Perast

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Perast was one of the wealthiest ports on the Adriatic. Its captains were good enough that Peter the Great sent Russian noblemen here to learn seamanship at the Perast naval school.

That money went into stone. Sixteen baroque palaces and nineteen churches still stand along a waterfront barely a kilometre long, built by families who wanted their standing visible from the water. The Bujović Palace now holds the town museum - charts, instruments, portraits of the captains.

Perast is best arrived at by sea, which is how it was built to be seen. The waterfront has no through road and the facades face the bay, so the view from a boat is the view the architects intended.

Most visitors come by bus for an hour. Coming by water means you can stay for lunch, walk the waterfront when the coaches have gone, and leave when the light turns.