01Inner bayBelow St. Elijah
Perast. A town of captains.
A ribbon of baroque palaces between the mountain and the sea, raised by captains who sailed for Venice. From the boat you see it as they did — bell tower first.
Under the flag of St. Mark
Every palace was paid for by the sea.
For almost four centuries under Venice, from 1420 to 1797, this small town lived from the sea. Its ships sailed the Mediterranean, and their captains came home to build palaces and churches facing the water.
Perast had no town walls. Almost every family palace had its own tower, and from the hill above, the Fortress of the Holy Cross, built in 1570, watched over the Verige. In 1654 the town’s defenders, outnumbered many times over, held Perast against an Ottoman army.
Its seamanship was famous: in 1698 young nobles sent by Peter the Great learned navigation here from Captain Marko Martinović, and Matija Zmajević of Perast became an admiral of the Russian fleet. When Venice fell in 1797, Perast was the last to lower the flag of St. Mark — and buried it beneath the altar of its church.
- The bell tower of St. Nicholas, 55 m (1691)
- Bujović Palace (1694), now the Perast Museum
- The Fortress of the Holy Cross (1570)
- A palace with its own tower — the town had no walls
- St. Elijah, 873 m, rising above the town
- the bell tower of St. Nicholas (1691)
- 55m
- Perast holds off an Ottoman army
- 1654
- Peter the Great’s nobles learn to sail
- 1698
- the last to lower the flag of Venice
- 1797
Getting there
From Tivat, past the two islands.
Every trip starts on the Tivat promenade, beside Porto Montenegro. The course runs north and slips through the Verige, where the bay narrows to 340 metres — then glides past Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George to the waterfront of Perast.
- TivatDeparture from the promenade 0 km
- Porto MontenegroSuperyachts in the old naval arsenal < 1 km
- Verige StraitJust 340 m across; the name means “chains” 5 km
- PerastBaroque palaces on the water ≈ 7 km
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
Tours that go there
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3 hprivate
BookThe classic
Boka Bay Tour
Past St. Mark’s Island and Our Lady of Mercy and into an old submarine tunnel, then through the Verige Strait to Our Lady of the Rocks and half an hour in baroque Perast.
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4 hprivate
BookBay & open sea
Boka Bay + Blue Cave
The bay’s greatest hits in one unhurried loop: the submarine tunnel and Mamula, a swim in the Blue Cave, then back into the bay to Our Lady of the Rocks and Perast.
Want longer in Perast? Add it to a Custom Tour of five to eight hours.
On the spot
Up the tower, along the shore.
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Climb the bell tower
Narrow stone stairs wind up the 55-metre bell tower of St. Nicholas. From the top, both islands and the whole inner bay lie below you.
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Meet the captains
In Bujović Palace, the Perast Museum keeps ship models, sea charts, flags and portraits of the town’s captains — and a painting of Marko Martinović teaching Peter the Great’s nobles.
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Walk the waterfront
From palace to palace along the sea: family coats of arms above the doors, old defence towers between the houses and small stone piers where the boats tie up.
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See the two islands
Our Lady of the Rocks lies less than a kilometre off the waterfront, with St. George beside it. On the Boka Bay Tour you can step ashore at the island church as well.
- Best light
- Perast looks west across the water to its islands, so the late-afternoon sun turns its palaces gold — the best hour for photos from the boat. Mornings are the quietest; from late morning the coaches and big tour boats arrive.
- Going ashore
- On the Boka Bay Tour you get half an hour ashore in Perast — time for the waterfront, a church or a coffee — after the stop at Our Lady of the Rocks, where going ashore is up to you. On Boka Bay + Blue Cave you see the town from the water.
- Entrance
- The town itself is free to wander. The Perast Museum and the bell tower have small tickets — bring a few euros in cash. The museum is closed on Mondays.
- Fašinada
- In Boka on 22 July? At sunset the boats of Perast sail out to the island in a long chain and drop their stones. Ask Boris about watching it from the water — and book early, the bay is busy that evening.
Keep exploring
The inner bay, one stop at a time.
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Our Lady of the Rocks
An island built stone by stone
An island made by hand: for centuries the people of Perast have brought stones to the reef — and every July they still do. On the Boka Bay Tour you can step ashore at its church.
≈ 7 km from Tivat
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Kotor
The walled old town
A walled medieval town at the far end of the bay, part of the UNESCO-listed Kotor region, under mountains that rise straight from the sea.
≈ 17 km from Tivat
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Risan
Roman mosaics and a quiet bay
The oldest town in the bay, once a stronghold of the Illyrian queen Teuta. Its Roman villa still keeps 2nd-century mosaics — among them Hypnos, the god of sleep.
≈ 10 km from Tivat
See Perast as its captains did. From the water.
Open daily 09:00 – 23:00