gospa od Škrpjela (Our Lady of the Rock), and each of them has a picturesque chapel. Gospa od Škrpjela (originally called in venetian "Madonna dello Scarpello") 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.
Venice owned the city between 1420 and 1797. Perast (called Perasto in the venetian language, spoken officially there until the nineteenth century) was part of the Albania Veneta. The city's sixteen Baroque palaces were mostly built in this period, too, 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.
Perast was at its peak in the 18th century under the Republic of Venice, when it had as many as four active shipyards, a fleet of around one hundred ships, and 1,643 residents. At that time the most beautiful buildings arose in this fortified town. Many ornate baroque palaces and magnificent dwelling-houses decorated the town of Perast (Perasto), full of typical venetian architecture[1].
The population has since decreased to 430 in 1910 and around 360 today. The fleet was extinguished by the rise of the steam engine.
At the fall of the "Serenissima" (1797) Perasto was the last city of the Repubblic to lower the Venetian flag. On 12 May 1797, the Republic of Venice ended, but a few places in the Albania Veneta for several months still continued to remain loyal to the Venetian Repubblic: Perasto was the last place of the Repubblic to surrender. On 22 August 1797 the Count Giuseppe Viscovich, Captain of Perasto lowered the Venetian flag of the Lion of Saint Mark pronouncing the farewell words in front of the crying people of the city and buried the "Gonfalon of Venice" under the altar of the main church of Perasto.
From 1941 to 1943 during WWII, when Mussolini annexed the territories around Cattaro to the Kingdom of Italy, Perasto returned under the influence of Venice. The area was part of the italian Governatorato di Dalmazia and was called Provincia di Cattaro. After 1945 Perast was annexed to Yugoslavia and now is part of the newly independent Montenegro.
[edit] Demographics
In the last census there were: 146 Montenegrins, 101 Serbs, 29 Croats, 10 Yugoslavs, 3 Bosniaks, 1 Macedonian, others: 59,TOTAL: 349.
According to the "Comunita' nazionale italiana del Montenegro", in Perast actually there are 140 persons who still speak at home the original venetian dialect of Perasto (called "veneto da mar"), and call themselves in the census "Montenegrins".[citation needed]
[edit] Gallery
 Church in Perasto (Perast) with typical venetian bellfry |
.jpg/120px-Perasto_(1900).jpg) Postcard showing the venetian architecture of Perasto in 1900 |
 Old Perasto (Perast): the artificial island "Gospa od Skrpjela" (in venetian Madonna dello Scarpello) |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Citizens of the venetian Perasto (in that period the city had only 1,500 citizens) became privileged in the Venetian Republic. They were allowed to trade with large ships and to sell goods without tax on the Venetian market, which made them very rich. As an example of the wealth of people from Perasto, at the end of 18th century they managed to collect 50,000 Venetian gold coins (about 200 kg of gold) in order to pay the famous Venetian constructor Giuseppe Beati to build them the highest campanile (55 m) on the East-Adriatic coast. Right in front of Perasto there are two small islands. St George with its small church from the 12th century and the artificial island "Gospa od Skrpjela" (in venetian Madonna dello Scarpello) with a very interesting legend. On the reef whose top was 1m above the surface of the water, people from Perasto had been throwing rocks and sinking old shipwrecks for 200 years, thus creating a plateau of 3,030 square meters, which they then built a church on. Along with the impression that the island gives with its architecture, for centuries the church received many gifts and now it is a type of gallery and treasury of various objects. Beside 68 oil on canvas works, work of Tripo Cocolia (the most talented baroque painter on the East-Mediterranean coast from 17th century), on the church walls there are 2,500 golden and silver votive tablets which people from the Cattaro area donated to the church in order to avoid various human disasters.
