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Ninety seconds on St. George's Island Benedictine Monastery
No. St George is still a working Benedictine monastery and is closed to the public, so boats do not put visitors ashore. It is an islet in the Bay of Kotor, with no road out to it. The view comes from the water, on the boat ride to Our Lady of the Rocks, or from that neighbouring island.
Its graveyard and its cypresses. The island carries a Benedictine monastery built in the 12th century and the old burial ground of the nobility of Perast and the wider Bay of Kotor, the reason it is called the Island of the Dead. Unlike Our Lady of the Rocks beside it, St George is a natural island.
Just off the Perast waterfront, in the Bay of Kotor. It is one of the two islets facing the town, and the other, Our Lady of the Rocks, is the one boats land on. Boat trips from Perast out to Our Lady of the Rocks pass St George on the way, which gives the closest look at it.
St George cannot be visited: the cypress island off Perast is a working Benedictine monastery, closed to the public and seen only from the water. The taxi boat to Our Lady of the Rocks passes close. At dusk it goes dark against the bay.
What you see from the water is a natural island, with tall cypresses giving it its outline. Below them, stone walls enclose a cemetery, and a small church stands among the trees. The old Benedictine monastery shares the island with them, and together with the cypresses it gives St George its sombre look from the water.
The cemetery is the old burial ground of Perast's noble families and of the nobility of the wider Bay of Kotor. That is why the island is also called the Island of the Dead.
The island is kept for the Catholic clergy and is empty most of the year, so from the boat you see only trees, wall and church, with nobody on the shore.
Both islands off Perast are seen on the same short boat ride, and St George is the one you pass. On the waterfront, find the small wooden taxi boats by their sandwich boards, agree the return with the boatman, and set off.
The boat goes by St George on the way, and that is your closest look at the cypresses and the cemetery wall. Have the camera out before you leave the quay, because the pass is quick.
From Our Lady of the Rocks you can take a steadier photograph of St George with the bay behind it, from dry land.
You do not need a guide or a tour to see St George. A taxi boat from the Perast waterfront goes past it on your own timing.
Bay boat tours pass it too, and a Perast and islands tour runs about an hour. If you book one, check whether it stops at Our Lady of the Rocks or only at Perast.
The boats are small and roll in any chop, so keep your camera in a bag between shots. Pay the boatman in cash.
Plan the photograph of St George from the boat or the Perast quay, since you cannot land to take it from closer.
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