This weekend we have great excursion and we want to share our experience with you.
Sunny, wonderful weather, Boka Bay (the most southern fiord), nice people. We decide to visit one of the TOP TOURIST PLACES in Montenegro : Our Lady of the Rock (Gospa od Skrpjela), little island in Boka Bay, with amazing church and museum. This is one of the MUST VISIT places. This is for sure one very interesting place, with great history. Made by humans, this island will make your vacation to be more exciting.
First we come in Perast, very beautiful little place in Boka Bay, few kilometers from Kotor. Perast is a wonderful old town, with wonderful architecture. We encourage you to stroll down the Perast and to drink coffee in a restaurant by the sea.
From Perast to Our Lady of the Rock can be reached boats who regularly traffic in both directions. Ticket is only 3.00 EUR, and this is also one wonderful opportunity to make some great photos of Boka Bay, and enjoy in few minutes of nice boat ride.
When you come on island, you will be able to enjoy in church and museum (ticket for museum is onlu 1,00 EUR). Special guide will tell you a lot of interesting details about this place.
Famous Kotor painter Tripo Kokolja, one of the most famous domestic baroque painters, painted the church and it was by order of the noblemen Andrija Zmajevic. The best paintings in this church are: Krunisanje Marijino (Crowning of Mary), Marijina smrt (Mary’s Death), and Uznesenje Bogorodice (Exaltation of the Holy Mother of God).
We hope that our photos will transfer some of the magic atmosphere and that you will enjoy them.
More about this great place: Gospa od Skrpjela
More info about Our Lady of the Rock from Wikipedia:
Our Lady of the Rocks (Montenegrin: Gospa od Škrpjela) is one of the two islets off the coast of Perast in Bay of Kotor, Montenegro (the other being Sveti Đorđe Island). It is an artificial island created by bulwark of rocks and by sinking old and seized ships loaded with rocks. The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rocks (Italian: Chiesa della Madonna dello Scarpello) is the only building on the islet.
According to legend, the islet was made over the centuries by the seamen who kept an ancient oath after finding the icon of Madonna and Child on the rock in the sea on July 22, 1452. Upon returning from each successful voyage, they laid a rock in the Bay. Over time, the islet gradually emerged from the sea. The custom of throwing rocks into the sea is alive even nowadays. Every year on the sunset of July 22, an event called fašinada, when local residents take their boats and throw rocks into the sea, widening the surface of the island, takes place.
The first known church was built on the islet in 1452 and it was Serbian Orthodox. It was taken over by Roman Catholics and in 1632 the present Church of Our Lady of the Rocks was built. It was upgraded in 1722. The church contains 68 paintings by Tripo Kokolja, a famous 17th-century baroque artist from Perast. His most important painting, ten meters long, is The Death of the Virgin. There are also paintings by Italian artists, and an icon (circa 1452) of Our Lady of the Rocks, by Lovro Dobričević of Kotor. The church also houses a collection of silver votive tablets and a famous votive tapestry embroidered by Jacinta Kunić-Mijović from Perast. It took her 25 years to finish it while waiting her darling to come from a long journey, and eventually, she became blind. She used golden and silver fibres but what makes this tapestry so famous is the fact that she also embroidered her own hair in it.
Excursion: Boka Bay with Our Lady of the Rock
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