St. George Island, or Island of the Dead, is located near the small Montenegrin town Perast Bay of Kotor. He was not created artificially, and has a natural origin.

The town is famous for the fact that it was a nautical school with an enrollment of seamanship sons of Russian noblemen under the patronage of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The island grows picturesque cypress grove.

The name of the island comes from the Benedictine Abbey of St. George, which was located here. How do I find the historians, the construction of the abbey dates back to the 9th century. From the old church of St. George's virtually nothing left - the island is constantly bombed the invaders, as well as the earthquake in 1667 destroyed the ceiling and apse. The island is the burial place of famous captains Perast, so tombstones churchyard contains unique heraldic emblem.

At one time the church walls were decorated with pictures of 1327-1457 years. Recent paintings Lovro Marinov wrote Dobrishevich known painter from Kotor. In the 14-16 centuries the right of the Board Abbazia. George had just who, but then the purpose of which the abbot was killed perasttsami, the city gained its independence, but was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. And then, in 1571, he was burned along with the monastic abode pirate Karadozom. In 1603 the church was renovated, and in a few decades Perast reaches its highest degree of prosperity thanks to the Venetian control. In the early 19th century, the abbey is occupied by the French, the Austrians.

Isle of the Dead is the sad but romantic legend, according to which the soldiers of the French army, firing a gun toward Perast, accidentally fell into the house of his beloved, she died, and he expressed a desire to go to the grave with her.

Today the official visit to the Isle of the Dead is prohibited, but many locals or tourists ignore the ban and come to the island to touch the old walls and wander around the famous cemetery.

German romantic and painter Alfred Boklin inspired by the island of St. George, he wrote the world-famous painting "The Isle of the Dead." On the canvas depicts boat with the coffin, which controls the lone figure of Charon, dressed in white, and in front is a huge, gloomy island on both sides of his looming sepulchres, which cut into the solid rock.