In the old town of Šibenik there is a Catholic shrine built into the rocks.
Architecture
Sibenik
Sailing into Sibenik
Our Lady of the Rocks
This church is accessible by boat from several locations in Boka Bay. We used the Perast Marina.
The story is on July 22, 1452: two sailors, returning to Perast from a difficult voyage, discovered an icon of the Madonna and Child resting on a rock in a shallow part of the Bay. Considering the find a miracle, they vowed to build a church on the spot. The sailors dropped stones around the spot where the icon was found, slowly creating an islet and building a small chapel. It soon became a tradition for sailors to drop stones in the water around the chapel before a voyage, to contribute to the strength of its foundations and to ask the Virgin Mother to bring them safely home.
Perast Marina
The marina is in Boka Bay, Montenegro and has several small boats that ferry you out to the Our Lady of the Rocks Church.
Departing Old Town Dubrovnik
This is the view when leaving the Old Town port. The fortress walls are to the right of the photo.
Entering Old Town Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik Old Town Port is in the eastern part of Dubrovnik City. Old Dubrovnik Port is protected by breakwater Porporela in front of St. John fortress and Kaše breakwater. The smaller cruise ships anchor outside this port and bring you ashore in tenders. The red “boat” that you partially see on the right is the tender that brought us in.
Ston
Ston is an hour’s drive from Dubrovnik on the Pelješac Peninsula. It’s best known for salt works, farmed mussels, and a wall which is the longest defensive structure in Europe; they are sometimes referred to as the ‘European Walls of China”. The parapet show here is where the wall starts and proceeds for another 3.1 miles.
Produce Delivery
In the port city of Hvar the streets are so narrow that the restaurants get their morning produce delivered by hand from these carts.
The Sun of Zadar
The large blue circle in the center of the photo is the Sun and is part of a to-scale representation of the Solar System on the Riva in Zadar, Croatia. The display begins far back on the promenade that runs along the Adriatic Sea. Furthest from the Sun is Pluto, represented by a small disc, followed by Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter. After another stretch of empty space, Mars, Earth, and Venus appear as tiny specs in comparison to the massive sun. Each panel is also a solar cell that generates electricity for the city.
Gondola Factory
It’s not really a factory but this is where gondolas are made by hand. Two hundred years ago there were 10,000 of these water taxis. Today there are approximately 400 being used for tourism. A new gondola will cost around $45,000.
john ferebee photo 