One islet was made by hand; the other was always there

Our Lady of the Rocks lies roughly 800 metres off the Perast waterfront and has no causeway, so every visit is made by boat. The islet was raised by hand — a bulwark of rocks, then old ships sunk loaded with stone — after two sailors from Perast found an icon of the Madonna and Child on a rock in the sea on 22 July 1452.

A village of 237 people should not own 20 Baroque palaces. Perast does, along with seventeen Catholic churches and two Orthodox ones, almost all of it put up in the eighteenth century when this was a Venetian naval community with money and a reason to spend it in stone. The population has fallen for as long as anyone has counted it — 444 in 1991, 349 in 2003, 269 in 2011 — while the buildings stayed exactly where they were. The single waterfront street can be walked end to end in a few minutes and passes more eighteenth-century stonework than towns twenty times the size manage.

What most people come for, though, is offshore rather than on that street. Two islets sit a few hundred metres out in the water, and neither can be reached on foot: no causeway, no bridge, no shallow crossing. The last stage of the visit is made by boat from the village quay. That handover from land to water is the whole shape of the outing, and it is worth understanding before the day is planned, because it decides how long the trip takes and what a change in the weather can do to it.

What you see along the way

The two islets in front of the village are not the same kind of thing at all. Sveti Đorđe is a natural island. Gospa od Škrpjela, the one in every photograph, is not: it was built, by laying a bulwark of rocks on a reef and then sinking old and seized ships loaded with stone alongside until there was enough ground to stand a church on. The tradition behind the work is precise about where it started. On 22 July 1452 two sailors from Perast found an icon of the Madonna and Child on a rock in the sea, and the stone-throwing began from there.

Sveti Đorđe carries the older story and the quieter one. A Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint George was built on it in the twelfth century, and the islet became the burial ground of the Perast nobility and, later, of families from around the whole bay. It also has a military footnote that almost nobody crossing to the other islet hears: on 14 October 1813 a British and Sicilian naval force took it from a French garrison, a small action inside the Siege of Cattaro. About 170 metres of water separate the two, which is why they read as a pair from the waterfront and as two entirely different centuries up close.

Places along the way

Perast first appears in the written record in 1336, and its most-told episode is the assault of 1654, when an Ottoman force under Mehmed-beg Rizvanagić came at the village and did not take it. Between those dates it did something less usual than survive: it taught. A maritime school of real standing was run here by the captain Marko Martinović, and Peter I sent Russian sailors to Perast to learn navigation under him. Venetian rule ended in 1797 with the republic's defeat by Napoleon; the village joined Yugoslavia in 1944 and has been part of Montenegro since 2006.

The church of Our Lady of the Rocks was renovated in 1722 and holds far more than a building of that size normally does. Sixty-eight paintings by Tripo Kokolja, a Baroque painter born in Perast, work across the interior; his Death of the Virgin runs ten metres long. Around them sit collections of votive paintings and silver votive tablets left by sailors, and one object unlike anything else in the room — a tapestry embroidered by Jacinta Kunić-Mijović of Perast over twenty-five years, worked in gold and silver fibre together with strands of her own hair. The icon at the centre of the whole story is attributed to Lovro Dobričević of Kotor, around 1452.

Practical details

The distances here are small, which is exactly why they get underestimated. Measured from the Perast waterfront, Gospa od Škrpjela sits roughly 800 metres out and Sveti Đorđe roughly 620 metres, with about 170 metres between them. On a still morning that is a few minutes of water. In a southerly blow it is a different proposition, because nothing shelters the run between the quay and the islets and there is no land route to fall back on. Boats work from the waterfront itself rather than from a separate harbour, so the village street and the point of embarkation are the same stretch of stone.

Two things follow. The first is that this outing depends on the water in a way a drive never does, so the sensible move is to treat the crossing as the fixed point of the day and let everything ashore flex around it. The second is that the islets are not interchangeable. Gospa od Škrpjela carries the church, its paintings and its museum, and is what the crossing is normally for. Sveti Đorđe is a monastery island and a graveyard rather than a museum, and reads best from the water — worth knowing before an afternoon is built around standing on it.

Season and timing

One date matters more than any other here. At sunset on 22 July, the anniversary of the find, residents take their boats out and throw rocks into the sea around the island to widen it. The event is called the Fašinada, and it is why the island is still growing: the method that built it has never stopped being used. Work that evening into an itinerary and the character of the visit changes completely, from looking at a piece of engineering to watching it carry on being made.

Outside that one evening, the year in Perast is mild and bright. The village records an average annual temperature of 18.3 °C and roughly 240 sunny days, about 2,500 hours of sunshine. Behind the houses the hill of Sveti Ilija rises to 873 metres, which is the reason the settlement is one street deep — there is simply no room behind it. For the crossing itself, the shoulder months are the obvious answer: the same water, the same islets, and far fewer boats moving between them than in the middle of August.

Nearby

Perast faces the tightest part of the whole inlet. Almost opposite the village the Verige Strait narrows to 340 metres, across a passage 2,300 metres long, and that pinch is a large part of why the inner water behaves like a lake rather than a piece of the Adriatic. The geometry also explains where the islets are: sheltered water with a defensible entrance in front of it. The Bay of Kotor as a whole runs about 28 kilometres with 107.3 kilometres of shoreline, holds 87 square kilometres of water, and reaches a maximum depth near 60 metres against an average of 27.3.

The bay is regularly called a fjord and is not one. Geologically it is a ria — the drowned valley of the vanished Bokelj River — which is why its arms fold back on one another and why two shores facing each other across the water can be a long way apart by land. The wider setting carries the heritage listing: the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor went onto the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, with boundary modifications in 2012 and 2015. Shelter and listing between them explain more about why Perast looks the way it does than any single building in it.

At a glance

The crossing, measured over water: Gospa od Škrpjela lies roughly 800 m off the Perast waterfront and Sveti Đorđe roughly 620 m, with about 170 m between the two islets (Great-circle distance over water, computed from the coordinates given by Wikipedia, Perast, Wikipedia, Our Lady of the Rocks and Wikipedia, Sveti Đorđe Island, all checked 2026-09)
How the island was made: Gospa od Škrpjela is an artificial island, raised by a bulwark of rocks and by sinking old and seized ships loaded with stone (Wikipedia, Our Lady of the Rocks, checked 2026-09)
The 1452 tradition: Tradition dates the island to 22 July 1452, when two sailors from Perast found an icon of the Madonna and Child on a rock in the sea; the icon is attributed to Lovro Dobričević of Kotor, around 1452 (Wikipedia, Our Lady of the Rocks, checked 2026-09)
Fašinada: Every year at sunset on 22 July, Perast residents take their boats out and throw rocks into the sea to widen the island (Wikipedia, Our Lady of the Rocks, checked 2026-09)
Inside the church: Renovated in 1722; 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja of Perast, whose Death of the Virgin is ten metres long, plus votive paintings, silver votive tablets and a tapestry embroidered by Jacinta Kunić-Mijović over 25 years in gold and silver fibre and her own hair (Wikipedia, Our Lady of the Rocks, checked 2026-09)
Sveti Đorđe: A natural island, unlike its neighbour, carrying a Benedictine monastery of Saint George built in the twelfth century and the old graveyard of the Perast nobility and of families from across the bay (Wikipedia, Sveti Đorđe Island, checked 2026-09)
A naval action of 1813: On 14 October 1813 a British and Sicilian naval force captured the French-held islet of Sveti Đorđe, a small action within the Siege of Cattaro (Wikipedia, Sveti Đorđe Island, checked 2026-09)
Perast's built inventory: 20 palaces built in the Baroque style, 17 Catholic churches and two Orthodox churches, largely raised in the eighteenth century (Wikipedia, Perast, checked 2026-09)
A village that keeps shrinking: 444 inhabitants in 1991, 349 in 2003, 269 in 2011 and 237 at the 2023 census (Wikipedia, Perast, checked 2026-09)
Perast in the record: First documented in 1336; besieged in 1654 by an Ottoman force under Mehmed-beg Rizvanagić; Venetian rule ended in 1797 with the republic's defeat by Napoleon (Wikipedia, Perast, checked 2026-09)
The maritime school: A maritime school was housed at Perast under the captain Marko Martinović, and Peter I sent Russian sailors there to be trained (Wikipedia, Perast, checked 2026-09)
Climate and setting: An average yearly temperature of 18.3 °C and about 240 sunny days, roughly 2,500 hours; the hill of Sveti Ilija behind the village reaches 873 m (Wikipedia, Perast, checked 2026-09)
The water in front of Perast: The Verige Strait narrows to 340 m across a passage 2,300 m long; the Bay of Kotor is about 28 km long with 107.3 km of shoreline, 87 km² of water, a maximum depth of about 60 m and an average of 27.3 m; it is a ria of the vanished Bokelj River, not a fjord (Wikipedia, Bay of Kotor, checked 2026-09)
World Heritage status of the setting: The Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, with boundary modifications in 2012 and 2015 (Wikipedia, Kotor, checked 2026-09)

Good to know

The Benedictine monastery on Sveti Đorđe was built in the twelfth century, and the islet served as the burial ground of the Perast nobility and later of families from across the whole bay.
A British and Sicilian naval force captured the French-held islet of Sveti Đorđe on 14 October 1813, a small action fought inside the Siege of Cattaro.
The church on Gospa od Škrpjela holds 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja of Perast, whose Death of the Virgin measures ten metres from end to end.
A tapestry in the church was embroidered by Jacinta Kunić-Mijović of Perast over twenty-five years, worked in gold and silver fibre together with strands of her own hair.
Perast's population fell from 444 in 1991 to 349 in 2003, 269 in 2011 and 237 at the 2023 census, while its eighteenth-century inventory of 20 Baroque palaces stayed exactly where it was.
Peter I sent Russian sailors to Perast to be trained at the maritime school run there by the captain Marko Martinović.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get to Our Lady of the Rocks?

Only by water. The islet lies roughly 800 metres off the Perast waterfront with no causeway and no bridge, so boats working from the village quay are the sole way across. Sveti Đorđe, the second islet, sits about 620 metres out.

Is Our Lady of the Rocks a natural island?

No. The islet was built up on a rock in the sea by laying a bulwark of stone and by sinking old and seized ships loaded with rocks alongside it. Sveti Đorđe, the neighbouring islet, is the natural one of the pair.

What is the Fašinada in Perast?

An annual event held at sunset on 22 July, the anniversary of the 1452 icon tradition. Residents take their boats out and throw rocks into the sea around Gospa od Škrpjela, which is both how the island was made and how it is still being widened.

How long does a visit to Perast and the islets take?

The village is one waterfront street and can be walked end to end in a short stroll, and the crossing covers well under a kilometre of water each way. What sets the length is the church interior on the islet and how long you linger, rather than any distance.

Why does such a small village have so many palaces?

Perast was a prosperous Venetian maritime community, and 20 Baroque palaces together with 17 Catholic and two Orthodox churches went up in the eighteenth century. The stonework stayed while the population fell from 444 in 1991 to 237 at the 2023 census.

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Last reviewed: 2026-09-01